A Tipsy BobCat

          Jonas and family were startled to their feet from the dinner (noon meal) table the other day as one of the Yoder boys rushed breathlessly through the back door, shouting excitedly, "I'm in trouble!  I rolled over the BobCat."

          He was referring not to the feline animal, but the skid-loader that's brand-named "BobCat."  Jonas was summoned because he is the senior veteran skid-steer operator, having owned one since his Amish church bishop issued approval for their limited use by chicken producers.

          "So ve chumped in my BobCat and vent over to his voods,"  Jonas said.  There he found the errant tractor tipped onto its roll bar on a rather steep incline.  Young Yoder had been hauling a round bale of hay, weighing about 1,000 pounds.

          "Hah!  Dat BobCat looked like a cow on its back vis its feet in de air!" Jonas giggled.  A couple inches of snow covered the ground, adding to the difficulty of the dilemma.

          Jonas sized up the situation and, using a chain, pulled the rollover tractor so its "feet" were headed downslope.  He then drove around to the uphill side, attached the chain loosely as a safety/stop and slowly lifted the skid loader back onto its wheels.  The chain "safety" kept the tractor from rolling downhill again.

          "He vas scared breathless dat mine vould roll over but I been in vers sityations before so I didn't take any chances."

          After all was safe once more, "I told him chust leave it set der for at least a couple hours so's the oil can drain back into the crankcase, den it should start like normal," Jonas said.

          "I told him he didn't haff to, but he vas so happy to get it back on its wheels dat he filled my fuel tank all the vay full. 

            "I vas pretty tickled bout dat."