Dry as a bone, but...

Once upon a time, on an early Spring day of brilliant sunshine and a light breeze, Michelle & Ian decided to mow the lawn.  Being slightly larger than the average lawn, there are both a ride on mower and a tractor with slasher available to the task.  Although Ian would usually use the tractor and slasher, he decides on the ride on mower.  And Ian decides to use the mower in an area where he would normally have used the tractor and slasher.  But it's a lovely day, and it hasn't rained at Seven Springs for several months so really, there's no reason not to use the mower.  And it does have greater manoeuvrability.

Michelle busies herself with the usual Sunday morning chores - stacking dishwasher, hanging clothes out to dry, etc with the promise of joining the mowing activities later in the morning.

After about 30 minutes, Ian comes to the door:
"I need you.  The mower's bogged."
Michelle thinks for a second.  Surely she cannot have heard correctly, "what do you mean?" she asks.
"Oh I went across the rill from the spring and got bogged."
Michelle abandons the washing and follows Ian to the bog site, still not quite believing what she has heard.

Now although rain has not fallen for months, the spring that flows out of the back of the mountain has not failed, and continues to run into the house dam, cutting its way through the properties clay soils.

Michelle & Ian arrive at the bog site.  Hmmm.  The back wheels are bogged to the axle, and all the way to the cutting blades.

"Why did you go across here?" Michelle asks.

"I always go across here with the tractor, I thought it would be OK." comes the reply.
The mower cant go forward, and can't go backwards.  They contemplate getting boards to give traction to the back wheels, but the rill is too steep.  There is a cursory attempt to place rocks behind the back wheels, for traction.  Finally Michelle says
"I think you better get the tractor."

So, using the metal frame welded to the roll bar of the mower, the Daedong tractor and bucket lifts and pushes the mower forwards and out of the rill.

Good work.  But.  The mower is on the wrong side of the rill.  How to get the mower to the 'right' side?  They look around for inspiration.  It is late morning and the heat is building.  Not far is the pile of rocks tentatively used to attempt to give traction to the bogged mower.

Michelle and Ian then set about creating a ford with the rocks that are on the other side of the rill.  It is a small miracle neither of them falls into the rill while jumping over it, rocks in hand.  Ford completed, Ian then drives the mower across to the 'right' side of the rill without further mishap.

"I think I'll continue the mowing," says Michelle, "with my mower." and with that Michelle mows her way around to the other side of the house.  Ian decides that since the tractor is out anyway, he may as well continue with the slasher.

About 20 minutes pass.

Michelle is almost finished mowing the 'septic paddock' where the soakage trenches for the septic system are and sees Ian walking towards the fence.  She thinks, oh he must be finished.  Michelle drives to the fence and upon meeting Ian says, jokingly, "have you bogged the tractor now, ha, ha, ha."

"Yep" is the reply.
"Nooo!" [in a disbelieving tone]  "Are you joking?"
"No."
"Oh my god.  Let me get the camera."

Michelle was too polite to get the camera when the mower was bogged, thinking, 'that would be unkind, I guess it could happen to anyone.'  But when the tractor was also bogged in the same morning, and not 5 metres from the first bog site, it was too good an opportunity not to document.

"How did this happen?" Michelle asks in disbelief.
"Well, it's like this, I was slashing as close as I could parallel to the rill and it kind of just slid in."
"Can the ute pull it out?" Michelle asks hopefully, walking around to inspect and fully appreciate the enormity of this latest event.
"No, the ute won't have enough grunt."
"Oh.  Well, better call the neighbour then and see if they can come up with their tractor."

Ian, with tones of resignation in his voice, calls the neighbour.  No problem he says, were just drenching the cattle at the moment, but I'll send my son up later after we're done.

A few hours later the neighbour's tractor can be heard making its way up the paddock via the right of way from Stony Chute Road.  "Coady is here." Michelle shouts.

Ian directs Coady to the bog site and Michelle and Ian meet him there.  Coady is a lovely young man, raised in the country and with aspirations of owning a farm himself one day.  He is far too considerate and well mannered to make light of the situation.

Coady jumps of his Dad's CASE tractor, and has a look around the Daedong, angled precariously in the rill.
"Yeah.  Haven't seen one like this for a while." he muses, while Michelle continues to compile photographic evidence in the background.  Ian confesses the mowing incident earlier that morning.  He wants to get in first with an 'accurate' portrayal of events before Michelle completes the photography.

Sure enough Coady has the necessary skills and knowledge to get the Daedong out safely.
"Lucky it's not the size of this tractor, or we would have needed the excavator to pull it out." 

Coady then kindly tells Ian about a time when he bogged the CASE and his Dad needed to get the excavator to extricate it, and his Dad has never let him forget the incident.  "It can happen to anyone, anytime." he generously offers, as he rides back down the paddock and away.

"Well, I think that's enough of everything for one day, no more machinery usage at all for a while."  Michelle & Ian agree.  And with that, the tractor and mower are returned to their shed, and they all live happily after.

The End.