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Ian Jones, Nana
03-14-2008 04:35:53
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Bit of a story about a smart old guy. I was working on a big highway project with the dumptruck about 10 years ago when we found spot of blue clay. Well, a D9 High drive found it and the operator planted it. They tried to pull it out with about 4 big trackhoes and cats, was'nt moving. Foreman on job is tearing his hair out with about 10 million dollars worth of iron screwing around trying to get this cat out. There was an old guy in an electric wheel chair that used to watch the iron rolling everyday. He rolled over to the foreman and went to tell him something and the foreman run him off not too nicely. Foreman was a bit of a donkey related name. Old guy came past my truck which was shut off at a $1.30 a minute so I asked him what he was doing. He said he was going to tell the forman how to get the cat out but he was such a (body part) to hell with him. Old guy told me how and I said hang on, I'll talk to him. Walked over and said to foreman,"George, Give me $500.00 and I'll have that cat out in 5 minutes" It was costing him about $10,000 an hour to have 8 scrapers watching a cat sink so I figured it's a deal. He went for It. We put 2 40 tonne Track hoes with cables to cat, tightlined everything and pushed a 1/2 stick of dynamite under the cat. Foreman climbed up on cat cause the operator was on his way to unemployment line by this time, put her in reverse and the blaster let her rip. A little pop, alot of diesel smoke and that cat was out in 2 seconds. Turns out that the old guy was in the US army and worked on Alaska highway. Learned how to get cats outa mud, clay, muskeg etc. Have to break the suction, Still some good TD 14 cats up there he said sunk down with the highway on top. One right off the lowbed, 12 hrs on the machine, sunk outa sight in 5 minutes. Pretty expensive hole filler. Foreman asked me how I learned that trick( I was only about 20 years old) when he was getting the money. Told him to give the money and an apology to the old guy in the wheelchair. He did and the old guy came up every day at coffee time to tell cat/roadbuilding stories, I think the foreman even learned a few more tricks off him cause the job seemed to go smoother after that.
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