What was Ford thinking?

[Bob Glenn]

This morning I saw a Ford commercial that advertised one of it's vehicles that has off road capability. It showed a nice family in a festive holiday mood, in an SUV driving up a gravel road into the forest. Nice huh? Then the guy gets out and proceeds to chop down a Christmas tree and strap it on the top of the vehicle. During all this the announcer is extolling the virtues of doing this rather than going to local Christmas tree lot and picking out a tree which BTW, was grown for this purpose.

A couple of things wrong here. That probably isn't his property or his tree! Number two, we don't need to be encouraging people to go out in the woods and just start randomly chopping down trees!

I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but we can't afford lose our trees. They provide heat, shelter, food, building materials, paper (all kinds, if you get my drift), and most importantly, Oxygen.

Just sayin........Bob

[Myk Rian]

No choir here. I agree with you.

[Doug Garson]

I agree, the commercial I saw I think it was a woman with her daughter, so maybe there are two versions of that commercial. My first reaction was the same as yours. A better message would have been to go out and take a walk in the woods rather than play a video game on the couch at home.

[John K Jordan]

I don't watch TV so I didn't see it, but Ford won't know what people think unless they tell them! Let 'em know what message some are getting!

JKJ

[lowell holmes]

https://www.google.com/search?q=christmas+tree+farms+near+me&rlz=1C1UCRO_enUS813US813&oq=christmas+tree+farm&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.18222j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Maybe they went here to get the tree. I think taking a child there is good.

[Dave Lehnert]

Like someone said maybe there are two versions of that commercial.
You know you are a woodworker when you notice a tree being chopped down but not that it is an attractive lady doing the chopping. LOL!!!

[Jim Koepke]

It seems this controversy is caused by the makers of the commercial not including any indication of the tree being harvested legally.

In Oregon there was a program of buying a permit from the Oregon Department of Forestry that allowed a person to cut down specified trees in select areas.

It looks like there is also a program with the USDA:

https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/deschutes/passes-permits/forestproducts/?cid=fsbdev3_035887

Maybe the real problem is people are not aware of programs allowing them to 'go on a hunt' for their Christmas tree.

Don't get me wrong, at first viewing this commercial also gave me a bit of an unpleasant feeling, as do most commercials with people behaving badly.

jtk

[Frederick Skelly]

This morning I saw a Ford commercial that advertised one of it's vehicles that has off road capability. It showed a nice family in a festive holiday mood, in an SUV driving up a gravel road into the forest. Nice huh? Then the guy gets out and proceeds to chop down a Christmas tree and strap it on the top of the vehicle. During all this the announcer is extolling the virtues of doing this rather than going to local Christmas tree lot and picking out a tree which BTW, was grown for this purpose.

A couple of things wrong here. That probably isn't his property or his tree! Number two, we don't need to be encouraging people to go out in the woods and just start randomly chopping down trees!

I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but we can't afford lose our trees. They provide heat, shelter, food, building materials, paper (all kinds, if you get my drift), and most importantly, Oxygen.

Just sayin........Bob

Guys. Go easy. It's a commercial. :) :) :)

[Rick Potter]

You mean it's:cool: not real?

[Wade Lippman]

I thought exactly the same thing when I saw the ad. A woman cut it down?! I will have to look more carefully.

[Pat Barry]

What bothers me the most was that it was a Ford commercial.

[Bill Orbine]

That was the most realistic artificial Christmas tree I ever seen!:rolleyes:

[James Pallas]

My kids are all grown up and live all over the country now. When they were young we always bought a permit and went to the forest for the tree. There were six families that went together. We made a day of it with a cook out and all. The kids still remember those trips and every year it comes up. We even had snow and cold on a few trips. We had some interesting trees over the years, definitely not nursery trees. Wouldn't trade those memories. It did not save any money, usually a fairly long drive and as I remember the permit was not very cheap.

[Frederick Skelly]

My kids are all grown up and live all over the country now. When they were young we always bought a permit and went to the forest for the tree. There were six families that went together. We made a day of it with a cook out and all. The kids still remember those trips and every year it comes up. We even had snow and cold on a few trips. We had some interesting trees over the years, definitely not nursery trees. Wouldn't trade those memories. It did not save any money, usually a fairly long drive and as I remember the permit was not very cheap.

Sounds like it was pretty special times!

[Ed Aumiller]

The best trees we had was when my boys went into the woods (on our own property) and brought back a Christmas tree... (notice I said best, not prettiest)... a lot of lights, bulbs, popcorn works wonders...

