During my growing years I had the opportunity to operate many different pieces of heavy equipment, anything from your standard lawn mower to heavy equipment such as a bulldozer or a backhoe. I find operating heavy equipment fun. It's relaxing and it's enjoyable. I guess, however, that if I did it for a living I wouldn’t be calling it relaxing too long.

I just got back today from a Thursday run to the ranch. The drought is really hurting right now, but it has given me a chance to maneuver into some formerly wet areas and clean some fence rows. I have been pushing up brush all day and my arms and legs feel like rubber from operating my front end loader and my backside is sore.

I stopped at Purcell’s in Brenham for my Thursday evening supper and now I’m back home for a good day tomorrow at my regular job. Today was a pleasant day. It was enjoyable.

Driving my tractor all day took me back to many years ago to a bulldozer experience that almost got me into trouble.
 

A good friend of mine named John and I went to look at a bulldozer we had thought about buying. Buying this dozer together was just for our own personal needs.

A problem with a man owning a bulldozer who really doesn't need one all the time is the fact that there is only so much land to clear and only so much dirt to move. I'm the kind of fellow that if I ever got started I would probably keep clearing and clearing until there would be nothing left! We still wanted to go look at it and possibly buy the machine.
 

When we arrived at the seller’s location John told me I would be the one to test drive it. The owner already had the machine running when we arrived. I climbed on the machine and settled in. The rumble of the motor felt good. This thing was a throwback to World War I and it was extremely old.

If you've never driven a dozer, they are operated by a series of hand and foot pedals with each pedal representing a different function. This particular dozer had a hand clutch on the dashboard. If you wanted the dozer to begin moving you literally had to reach up and pull a handle on the dash to engage the clutch. If you wanted to stop you had to move the handle again.
 

Most of us are used to driving vehicles with foot pedals. Normally a foot clutch disengages the transmission. You push a pedal with your foot to brake and you push the gas, always using your foot to accelerate, but in this case the clutch was actually hand operated.

If you wanted to stop this dozer you to had to remember to reach up to pull or push the handle; one way made it move and the other way to make it stop.
 

The owner of the dozer took John and me to an open field and told me to hop on. I took a few moments to familiarize myself with all the pedals, gadgets and gizmos and eventually all was ready to begin the process of pushing a little bit of dirt. I moved the machine this way and that way, pushing dirt as I moved. I turned all sorts of ways testing everything that could be tested on the dozer.
 

As I was driving the dozer the owner had parked his Ford pickup truck near a fence line. I was in the field maneuvering the machine as I headed toward this same fence where the trucks were parked. I was through testing and ready to park the machine. I knew in my mind it was beginning to be time for me to stop.

Immediately I began in a subconscious manner to push pedals with my feet. However, the pedals to stop this thing would not make it stop. I kept pushing on the floor board pedal in a subconscious way trying to make this machine cease moving.

“Stop,” my mind and feet said, “stop…stop!”

My muscles began to tense up and I broke out into a sweat all in a few short milliseconds as my mind kept telling me to stop the dozer, and for a few seconds of panic my body was on autopilot overburdening my brain functions. Suddenly within about 10 feet of this man's pickup truck I finally realized to reach for the hand clutch…reach for the hand clutch!

Fortunately, no harm came to anything or anyone. We didn’t buy the thing, but all in all it was a funny experience and a great time visiting with my friend. I still don’t own a dozer and I still have a lot of brush to clear.

Clifford

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