Millie made it home

That last 100 ft was a killer. As discussed in a previous post, I almost rolled the crane off the edge of the road when she sank her outbound track into the soft road edge. BTW, how many times do I need to learn the lesson of soft road edges before I stay well away? I'm now recalling the time I had my loaded water truck sink down off the edge....

Anyways, Terry came up this morning and we got to work. Seemed like an easy plan: swing the crane house around so that the rear counterweight was inboard and far away from the road edge, which would put the weight off the outward track. Then let Millie roll backwards down the road a bit until she was back to the center and then proceed back up the road on solid roadbed.

Well...

We couldn't swing the house around because the swing clutch is shot. We then proceed to pull the house around with Ol' Blue, the back hoe, but the swing brake was also shot and wouldn't hold the house from swinging back out precariously over the cliff edge! So we pulled the house around as far as we could and then Terry got underneath the crane and set a chain from the track base to the house bottom so that she couldn't swing back.

Then we were going to roll Millie back, but instead of rolling back, the outward track just started settling in deeper into the soft shoulder. Arghh.
We ended up setting out a bunch of timber planks in front of the outward track and I winched myself up on top by connecting my boom hoist rope to the road grader set on up a head on the road. Once I got up on the timbers, things were looking better, but, I gotta tell you, there was a period of time there where I was really scared that the crane was going to roll over and off the road and take me with her. But, it worked. And Mille got to the middle of the road and then it was an easy drive up the rest of the way to the saddle and the safety of the shop.

The crazy situations I get myself into require just as much craziness to get out, I suppose, plus tenacity, guts, luck, and being watched out for from up above.

Somebody recently sent me an email that speaks to this and was the very best of compliments:

You’re also an inspiration to others....’never before have we seen one man do such much---with so little! You’ve got real grit, which isn’t seen much, anymore.

tower progress

Welding. Lots of welding. I've got the support joists that cantilever out under the catwalk in place and now I'm working on the railings. It's been difficult getting all the geometry correct, but, so far, I'm right on the money. I'm doing first pass with 6013 to get deep penetration into the weld and then following up with 7018. The vertical and upside-down welds, though, are pushing my limits. And always, in the back of my mind, is the reality that these welds must hold well since they will be supporting people 30 feet up in the air.

Terry sent a new pulley down lake on the barge from Holden Village. Man, it's a big one...some 100 lbs or so of old steel. It'll work well for getting Millie, the crane, up the rest of the road and then also for a hook block for Millie when she's lifting heavy loads.