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Mil-veh life in suburbs...
My neighbors were fairly unimpressed, if not downright concerned when my
Ferret first arrived at home, but it quickly found a place of obscurity
nestled in the remote corner of my yard and at the very back of the RV drive.
In fact few newcomers to the area hardly even notice the armoured vehicle
with turret and machine gun, it blends in so well the shrubbery! But, how do
you hide a 7,453 lb 4 X4 army truck? Answer, you don't, especially when it
has to be parked in the front driveway. So a minor flap in the neighborhood
began when the "big green thing" arrived. It started with little joking
comments, but I got the message. The jokes belied the true irritation of my
most closest neighbors ... until today. Now that has all changed.
When this cul d sac was first created the project landscaper thought junipers
lining the sidewalk would look really neat and thus every other house has
these prolific shrubs sprouting out all over the place. The junipers now
some 20 years mature have taken over. They are so overgrown and so deep
rooted a platoon of gardeners couldn't take them out in a month. The cost of
removal was tremendous, according to one of the neighbors. So what to do?
You might have guessed it, a cable, a choker chain and one "big green thing"
to the rescue!
The first yard full of junipers was conquered in less than 30 minutes ...
keep in mind some of these things had roots going down nearly 3 feet and yet
they still popped out as easy as weeds in mud. Folks in the area came to
watch as big green did it's thing. They were obviously impressed and even
applauded as one giant 15 footer gave me a bit of a hard time. After a
couple of tugs, it cracked, snapped and finally gave way under the enormous
torque of all wheel drive in compound low!
By the end of tomorrow, I will have ripped out every obstinate juniper in the
area and it will not have cost the neighbors one dime. Of course we have a
rather large pile of the nasty things left after I did my work, but again...
a mil-veh (sort of) helps out. The military trailer for my Ferret was just
what we needed. It has a hydraulic lift, 23' of wide open bed, the perfect
shrub hauler!
In truth most of the local guys always liked my toys, it was their wives that
gave me a little bit of a bad time. However, that was then and now the
functionality of a certain big old green thing has become apparent. It saved
some folks a lot of time and money and did it with hardly any effort. It's
still a little early to tell, but I hope this will translate into at least a
mild acceptance on those days when I have my green toys out of storage and
here for repairs, etc.
Jack Lee
SUMB (Big green) pics avialable on request or visit my web page at
http://hometown.aol.com//leencalif/Leehomepage.html
Ferret Mk 2/3
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