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Like Jim K mentioned, there is a USDA program to do just that. We did it for years as a family adventure in one of the national forests. A few rules about how big the trees can be, and a $5 permit if I remember correctly. Pretty much impossible to find a forest tree that looks like a Christmas tree, but by taking some of the over thick little ones out, it helps the big ones, and in a tiny way, decreases fire risk. One year we even found a bull elk skeleton, rangers let us keep the skull, he hangs in my woodshop, kids named him Carlos.

I don't see anything wrong with the commercial I guess. Now that a one they did several years ago with the guy pounding wood fenceposts in with a sledgehammer, that one infuriates me.

[Bob Glenn]

Another bad commercial years ago was a Coke commercial that depicted kids climbing up under a railroad trestle waiting for the train to come by. We wrote a letter to CocaCola in Atlanta about the bad example it made on impressionalbe kids and they took the ad down.

[Bill Dufour]

This may have some relation to the fact that Ford no longer makes police cars and will stop making cars next year. I believe thy will still assemble the Mustang, for some time, in the US from made in China parts.
So why worry about getting caught by police on foot?
Bill D.

[Tom M King]

I didn't see the commercial, but we have always cut a Christmas tree from our own land.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

They were selling a throw back to tradition to make folks feel family warm and cozy. If they showed a grandma pulling cookies out of an old wood fired kitchen range, you or somebody would complain about the wood smoke emissions not being regulated and the hot exterior surfaces not complying with federal consumer standards, and how little ones should never be in the same area code as such things. And if they showed kids on a sled, some body would want safety belts and brakes and helmets. If they showed kids skating on a pond, somebody would want a government certification about the thickness and crush strength of the ice. I can remember fondly the annual trip to the country to a relatives's woods to pick ad cut some straggly looking tree. (My father now owns that woods) It was only 15 years ago, that I hitched a trailer to the 8n and the whole family rode out to the end of the farm and cut a tree from the ones I planted a decade earlier. What's next, banning Robert Frost poems, because the boys did not swing on their own birches. Or because he was trespassing when he stopped by the woods on a snowy evening. You Sir have been reading too much Joyce Kilmer.

[Ole Anderson]

The world would be a better place if each family took the time to get a permit and go into the woods and chop down a Christmas tree.

[Art Mann]

It is easy enough to tell the people who were raised in an urban or suburban environment from those who were raised in the country.

[Tom M King]

We had some real adventures going to get Christmas trees. My best friend always came over because most of his family land was open pastures. Around where I grew up, everyone used, and us old-timers still use Red Cedars, because that's the only type of tree growing here naturally that looks like a Christmas tree.

One year when we were probably 13, and 14, we drove a farm truck back in the woods to find a couple of trees. The truck we were sent on was a 1949 International one ton, with a short flat bed. It didn't take us long to find a couple of trees that year, and quickly had them loaded up. In backing the truck back into the woods to turn it around, on the narrow logging path, I put the rear end right on top of a stump, and both sets of rear wheels would only spin. We walked the mile, or so back home, and went back with a tractor to pull the truck off the stump.

The next year, the two of us went to do the same thing. This was an unusually cold day, and the ground was hard frozen. It took us several hours to find a couple of nice trees, and drug them back to the truck. By then, the day had warmed up, and so had the ground. The International, that we had left sitting on top of the ground, was now sunk up to the rear axle.

This was a place farther from home, and not wanting to walk all the way back home to get a tractor again, we knew of a family, with a bunch of strong boys, that lived maybe a quarter mile through the woods. We went to their house, and they came back with us. We cut a couple of Pine poles, and lifted one back corner of the truck at the time, putting a pole between the dual wheels on that side. Then repeated on the other side. We didn't slow down as we sped away, and all just waved to each other as we headed back out, slinging large quantities of mud in the process.

[Jerome Stanek]

My wife and kids loved going to a tree farm and cutting our own tree. there are a lot of them around me

[Jim Koepke]

During some lean years one of our friends used tree branches for their Christmas festivities for a few years.

When we were experiencing a few thin years we did the same. We have lots of trees growing. Most of them are over 30' tall.

jtk

[Peter Christensen]

Ages ago a couple young guys where I worked wanted a tree for the apartment they shared. They went to the tree lot and thought the $20-$25 was too much for a tree. They went to the bar and while there hatched the plan to go cut one down. Off they went to hunt for a tree and found a really nice one. The people in the house heard them chopping down the tree and called the RCMP. The owners didn't like them cutting down the tree in their front yard (subdivision) so it cost the guys a couple hundred bucks to buy a replacement for the tree and stay out of jail. They didn't get to take the tree back to the apartment. No Fords were hurt in the adventure.

