Unimog!

unimog
Originally uploaded by sawyer.george

I just went for a spin in this 1976 Mercedes Unimog! (UNIversal-MOtor-Gerät). They're designed for agricultural and military use, and used extensively all across Europe. This one's a 6-speed, 6 cylinder diesel with PTO's on the front and back, a trailer hitch (for big trailers), and it's a convertible. Oh, it has a snorkel too. Those crazy Germans. Apparently they make all kinds of attachments; backhoes, cranes, plows, saws, whatev.

If anyone has $13k burning a hole in their pocket, this would be the place to spend it. The owner's name is Jon. I can give you his phone number.

Three lives down, six to go...

We just spent the last two hours trying to get Boy down from a tree. He weaseled his way about thirty feet up a tree that has one branch on the way up. He was fine for a while, then started meowing, then started panting, then started circumnavigating the trunk, then started drooling...

Meanwhile, we're all pacing and making phone calls to find someone with a ladder long enough for us to get close to him. (FYI - the fire department will not help you in this situation. Neither will the police. Neither will anybody.) We tried calling a couple tree services, the one man we got a hold of said that he would help, but he'd thrown his back out and had to go to his father's eighty-seventh birthday party. We finally got a hold of Yannick who, in fact, had an extension ladder at home, so George took off to get it.

Meanwhile, our neighbor Johann and I stood under Boy with a blanket, ready for the inevitable fall. (Girl tried to help by jumping up into the tree also - which is amazing because she doesn't even like to jump onto the table, it was completely out of character for her.)

Only...he didn't fall. He shuffled his way down, panting, drooling, sideways. It sounds all calm and anti-climatic now, but let me tell you, when he decided it was a good idea to move from the branch and scoot around the trunk - big pieces of bark falling, him teetering on the skinny little branch he came to...it was a little difficult.

One of our other neighbors thought it was pretty ridiculous to be so worried and the guy who owns the Buddha store next door (who noticed Boy up the tree) couldn't watch.


Pictures to follow after we eat some dinner. Along with more news and photos.

Stay tuned!