Mackey came to B.O.N.E.S. from a bad situation in central Massachusetts. He was underweight and limped painfully. X-rays revealed a displaced femur fracture in his right hind leg – it was amazing that Mackey could use the leg at all. The options didn't look hopeful, but with help from the B.O.N.E.S. Medical Director, a carefully-structured exercise program, and a lot of TLC, he can now lead a normal life.
As Mackey recovered from his injuries, long-time B.O.N.E.S. adopter John was mourning the loss of his long-time beagle companion, Hudson, whose "Chronicles" were documented here for many years. John was settling into a new job with lots of driving, and Mackey loved to ride... a great match. John and Mackey will both share their viewpoints with us on this page.
Greetings from Baltimore. We are working out of the Baltimore facilities for the next few weeks. I was sorry to have missed the Bash.
It has been a busy summer as far as special events are concerned. We did several parades, a truck show, and another touch-a-truck event. These are all fun events to attend and all are raising funds for a specific charity or event. I'm fortunate that Cianbro feels the same way about these events and makes it possible for Mackey and me to attend.
It's no surprise that Mackey gets all the attention at these events! As far as work goes, it has been either feast or famine. One week will be busy and the next week, it will slow right down.
We've had several crane moves, which keep us all quite busy.
The most-recent crane move involved one of our larger cranes. It was on a job in Northern New Hampshire.
Cianbro was contracted to remove blades from wind turbines that needed to be replaced or repaired, and to reinstall them. The crane had 320 feet of boom to be able to reach the blades. The crane is awesome, up close and personal!
The site is 22 miles in from the blacktop and there was a staging area at mile marker 16 where the trailers were dropped to be loaded.
Since my truck has a heavy duty tow pin, I was elected to haul the trailers the rest of the way up the mountain. The trailers would then be loaded. A front-end loader would hook to my tow pin and tow me up a steep incline from tower five. At the top, we would unhook from the loader and start the slow ride down to mile 16. We'd drop the trailer, hook to the next trailer, and start the process all over.
Three days and sixteen loads later, I finally had the last load on my trailer. This was the heaviest part of the crane. This part, called the house, contained the operators cab, power plant, Hydraulics, etc. the house weighs about 85,000 pounds. to compare, a fully loaded tractor-trailer weighs 80,000 pounds. The gross weight was close to 140,000 pounds!
It was a slow ride down the mountain taking it easy on the winding curves and up some step climbs, even though we were going "down" the mountain. Two hours later, we reached the blacktop. Then we had another 3.5-hour ride back to Pittsfield.
This was a fun adventure because I was able to watch the dismantling process, as well as jump in and get involved at times. Most crane moves are on a schedule where a truck is loaded and then it leaves so the next truck can get loaded, so there is no chance to watch the process.
That's about all for now.
Blah, blah, blah!
Who cares about stupid cranes anyway? I had plenty to do up on the mountain.
And who names a mountain "Dummer Mountain" anyway? Sometimes I just don't get you people!
I got to explore all sorts of territory, and got to chase my favorite fire hose... a lot! All the drivers and the crane crew would throw the fire hose for me so I could go and chase it. The fire hose is my favorite toy, except for an occasional work glove (especially when I can get it by surprise!).
Another thing I got to do is explore. I smelled a couple of rabbits, a porcupine, a few squirrels, a moose, several deer, a black bear and two cubs, and... BIGFOOT!
Bigfoot was the WORST-SMELLING CREATURE I have ever smelled. Even worse that a decomposing carcass. It was so bad that... wait, no, never mind, it was only John. After three days on the mountain, he was
getting pretty "ripe." I guess the Bigfoot mystery still remains unsolved.
I really enjoyed spending all that time on the mountain. It's nice to get back to nature and enjoy the simple things. I'm paying the price now, down here in Baltimore!
Until next time...
