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Every boy I've ever met loves trucks and big machines. My boy is no exception. Truck ("tuck") was one of his first words. He just turned 9 two weeks ago.
We started helping with friends' house building projects soon after he was born. I have pics of him sound asleep in his carseat which was strapped to the floor of a backhoe while my dh ran it. I have pics of him at age 2 sitting on Pat's knee while driving a bulldozer, another of him in his carseat in a dump truck. I've got lots of others on various pieces of equipment. My dh used to be a heavy equipment operator for an environmental response team, and is quite talented with the machines. Now, anytime a friend of ours needs work, they rent the machine and Pat works them. And occasionally, the response team calls him if they're in dire need of help. They still let him borrow their equipment, too, when we need it.
Plus, we helped 3 friends build their houses and then they helped us build ours-everyone trading time and skills-it worked out really well.
A friend of ours asked Pat to demo trackhoes for his business before they buy one. So, we got to dig a pond for free last weekend at our house. It's not done, though as it poured all weekend and the earth got really saturated. So, when it dries out some, he'll finish it.
Anyway, Jonah got to run the trackhoe!!!
Pat was so amazingly patient and calm. I was a mixture of feelings: I was a nervous wreck, bursting with pride and also crying as I ran around taking pictures. Here's some of the pics:
 In the above pic, they were cleaning off the track hoe, which made lots of mud. So, they're shoveling some of the mud into the bucket. Jonah then drove the trackhoe, operated the blade, the arm and the bucket to take the bucketful of mud elsewhere.
Here, Jonah had swiveled the body of the trackhoe around and was driving it to the hedgerow. My dh walked alongside.
I love this one of Pat giving instructions and Jonah listening. Pat taught him a bunch of hand signals and Jonah did an excellent job following them.
I can't believe my boy is operating this thing!!! Here, he extended the arm and tipped the bucket up to dump the mud into the hedgerow.
This is where I got really nervous. Pat had Jonah park the trackhoe next to the house. He wanted Jonah to park the bucket up close to the drive-out basement door. My kitchen & pantry is above this and I was so afraid I was going to lose my ktichen by the arm of this thing hitting the side of the house. It all went well and I was amazed at how calm Pat was. This was a real test of Jonah following Pat's hand signals and not doing what he thought it looked like he should do with the controls. I tried to get a picture of the little glances Jonah gave me while he was driving. It was a mixture of excitement, amazement, nervousness and "Mom, LOOK at what I'm doing!!!" all wrapped in one. But, I couldn't take the pic fast enough. I'll never forget it, though. I can't help it-I'm so proud of my big man and my little man!! |
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