At 10:18 PM 4/2/2004 +1000, you wrote:
>I hope you never have occasion to use these techniques, but if really stuc=
k
>and isolated from all assistance, they can be useful.
>
>Syd Curtis in Australia.
The Spanish windless is new to me and sounds to be a very useful concept.
Thanks, Syd!
I should have said in the previous post that sand stakes are better
designed as a set of six. The top of the first post is tied to TWO post
bottoms, spread at about 20 to 30 degrees behind the first. Then THREE
stakes are set farthest back, with the top of the second ones being tied to=
the bottom of the two behind it. This gives much better lateral stability,=
but obviously you are putting in twice as many stakes. It also assumes you=
can DRIVE six stakes into the bloody ground without hitting a root or a
rock justwhere you want to have them.
The jack lift and inch out I have done many times, with boards, rocks,
etc. This is also one of the easiest way to get badly injured on the
planet. Sometimes you just bury the jack base! In other situations, I have=
managed to place enough fill under a wheel, that the board can be sloped
away from the sticking point. Then when you drive out gravity actually
helps you move away.
The biggest problem with jacking as you say, Syd, is that you must cope
with the reason the tires are mired in the first place, and it is hard to
convert quick-clay into solid ground with ANY technique. My problems in
New England have come this time of year, affectionately knows as mud
season, when frozen ground becomes thawed, and until the liquid water
(ex-frost) is squeezed out of it, the subsoil may have the consistency of
chowder!
Getting stuck in the limestone residual soil (laterite) in the tropics is
no fun either, and can be an entirely different animal. In Belize, 40
miles from the nearest paved road, in August of 1960, a two-hour-shower
turned the road from wet to slick to glue in about four hours. At its
worst, the upper 2 to 5 cm of the road itself sticks to your boots and to
the tires. The vehicle rolls up its own layer of mud as it goes, and a few=
hundred yards will pack the wheel well so full of mud that the wheels will=
not turn at all. The problem then is to dig out the wheel wells to
proceed, and you can barely go another 1/10 of a mile before repeating the=
process. In other words, you'de as soon walk, except that the same process=
converts your boots to cement footwear, weighing nearly 3 - 4 lbs per boot.=
We learned when it rains hard to spend the next half day in camp writing
notes, reviewing tapes and preparing specimens.
But the funniest stuck story (second hand via Roger Payne, ca. 1959) comes=
regarding the famed Richard Archibald, of the Archibald Biological Station=
in Florida. He was famous for going anywhere and during WWII (?) the army=
arrived at his station with a newly designed vehicle that, they told him,
couldn't get stuck. In fact, they challenged him to stick it. He is said=
to have responded: "Not only can I stick it, but I can stick it inside of
ten minutes." whereupon he jumped in the driver seat and roared off to
this nearby spot, with the rest of the army contingent in full pursuit. On=
getting out he is said to have responded" Its stuck!" and indeed, I forget=
how many firetrucks as anchors were needed to extricate it - or perhaps it=
took a small crane.
All this reminds me that at my house today I recorded 5 inches of rain in
the last two days - probably a record for this time of year, and certainly=
making for a muddy "spring forward". I send my best regards,
Marty Michener, MIST Software Assoc. Inc., P. O. Box 269, Hollis, NH 03049
Spring has sprung, the grass has riz. Wonder what kind of grass it is?
Graminoids - a new book for naturalists to identify sedges and grasses.
http://www.enjoybirds.com/HomePublishing/PubHome.htm#gram
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