Henry Rifle Forums

Since my Disney Hippo incident last September, I haven't exactly been mobile. Okay... I just "learned to walk again." I'm not that good at it yet due to the September injuries, and they tell me it might be a while. I can see my pistol range berm and small range house from the living room's back windows, but couldn't get there.

Wife took the weedeater into the shop to have it rebuilt, and when we went to pick it up... I picked up mobility for the farm.
A ranger 500. Added the roof, windshield, and rear window. Ordered the underseat storage trays, and outside mirrors.

http://www.polaris.com/en-us/ranger-utv ... -solar-red

So far we are very happy with the new wheels. With the AWD engaged we can check the overgrown lower pasture and the lower horse barn. Too far for me to walk. Miss T has already used the dump bed hauling feed and gear to the coops. We have attached a ball to the hitch and use it to move the kayak trailer and will use it for hauling the dump wagon as well. We pulled that with the garden tractor when pruning, moving gravel, hauling sand to the coops, etc.

So... hopefully this will keep both of us mobile all year round.
(Although Miss T has developed foot problems, she doesn't like to admit them.)

as one with hopefully temporary mobility issues, I admire the steady progress you are making and can easily understand the frustrations .... looking forward to hearing your assessment of the Ranger after you've used it for a while

BrokenolMarine wrote:Since my Disney Hippo incident last September, I haven't exactly been mobile.

Wait, wait, wait........what? As a relative newb I've gathered you've been healing up from something but that comment needs more details. Please don't take my comment as inconsiderate but your above comment more than peeked my interest. What the heck happened?


https://youtu.be/RjerEk16b7w

For an old marine, it should have a Browning M1919 mounted though.................

Dennis H wrote:

BrokenolMarine wrote:Since my Disney Hippo incident last September, I haven't exactly been mobile.

Wait, wait, wait........what? As a relative newb I've gathered you've been healing up from something but that comment needs more details. Please don't take my comment as inconsiderate but your above comment more than peeked my interest. What the heck happened?

Sorry.... I forget the event doesn't stand out for everyone like it does for me...

I have been using a therapeutic hot springs hot tub for pain management for about ten years. Every three or four months I drain the spa completely, and then scrub the "tub" with a citrus cleaner to insure it stays clear and clean. We change the filters and flush all the lines, then repeat process, spraying on the citric spray and letting the sun and citric spray do their thing for a bit. This time the boss came out and said, "While the TUB is soaking in the orange aide, I'm going to spray down the deck with bleach and water and kill the algae growing there. There was some stuff growing in the shade in the corner of the deck that could have starred in the Stephen King movie. Miss Tina told me to head in the house. "You have trouble standing normally with that Fake Knee... this is going to get slicker than Goose .. ah... snot."

I look out a half hour later, and she is back cleaning the tub of the spa... that is MY job, one of the few that the boss still lets me do around the place with my physical restrictions, so I tap on the picture window to see if she want's my help. She doesn't hear me. I yell thru the window.. No joy.
I open the door to the deck and step out with my left foot as I ask, "Do you want some he..."

Here is where the Disney Hippo in the Pink Tutu comes into play. In the span of a fraction of a second...
My left foot contacts the deck that STILL has bleach water on it. It IS slicker than owl snot.
That foot shoots forward like an NHRA rail in the National Championships.
The right foot is still inside the house, 6" above the deck on the floor.
I am hovering above the deck like that hippo in the tutu, but nowhere near as gracefully, for .0005 of a second.
I slam down on the deck landing on the knee, but rolling to my left shoulder to protect my head. (Instinct from training.)
In that fraction of a second....
My leg breaks, The femur, just above the knee, cleanly.
I HEAR the snap, in my head it's as loud as a fishing rod snapping with a trophy bass on the other end.
My right foot, still in the house, turns 90 degrees out of alignment, causing a long spiral fracture up the leg, from knee to hip and pieces break off.
(My surgeon calls the break 1 in 10,000)
As I fall fully out onto the deck I pull the foot out of the house and the door shuts. 270 pounds striking the deck cause the empty spa to HOP.
That gets Tina's attention and she turns and yells at me for falling, "You just couldn't stay in the house, could you?"
She sees I'm in pain and wants to turn me over and check to see if I'm hurt. I tell her not to touch me, the leg is broken...
How can you know that she asks. I heard it, felt it, and the foot is pointing in the wrong direction.


--- Here is the clean break just above the fake knee ---

To shorten the story, Short ambulance ride to the farmer's field. 15 minute Med Flight to the trauma center. The drive in the ambulance would have taken over an hour if we caught all the lights and didn't hit any traffic. Hour and a half minimum otherwise. I had a one month stay in the hospital.
A month at home of rest and then three months of PT. Six months .... From falling to walking. NO weight bearing at all for two months.


