This past Saturday, I woke up and laid in bed thinking that it was going to be a regular Saturday at the Zoo. We were going to get up, go to the soccer field for Heathen #2's game, and then spend the day working in the yard. Wow, was I wrong.

After the Asst. Zookeeper got home from work, he borrowed his father's backhoe to help one of our neighbors. They brought it down to the house and parked it in front. He then jumped into the van and drove down to the neighbors to check somethings before he took the backhoe down. During all of this, I was mowing the grass at the Zoo. Our Heathens and the neighbor's three kids are all in our yard playing.

And then this happened:

While parked, the backhoe popped out of gear, and then drifted across the road (in front of a VERY surprised Cable truck) and rolled over the hill and into the creek across the street!

I'd like to say that I watched this very calmly, but I didn't. I shrieked and started counting children. Thankfully, none of them were anywhere near it and everyone was okay!

So, I called the Asst. Zookeeper and his father both and explained what had happened. They both arrived in a few minutes and decided that they couldn't drive it out. So they called for a wrecker. Moxham Mobile's wrecker arrived about an hour later - but couldn't budge it. In fact, one of the tow cables snapped in the attempts. After about an hour of trying with no success, Moxham Mobile left.

During all of this, I was collecting neighborhood men and children in front of my house. The longer it went on, the more people we collected.

Our neighbor's son, Jake, directed traffic for us!


Then the wrecker arrived from Cernic's - the one used for big rigs. They hooked onto the backhoe and LIFTED it out of the creek as though it really didn't weigh much of anything!