[Yonak Hawkins]

...hot exterior surfaces not complying with federal consumer standards, and how little ones should never be in the same area code as such things. And if they showed kids on a sled, some body would want safety belts and brakes and helmets. If they showed kids skating on a pond, somebody would want a government certification about the thickness and crush strength of the ice....
Perry, not to parse your statement but, while I agree with it, it should be noted that ecological concerns are not the same as safety concerns. Safety, in my opinion, is personal responsibility. There should be no need, for instance, for a notice on a set of steak knives, "Caution, sharp objects. These knives are not toys." Any responsible adult should know this and, if they don't, they should not be having children. Ecology, on the other hand, is doing what's right for future generations and should be a widespread, not personal, concern and objective.

[Chuck Wintle]

The world would be a better place if each family took the time to get a permit and go into the woods and chop down a Christmas tree.
i would have to disagree because 2 many weekend warriors could end up chopping off a foot trying to use an axe. Better to buy at the local christmas tree place.

[Bill Dufour]

Family story is when My dad's sister had two little girls at home with no extra money Santa came and delivered the tree on Christmas eve after everyone was asleep. Tree lots are cheap after they shut down for the season.
Bill D

[Flamone LaChaud]

When I was in grad school, I went and got a small tree that was supposed to be taken out and planted. I just put it in a large planter, and used it for the next 7 Christmases . . . until it got too big to move from outside to inside. Gave up and finally planted it in the ground . . . stinking thing died the next year.

Ho Ho Ho

[Doug Garson]

The world would be a better place if each family took the time to get a permit and go into the woods and chop down a Christmas tree.
Thousands of Christmas tree farmers or charities that run tree lots might not share your opinion not to mention emergency room physicians. Don't get me wrong, for some it's a great tradition but not everyone lives where that is practical and not everyone is that handy.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Frankly I don't know why anyone would want to CHOP down a tree for a Christmas tree anyway. Whenever I've gone out into the woods or onto a commercial tree farm to buy and cut a tree I've used a bowsaw. Chopping with an axe is inefficient and you end up with sap all over everything. Plus you still have to saw and trim the foot of the tree to fit into the stand. Yeah I'm the Grinch.

[Tom M King]

We always used a bow saw, and it was stored in the same place as the tree stand. One year, another friend of mine stuck their Red Cedar Christmas tree in the ground, out in front of their house, after it had been used in the house for several weeks with no root ball. It not only survived, but grew to over 20 feet tall before they sold that house years later.

[Jim Koepke]

We have cut down Christmas trees with a bowsaw, a tree saw and a chainsaw. Around here the cut your own lots don't mind if you bring your own chainsaw.

jtk

[Tom M King]

A bow saw was just lighter to carry if you have to walk far looking.

Any time we sell a stand of timber, someone complains that we're raping the land, or ruining the environment, usually while driving some large luxury SUV, or heavy sedan.

Once, someone told me, after a timber stand had grown for several years after it had been cut, "It looks so much better! What did you do?" I said I hadn't done anything, trees grow back.

[Jim Koepke]

Once, someone told me, after a timber stand had grown for several years after it had been cut, "It looks so much better! What did you do?" I said I hadn't done anything, trees grow back.

LOL!

jtk

[Bill Dufour]

Did you replant or was there enough seed and water that nature allowed regrowth or was this stump growth? Does it rain in summer in your location?
I remember reading in college that basically all the natural oak trees in California had started in 1775. That must have been a good spring with rain that lasted into early summer so the tender young trees would live through summer. Probably early winter rains as well. The older parent trees had died off by then. There had not been a good enough season for 200 years later. 2016/18 was probably the next growing season with the proper rainfall total for new trees to flourish.
Bil lD

[Ole Anderson]

Frankly I don't know why anyone would want to CHOP down a tree for a Christmas tree anyway. Whenever I've gone out into the woods or onto a commercial tree farm to buy and cut a tree I've used a bow saw. Chopping with an axe is inefficient and you end up with sap all over everything. Plus you still have to saw and trim the foot of the tree to fit into the stand. Yeah I'm the Grinch.
I guess I walked into that one, didn't know everyone would take my comment so literally! I tend to "chop" with one of my three chain saws, or my pole saw, or my corona. Not sure what even happened to the bow saw I owned 40 years ago. I do have a hatchet I use for splitting kindling and an ax I use for chopping roots, and a splitting maul...

