The Native Iowan

Queensland is shining. Glowing. Showing off… after great rains, and perfect temps, everything is growing, vibrant, verdant.

A Saturday where I am. We’ve gone maybe 48 hours without any measurable rain fall. Some localities have been inundated by water. Some have been holding their breath, waiting to see… see if they get flooded out, evacuated, or NO.

Ive spent this fine-time in the weather to try to catch up with my mowing. Still behind but have managed to get a good amount done, yesterday and today.

The ground is wet, soggy, saturated. In some areas “”liquefaction” makes the lush green grass a dangerous trap. Like a quicksand pit. Once in it, you’re a goner.

I rolled my John Deere yesterday. Kinda scary. A 30hp, 3 blade ride-on mower sliding backwards and sideways down a steep bank. The first two times were kinda fun. The grass is so slick, the ground so liquid that once sideways, the mower simply lost all arguments with gravity. Like being on ice. No positive traction. Thus Gravity wins.

Remember, Gravity never sleeps…

I did a 360 degree sliding, upright spin down one short run. It was scary, gave me goose bumps, and made me smile like a fool once I realised all was well.

“Lets do That again”…

When my left rear dive-side tyre (tire) gave way on the slope, I knew it was not good. The bank of the slop simply gave way. Slipped out from under. A mini land-slide.

And over I went…

So I end up on my belly. Machine on top of me. A quick sit-check… Nothing damaged, that I feel. It’s was not a crash n burn. Not that dramatic. Only a gravity winning slide down the bank, and a roll over sorta gig. I felt it all happen…

I was tossed to my left, backwards, and down in an instant. I’m on top of three big blades spinning at 3000 RPM. Know I’m going to roll. Can only stay aware… I hear the engine cut out. There is a safety switch under the seat. If the weight is off the seat for even a second, the engine dies. This is very good. I know that I’ll roll over with the machine, but the rotating blades will not be a hazard. I know there and numerous hazards happening in these split seconds, but the blades ain’t one I gotta worry about.

Then its over. You know when shit is very bad. Your body tells you. You don’t need to look to know when really bad shit happens. this ain’t one of the very bad situations…

I have my hat and a dust mask on… get rid of these. Don’t need them now. Next I fish in my pocket for my phone. Its a ways down. I have deep pockets in my work pants. I am pinned, sorta, under the machine. But this is a story in the happening… I’m going to write about this, so…

Once in hand, I promptly snap a selfy…

Then I assess getting disentangled from the machine….

Somewhere in the process I dudd’d a rib. It’s not broken, just a bit bruised, and very sore. All that equals dudd’d.

It was not much effort to roll the machine upright. It pretty much started right up. Had to wipe some engine oil and coolant off.

Went on to successfully finish a fair bit of mowing after the accident. Incident?

As my son commented, “It’s all about content”. It gives me something new to talk about. All olfarts need something new to talk about.

Us olfarts got heaps of ol-shit to talk about. It’s new stuff that is valuable.

And I smile

More later