It is with a heavy heart and deep sadness that I must inform you that Frankenbucket has gone to be with all the other loaders in the sky.  It died a most horrific death. Heroic efforts were taken by individuals who tried desperately to save it. However, poor overworked Frankenbucket did not survive.
It started out as a normal, beautiful day. The guys had decided to use Frankenbucket to pull out a few more stumps in the ground at our neighbor on the hill's house. Frankenbucket always loved hanging out with the guys. Pulling stumps was its favorite task. The guys finished up for supper and parked Frankenbucket in the shop/garage/barn (we haven't narrowed down a proper title for this building yet) and shut it down for the night.
About 15 minutes later the guys were getting ready to come in to eat when they noticed an unusual smell. It appeared as though someone was burning something but none of us could narrow down who that someone/neighbor could be. The guys then decided the smoky smell was a very unusual smoldering smell. A smell that could only be narrowed down to an oil burning smell or a smoking wire smell. Their curiosty turned into a 'let's go investigate' attitude and the first place they decided to start was the garage/shop.
Next thing ya know....CHAOS erupts.......through the woods I can see 2 adult figures making mad dashes between the shop/barn, the pick-up truck and our neighbor's house. I jump on the 4 wheeler while barking orders for the children to stay put and take dinner out of the oven. I race to the shop/barn just as the guys were hooking tow straps to the front bucket of Frankenbucket which just happened to be running and engulfed in flames. My husband was using the fire extinguisher to put out the flames as our neighbor was jumping into the pick-up truck which is now hooked to the loader to pull/tow the loader out of the shop/barn before it caught the entire shop/barn on fire. The mens heroic efforts worked and the shop/barn was saved from ruin! I, in the meantime, had acquired another fire extinguisher for the guys to use. It was hard to tell with all the smoke whether the loader's fire was truly extinguished or still burning so the guys doused it again.
Now the delimna has become how to shut off a piece of equipment whose key AND ignition have been obliterated. No key, no ignition, and a running loader. So they decide to shut off the fuel valve...ONLY problem....everything is smoldering hot! So dh grabbed some rags/towels and proceeded to carefully try to twist the melted lever to the off position. Since the loader was STILL running, they decided to try to stall it out. Surely that should work since it does that on a routine basis. The guys pop her into gear and...SURPRISE! SURPRISE!...Frankenbucket wants to go.......quickly realizing that idea was a failure, the neighbor tried to jump on the moving loader and pop it back out of gear. It was a heoric feat as the loader was heading straight for the pick-up truck. The neighbor also narrowly missed being run over by the loader and was burned during this process. But as most men are, the neighbor chalks it up as just a small flesh wound.
Knowing the loader has a full tank of diesel in it and that it's still runnning and its still smoldering, the guys continue to rack their brain on how to stall it and/or shut it down. Dh tries once again to shut off the fuel valve. They thought about unhooking the battery until they saw that it was nothing but a melted blob of plastic. Then..finally....the loader started to sputter and choke...dh's heroic efforts of shutting the fuel valve off while not burning himself must have worked because Frankenbucket FINALLY took its last breath EVER........
It will always be a mystery to us on how it was able to restart itself and EXACTLY WHAT started the fire that caused its demise. It was a total loss with no financially possible chance of repair.....Frankenbucket will be sorely missed and every time we have dirt to move or a tree stump to remove our thoughts will be about our foundest days and memories spent with it.....
Sniff sniff....Goodbye Frankenbucket....you will be sorely missed.........
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