And I have had an artificial tree for so long I forget last time I actually cut down a Christmas tree, with my bow saw.

[Tom M King]

We get plenty of rain here, and there is really no need to replant. There are some laws, depending on which state you're in that either require replanting, or leaving "seed trees", but if Pines have been growing there before, they will come up like grass on a lawn without doing anything, so we are not required to replant here. Hardwoods will regrow from cut stumps, but no one around here replants hardwood trees anyway. Pines offer a much quicker return.

It's so funny that some people get so worked up about cutting trees. There are all sorts of funny bumper stickers, like: "If you use toilet paper, thank a logger."

There is one development here on the lake with all half acre lots, and apparently all the home owners came from a city. The landowner, that owns a decent sized timber stand that you drive through to get to that development was having his mature timber flagged for cutting. The lot owners in the lake development got all up in arms, complaining to the county, and ran adds in local newspapers to try to keep the land owner from selling his timber, because it would look so bad, be raping the land, and such.

He told the homeowners association that if they would pay him what the timber was worth that he wouldn't have it cut. They got all excited thinking this would be a good deal. When they found out that it would be about 600k, that ended that deal. Some said they thought that trees weren't worth anything. The timber was sold a few years ago, and it's already back to a thick stand of young Pines.

[lowell holmes]

This may have some relation to the fact that Ford no longer makes police cars and will stop making cars next year. I believe thy will still assemble the Mustang, for some time, in the US from made in China parts.
So why worry about getting caught by police on foot?
Bill D.

Where in blazes did you come up with that?
Oh, that reminds me, I need to go get a tree and bring it home in my F-150.

[Doug Garson]

We get plenty of rain here, and there is really no need to replant. There are some laws, depending on which state you're in that either require replanting, or leaving "seed trees", but if Pines have been growing there before, they will come up like grass on a lawn without doing anything, so we are not required to replant here. Hardwoods will regrow from cut stumps, but no one around here replants hardwood trees anyway. Pines offer a much quicker return.

It's so funny that some people get so worked up about cutting trees. There are all sorts of funny bumper stickers, like: "If you use toilet paper, thank a logger."

There is one development here on the lake with all half acre lots, and apparently all the home owners came from a city. The landowner, that owns a decent sized timber stand that you drive through to get to that development was having his mature timber flagged for cutting. The lot owners in the lake development got all up in arms, complaining to the county, and ran adds in local newspapers to try to keep the land owner from selling his timber, because it would look so bad, be raping the land, and such.

He told the homeowners association that if they would pay him what the timber was worth that he wouldn't have it cut. They got all excited thinking this would be a good deal. When they found out that it would be about 600k, that ended that deal. Some said they thought that trees weren't worth anything. The timber was sold a few years ago, and it's already back to a thick stand of young Pines.

Wonder where they were when the trees were being cut down to make way for their houses?

[Bill Dufour]

Where in blazes did you come up with that?
Oh, that reminds me, I need to go get a tree and bring it home in my F-150.

may be wrong but I know the engine for the Mustang is scheduled to be made in China. I belive the transmissions as well. The Ford Ranger automatic transmission has been made in France by an independent company for at least the last 20 years.
I

[Stan Calow]

I looked at Mustangs last year and the engines were already made in China. Transmissions for some of their other vehicles were from Mexico. We like to think its a US company, but they make their money overseas. Better get your new 150 before the aluminum tariffs kick in.

[Rich Engelhardt]

BLM issues Christmas Tree permits for a fee.

[Steve Clardy]

I don't see anything wrong with the commercial I guess. Now that a one they did several years ago with the guy pounding wood fenceposts in with a sledgehammer, that one infuriates me.

Tell me why that infuriates you?

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Tell me why that infuriates you?

Because that's not how you put wood fence posts in.

[Steve Clardy]

Ever see the old time fence builders drive wood posts in? Apparently not. They use sharpened posts, similar to a pencil end.
Then they drive that post in, with a post maul (a little bigger and heavier than a sledge).
Some used a sledge hammer out of necessity.

https://www.google.com/search?q=post+maul&newwindow=1&client=firefox-b-1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi75OTp1YDfAhWQ14MKHZq0DIYQ_AUIDygC&biw=1024&bih=436

There's also a video showing how to use one.

