[madmmac]

I was out mowing my lawn down by my creek(lived 19 years on this property), since it had been not raining for 24 hours around here. I was backing up to turn around, when all of a sudden I found myself and the riding lawn mower falling backwards and to the left into the creek. About a 3 foot fall into 3 or so feet of water. Nothing outrageous.

When it all stopped, the lawn mower (600+ lbs) had trapped my left leg about at the calf to the creek bottom. The mower was almost 90 degrees on its side with the deck near perpendicular to where it should have been. I was propped up on my left arm and the water was just below my chin when I was looking up.

The water is friggin cold because it is spring feed and with all the rain it was running a bit high. As I was stuck there trying to ascertain my predicament and escape, I noticed why I was there, the bank had given away by about 2 feet from where it had been just seconds ago.

Yelling does no good around here, everybody is on 10 acres and most are either at work or on some power equipment themselves. I know I'm pretty much on my own.

Pushing with my right arm in short bursts as best I could, I was able to slightly reduce the pressure and work my leg towards the gap between the floorboard, deck and front tire.

Once there, I was able to get my leg out and climb out of the creek.....f***.

Two tractors and 2 slings and some head scratching, the mower was returned to the lawn where it does a better job than trying to mow water. Did a walk around and everything looked just fine.

I let it sit for about 10 minutes and fired it up with no problem. Well, it did smoke like an old 911 for about 10 minutes while the oil burned off that had drained into the exhaust. Mowed the rest of the lawn in another 3 hours and the mower did not miss a beat.

Lesson Learned: I usually always take my cell phone when I am away from the house a ways, or when I am working on the other side of the creek. I put it in my front pocket. I now am going to use our walkie talkies with velcro and attach it near my shoulder. The cell phone would have been toast and I don't think I would have been able to get it out in that situation. The walkie talkies we have are small, cheap, have good range and NO DIALING....push to Yell.

Casualties: Mp3 player is never going to work again. Back is sore as He**. Leg does not show anything or hurt at all.

Moral of story: Be more aware of my surroundings and thank my Irish luck. I know a lot of guys here have large properties and equipment, just be a bit more prudent and safe so we can all live to write about it.