We Got the Machine Out

We did go down river last Saturday to help get Dave's snowmachine out of the water. It was a pretty interesting project. The biggest challenge was getting the Ice out of the way.
The guys cut the ice with 20" chainsaws, into cubes about 18" square.
Once they would get one cut one of us would take a long 4"x6" board and bang on it to break it loose, because it would begin to re-freeze as they cut it so it still had to be broken loose. Once we got it loose then 3 to 6 guys with 2"x6" boards would push down on it and try to dunk it under the ice and push it away from the hole. This was a real struggle, you wouldn't believe how buoyant a big ice cube is. After we dunked the first few we started picking them out using the 2x6s as chop stix to lift them then wrap a rope around it and pull it across the boards to the surface.
Once the ice was out of the way, and a lot of dipping with shovels to get the slush out of the way so we could see,
Wallah, there was the machine.
Leif went fishing with a grappling hook and got ahold of the front bumper of the machine.
We managed to lift the machine high enough with a com along hooked to the bumper of my snowmachine to get a ski up to hook a rope through it.
As we worked on tieing the rope on the ski a bunch of interested onlookers stopped to check out the process. Once we got a rope on the ski with this many people here it was Game ON. We just pulled it up, tied a rope on the other ski and the group started pulling. It went really slick.


We are leaving tomorrow for Yentna Station to visit for the night then on to Anchorage and a flight to Ohio and points beyond. We look forward to seeing a lot of you while we are on or travels.
We probably will not post an update for 3 weeks or so, I am not sure.
I will talk to you all in the near future,
Thank you for the privilege of letting me share with you.
Roger