:)

[David Helm]

We still get our trees from U.S Forest Service land. Permit is $10. The areas you can cut are logged over and replanted already. The quality is determined by how high into the mountains you can get with snow level being a determining factor. Never ever used an axe (that is a ridiculous way to cut a tree) but always used a bow saw. I don't think chain saws are allowed (at least here in Washington).

[Bob Glenn]

Ford must monitor the internet for feedback. I've not seen the commercial since.

[Lee Schierer]

We still get our trees from U.S Forest Service land. Permit is $10. The areas you can cut are logged over and replanted already. The quality is determined by how high into the mountains you can get with snow level being a determining factor. Never ever used an axe (that is a ridiculous way to cut a tree) but always used a bow saw. I don't think chain saws are allowed (at least here in Washington).

Next time the ad runs, check out how clean that "Axe cut" was by the time the tree is strapped on the car. It's perfectly flat and perpendicular to the trunk just like you would get with a saw.:confused:

[Jerome Stanek]

I saw it last night

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

The one I see shows a woman, out in the woods, dragging a tree to her SUV with a little girl in tow. There is no one else around in the idyllic woodland winter setting. I don't understand the OP's gripe. Everybody in North America knows there are trespassing laws and property rights. I suppose starting out assuming the person would only do such a thing lawfully is too much to ask for. There are some pretty stiff fines for doing that in most states. On the other hand, assuming that everything shown on TV is illegal or leads to illegal activity, is a point of view or mindset.

[John K Jordan]

... Everybody in North America knows there are trespassing laws and property rights. ... There are some pretty stiff fines for doing that in most states....

Long time ago a nature conservation place near here had a large, beautiful tree near the entrance (blue spruce, maybe). Sadly, someone cut it down then cut the top out, maybe to get a small enough Christmas tree to haul and fit in the house. The community was outraged. Chances are the criminal knew it was wrong but was never fined since he was never caught.

Sometime in the last 20 years we switched to an artificial tree. (Sorry, tree farmers.) The hassle, sap, mess, safety hazard, and rising cost of a real tree got to be too much. (I can't imagine the cost of a tree today.) I liked the smell, though.

[Jim Koepke]

Long time ago a nature conservation place near here had a large, beautiful tree near the entrance (blue spruce, maybe). Sadly, someone cut it down then cut the top out, maybe to get a small enough Christmas tree to haul and fit in the house. The community was outraged. Chances are the criminal knew it was wrong but was never fined since he was never caught.

Sometime in the last 20 years we switched to an artificial tree. (Sorry, tree farmers.) The hassle, sap, mess, safety hazard, and rising cost of a real tree got to be too much. (I can't imagine the cost of a tree today.) I liked the smell, though.

We had trouble finding a tree this year. The cut your own lots have been closing. One seller told us the growers have had weather related problems. There were also a lot of growers who either planted less or dropped out of the business when hard times hit back in 2008. Trees planted in 2008 are just starting to hit the market this year for full size trees.

We are even thinking of growing trees for our own use.

jtk

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

I planted 100 trees back in 1884 for personal Christmas trees. Well they soon outgrew our ceiling, so I let some area churches come and take trees. Now I have some 30 to 40 ft high. Maybe Rockafeller tree potential in 20 years.

Been thinking about planting some more, but odd balls, like sugar pine, loblolly, etc. I am tired of the usual connifers and figure if they grow, they will be quite the sight. Know a guy in suburban DC that had a beautiful sand hill pine growing in his yard. That is about 160 miles north of it's natural range. Another neighbor had a couple of liveoaks in Arlington VA. I am only 100 miles north of there. I planted live oaks two years ago, and 2/3 of them are still alive.

[Bill Orbine]

I planted 100 trees back in 1884 for personal Christmas trees. Well they soon outgrew our ceiling, so I let some area churches come and take trees. Now I have some 30 to 40 ft high. Maybe Rockafeller tree potential in 20 years.

Been thinking about planting some more, but odd balls, like sugar pine, loblolly, etc. I am tired of the usual connifers and figure if they grow, they will be quite the sight. Know a guy in suburban DC that had a beautiful sand hill pine growing in his yard. That is about 160 miles north of it's natural range. Another neighbor had a couple of liveoaks in Arlington VA. I am only 100 miles north of there. I planted live oaks two years ago, and 2/3 of them are still alive.

I figure after 134 years, your trees would be much taller than 30-40 feet high if they have survived the years! How was life back in 1884?:rolleyes:

[Steve Clardy]

I figure after 134 years, your trees would be much taller than 30-40 feet high if they have survived the years! How was life back in 1884?:rolleyes:


:D:D:D You too huh. Lol

We just go out on the back forty and cut a small cedar.

