This weekends find

[Hauk]

For some years I have known that there was a large pre-hydraulic excavator in the woods south of my home town. I didn't know the exact location, but some light detective work pinned down the location to within a 500-600 meter radius. Shouldn't be too hard to find then, right? Wrong. Still a lot of rotten snow in the area that is also quite wet and marshy. After around an hour of fruitless searching and getting quite wet I was about to give up. Enter friendly natives. They indeed knew were «the monster of the woods» was located. Never mind the soggy shoes and a missus that probably was starting to feel that I was running empty on the man-time by then. (Even if I had dropped her off on a roadside cafe with enough reading material.)
With proper directions it took me just another ten minutes to locate this beauty:



Not to shabby after more than 60 years in the woods!

[Barney]

What a lovely beast with inspiration
Barney

[lab-dad]

If it was April I would think you were fooling us.
Either way she is quite nice!
MJinTN

[shropshire lad]

Have you worked out how to get it home yet ?

[finescalerr]

Nick, go stand in the corner! -- Russ

[shropshire lad]

No, I shan't and you can't make me. Ya Big Palooka.

[finescalerr]

Oh, my goodness!

[Hauk]

Have you worked out how to get it home yet ?

No, but I would be very thrilled to have that one on my front lawn!

Seriously, I think it is great that this machine has just been left in the wilderness were it broke down. Imagine just coming across this monster on a hike in the woods! Far more mindprovoking than encountering it in a technical museum. And in a museum it would most likely have been stripped of  all that grittiness and beautiful weathering.

It does not tell the story, but it strongly suggests that there is a story to be found, if one is even slightly curious.

[shropshire lad]

Oh, my goodness!

  Yeah, that told ya.

[lab-dad]

I wonder if there is a "story" it would be very colorfull.
MJinTN