It's been muddy around here lately...

paden-cash · 2017-04-01T23:00:00Z

This last week was a little muddy with all the rain we had early in the week. I wound up with a fuller than usual Thursday and Friday when it came to my "to do" list. A couple of jobs I won't be able to get out to 'til the roads dry up, but I took care of a handful of them that were on hard surface roads.Friday afternoon I wound up almost 50 miles from town down in the SW corner of my utility company's service area. It was a little R/W job for new aerial service to a mobile home. These make up about 30 or 40 percent of the work sometimes, but I don't complain; they all pay the same.Even though the property was on hard surfaced roads I was wanting to place my base in the interior of the property for security reasons. The proposed line ran almost 1300' feet up in the property to where a still vacant but brand-spanking new trailer house was sitting with brand new cinder block piles under it. Being the lazy butt I am I decided to attempt to drive up to the site instead of leaving my truck on the road and lugging my gear up the hill. I made it in even though it was a slippery trip. I was cautious not to get stuck.I set up and located the trailer and all the engineer's proposed facility stakes. I carefully turned the truck around and headed out onto the section line road to locate a couple of corners I had already dug up. Everything went great and I pulled back up the hill to the trailer and boxed up my base and gear. I guess my previous trip in had given me some false security about the condition of the muddy trail. I was trying to turn around to nose the truck downhill and dropped a rear tire in a soft spot....sh*t.I alternated forward and back and realized I wasn't really getting anywhere. A quick eye-ball survey from out of the truck and I realized my front tire was against a rut. A little shovel work and I should've been able to free myself and back out instead of turning around. It worked, but my progress was slow. I found a couple of soft spots and had to rock the truck forward and backwards, but I wasn't stuck. I kept after it.I've never hidden the fact that I can't hear real well. And with the truck roaring and spinning the tires my hearing was impaired even more so. I thought I was alone until I had put the truck back in drive and gunned it. As the tires spun I hear someone hollering at me. Scared the hell out me.I turned and looked out the window and saw a Grady County Deputy Sheriff's Tahoe behind me about 20'. The driver door was open and next to it was a uniformed young man. The grille, his door AND his uniform were speckled with quarter size dollops of bright red Okie clay...I heard him holler "WHOA!" and saw him putting up his arms and turning his head. I splattered him pretty good.I turned off the truck and opened the door to talk to him. He didn't look happy. I casually joked and told him "sneaking up on people playing in the mud" wasn't such a good idea. He had left his sense of humor at home apparently. He was all business with wanting to know what I was up to. Lots of thieving goin' on lately and all that stuff. I gave him my standard answers and showed him all my ID.I have magnetic signs on the truck and wear a safety vest just to keep from looking nefarious but I guess he just had to drive 300 yards up a muddy trail to see what I was up to. In just a few minutes I had convinced I was in pursuit of company business. I also apologized for slinging mud all over him and his car. He backed his car up a bit and I finally freed myself. He backed his truck out first. After he had made it to the blacktop I then backed out.After we were both back on asphalt we chatted window to window. I think I apologized about a half dozen times and offered to pay for a car wash and the dry cleaners. He declined....BUT....He and his wife just bought a place about ten miles south of there and he can't find a couple of his property corners. You know..."it's already been surveyed, I just need to find the markers" kind of thing. I got his card and he wrote down my email address. His wife is suppose to email me a copy of the deed...I would have rather paid for the car wash and the dry cleaners. I don't know how I get myself into these things.

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Strictly Surveying

Last Post by Jim in AZ 9 years ago

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Jim in AZ

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Kent McMillan, post: 421556, member: 3 wrote: Well, considering that there's unlikely to be anything in Oklahoma more challenging than a run down a dirt road to mail a check to a County Commissioner on a wet day, I don't think there's any basis for comparison. Texas has actual terrain to be negotiated.

That's about half as rugged as Arizona!

Posted : April 3, 2017 10:58 am

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It's been muddy around here lately...

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