[Van Huskey]

Sometime in the last 20 years we switched to an artificial tree. (Sorry, tree farmers.) The hassle, sap, mess, safety hazard, and rising cost of a real tree got to be too much. (I can't imagine the cost of a tree today.) I liked the smell, though.

You can find trees for not a lot of money but the larger trees have started to get harder to get and are pretty steep. We buy a ~22ft tree each year and the one we bought this year was $700 plus $75 to deliver it. I learned the hard way that you don't want to think of wrestling a tree this size into the house. I cut them into 4-5 pieces to remove them. These big trees are in demand though, there is only one place in town that brings a decent selection of large trees in and we have learned we have to reserve them BEFORE Thanksgiving or you may not get one or have to hope they get more large ones in.

[Bill Dufour]

I do not understand why Rockefeller center buys a tree every year. Seems like after 85 years or so they could have grown one instead.
have you seen the add for the GMC pickup with a 5.5 foot bed. The owner is happy sleeping in it with his knees bent beyond 90 degrees so he can show horn in.

[Bert Kemp]

They were selling a throw back to tradition to make folks feel family warm and cozy. If they showed a grandma pulling cookies out of an old wood fired kitchen range, you or somebody would complain about the wood smoke emissions not being regulated and the hot exterior surfaces not complying with federal consumer standards, and how little ones should never be in the same area code as such things. And if they showed kids on a sled, some body would want safety belts and brakes and helmets. If they showed kids skating on a pond, somebody would want a government certification about the thickness and crush strength of the ice. I can remember fondly the annual trip to the country to a relatives's woods to pick ad cut some straggly looking tree. (My father now owns that woods) It was only 15 years ago, that I hitched a trailer to the 8n and the whole family rode out to the end of the farm and cut a tree from the ones I planted a decade earlier. What's next, banning Robert Frost poems, because the boys did not swing on their own birches. Or because he was trespassing when he stopped by the woods on a snowy evening. You Sir have been reading too much Joyce Kilmer.

couldn't have said this better myself thumbs up:D we do need a like button
I

[Bert Kemp]

We had some real adventures going to get Christmas trees. My best friend always came over because most of his family land was open pastures. Around where I grew up, everyone used, and us old-timers still use Red Cedars, because that's the only type of tree growing here naturally that looks like a Christmas tree.

One year when we were probably 13, and 14, we drove a farm truck back in the woods to find a couple of trees. The truck we were sent on was a 1949 International one ton, with a short flat bed. It didn't take us long to find a couple of trees that year, and quickly had them loaded up. In backing the truck back into the woods to turn it around, on the narrow logging path, I put the rear end right on top of a stump, and both sets of rear wheels would only spin. We walked the mile, or so back home, and went back with a tractor to pull the truck off the stump.

The next year, the two of us went to do the same thing. This was an unusually cold day, and the ground was hard frozen. It took us several hours to find a couple of nice trees, and drug them back to the truck. By then, the day had warmed up, and so had the ground. The International, that we had left sitting on top of the ground, was now sunk up to the rear axle.

This was a place farther from home, and not wanting to walk all the way back home to get a tractor again, we knew of a family, with a bunch of strong boys, that lived maybe a quarter mile through the woods. We went to their house, and they came back with us. We cut a couple of Pine poles, and lifted one back corner of the truck at the time, putting a pole between the dual wheels on that side. Then repeated on the other side. We didn't slow down as we sped away, and all just waved to each other as we headed back out, slinging large quantities of mud in the process.

o what happened the next year ?
S

[John K Jordan]

We had some real adventures ... The International, that we had left sitting on top of the ground, was now sunk up to the rear axle.


Hey, I had the same kind of fun 'bout 30 years ago, but not at Christmas and the reason was not the temperature. Riding with a friend somewhere on the 80,000 acre Catoosa wildlife management area he decided to power through a remote mud hole instead of going around, ignoring my "Noooo!". The 4wd truck was sunk to the frame from front to back, miles from the gravel road.

Fortunately, I'm a topo map nut and had been tracking our path. We were less than a mile down the mountain from a handful of houses so we hiked up and knocked on some doors. Woke one guy up, he climbed through the window of a buddy's house to steal his truck keys and bushwhacked down the hill and pulled us out. Moral of the story: always drive around mud holes without fresh tracks on both ends.