Welcome

First thing this morning, read the manual.

Page 83 showed how to open the “nipple” (who comes up with those names?), in order to let out the hydraulic grease from the track, releasing the tension and getting some slack, then put the track back on. The graphics and the text were very clean and straight forward looking.

So off to Bunnings to get a crowbar and some adjustable wrenches.

Then up to the field. Fog. Lightly Raining. Mud. And digger still in the ditch with no space to move in close to work on the track.

An hour spent to move three meters forward and one meter to the left.

Finally got the space I needed to lift that side of the excavator off the ground and see what's what.

It's muddy is what.

But I did found the nipple in the mud.
Except the nipple is hard and won't come off for 10 more minutes.

Finally use two wrenches and the thing comes out. Turns out that nipple is just a fancy name for a nut.

Then the grease starts oozing out slowly like blue dog poop.

Funny enough, unlike the nice drawing in the manual, nothing else happens. Track remains highly unmovable.

Is raining lightly, every time I look upside down into the underside to see what's going on my glasses are either trained out, misted up or simply slide off into the mud.

Clear off the tracks, scraping away with a crow bar, mud falling down on everything, including lunch.

Still doesn't move.

I call up the service center to ask about that. He asks me if I have a strap and sprocket to pull the track sideways. I don't.

He then suggests I use option two other tools: grunting and swearing.

An hour later I call Helen to go buy a strap and sprocket,but she says she can only do that after laundry, in an hour. More swearing.

Move on to taking more of the #6 staples out of the deer fence as we will be taking down about 60 meters of the stuff later in the week.

Helen shows up. With a strap. The strap is marvelous. The most expensive marvelous strap in the world that can lift 30 tonnes. So marvelous that I have no idea how to use it.

Is now 4.31 pm. I call the service guys again. Turns out that they closed at 4.30.

At which point I decide that with mud in places I didn't know mud could get in to, with feet as cold and wet as of is I'm walking around with foot basins on my feet and I've been beaten by a 59 dollar strap, that it was time to go home.

Stopped on the way home at the liquor store. Even though I did not succeed I DESERVED it.

Well, so there I am with the rented 5.5t excavator (because there was no 8t, as I was recommended) – having luckily spent the previous evening reading up on how to use them. Turns out that was lucky, because the guy who was suppossed to show me how to do things… didn't show up.

One small issue, the neighbours were curious and came over to check things out.

And would not go away. Had to hang out with them a while. Opinionated bastards called Paddington and Buster. Swinging their horns around ( to show that they didn't like me touching their head, belly fine though) a bit too close for comfort.

Finally started up after watching an expensive hour go by and they left when the dust started flying.

Things were going smoothly, and time flew by, although near the end of the day found out that treads can fall off. Bummer. Having to get a neighbour to come out and show me how to get it sorted out first thing in the morning.

Day 1 off 4 finished. Going to bed.