--- surgery took five hours give or take. In the xray you can see the zipper line of staples on the left side, the steel plate and steel screws, and the zip tie cables. I got lucky. The surgeon who did the repair was HEAD of ortho at the Medical College of Virginia and wouldn't let anyone else do the surgery. I had to wait FOUR days to get the repair done to get the blood thinners out of my system and have a cardiac stress test done... but it was worth it... top surgeons do top notch work.

As for the Ranger 500, we have been very happy with the 500. A few days ago, we drove it down into the lower pasture, which we quit maintaining about three years ago, allowing it to slowly return to it's natural state. The deer are loving this, and bed down there year round. We selected AWD mode and took a tour thru the three to four acres that used to be cleared, pushing over the tall grass and small cedars along the perimeter of the property line and the old interior fence line, fording the seasonal creek bed, and then looping back and climbing back up the path to the old horse barn.

This afternoon, I drove up to the Polaris dealer and picked up the mirrors and under seat storage bins that we ordered and added those, which brings us to five for accessories. (We had already added a roof, and front and rear windshields... in case of rain.) A very good buy it turns out, it has rained the last five days. So far so good, runs well, and I have been pleased with the fuel consumption. We don't blast around the property, but it does seem to do well on the gas.

where we are in South Dakota, they put a motorcycle tag on them and drive them on the highways .... for me seeing them took some getting used to

South Dakota... sweet.
I was searching the entire country for retirement property and found a perfect spot in SD... some 200 acres with a cabin and trout stream and the price was amazing. Then I started doing further research... omg... you guys are tough. The average temps for May that year... 25 degrees. Low was minus twenty. I think.... think it was in the black hills.

Beautiful views, trout fishing. But my arthritis would have killed me... lol.

my wife's home is in eastern SD .... its climate is really wonderful in the late spring, summer and early fall .... we are retired and spend the spring and fall at home in NC, 3 +/- summer months in SD, and 3 +/- winter months in Texas ....

Here is a look at OUR actual Ranger 500.

We have added the roof, windshield, rear window and the external mirrors. It's not like we need to see anyone coming up behind us, but "I" use the mirrors for backing into the old woodshed you see behind the Ranger there, which is where we park it. Turning fully to see behind me is painful these days, so the mirrors are a REAL help. I have them angled just for that purpose.

We are still pretty impressed with the Ranger and are looking forward to a lot of use. We might add the CANVAS doors for winter, just to keep the wind off.

very nice .... looking forward to your continued reports

Oh hey, sorry about the leg. Glad you have a way to get around the farm. Have often thought that would be a great vehicle to own.

Very good choice of transport for your needs, Marine. And I agree that the canvas doors will be a great add-on for wintertime...go for it.

Sometimes when I visit my son's-in-law place and shoot at his range, I take his Polaris out and ride the 1/2 of his 40 acres he maintains for the two ranges, large walking path around the perimeter and lake, and along the stream where there are a couple of deer blinds set up. The "back 20" he has let go naturally. I'm not certain what model he has, but looks very similar to this one. This moves around quite well, and not too hard to manage the quickness of the accelerator; but I actually prefer the ranger 500 model you have. I know I'd like the enclosure (fall/winter winds are quite chilling here), and especially having a seat with a back. The wide, smooth seat on his Polaris is comfortable, but you definitely need to "hold on," otherwise might end up with the 4-wheel heading south while I remain behind, climbing out of the lake! Seriously, they are great machines for outdoor/over-the-range use. Just don't have the cool view of horse's ears that you see in RR's photos when out for a ride.

Glad to see you two are taking special care of yourselves. Be safe.

We needed something to get us around the farm other than the trucks, and the state park nearby has several gators used by the Rangers on the trails, maintenance staff to move from job to job, and the rec staff as well. I told T a couple years ago we needed one, we just never made the commitment.

An ATV is cool and all, but doesn't really fit our needs. We wanted two passengers, the ability to haul gear or cargo, and the wider more stable wheelbase. Seventy mph wasn't on the list.. lol.

Nice looking machine. I have the canvas doors and I love them. I didn't love the price though - $800

Snake629 wrote:Nice looking machine. I have the canvas doors and I love them. I didn't love the price though - $800

What? I may just need to dress warm for the run to the mailbox, not planning on spending a lot of time in the Ranger in the winter unless the wife decides to add the snowplow... but she has a blade for the tractor. Although, when I wanted transport covers for the kayaks...

She made my idea a perfectly fitted reality... custom fitted cover for the Wilderness Systems Commander 120 / 140. Posted some pics on the kayak fishing forum and orders rolled in. We didn't even say we were selling them. $250 each plus shipping, they sold from FL all the way into Canada. Each hand cut, hand sewn, choice of colors. After two years, she sold the design to Wilderness Systems... tired of making them.

If I told her what I wanted for the Ranger... she could order the material and make that happen.

Looked up the prices, doors range in price from $899 for the basic fitted canvas doors with poly windows... to OMG! $2,700 for fancy fitted poly doors with electric roll down glass windows. It's a farm vehicle to putt around the farm. LOL.

I know it's a lot, but if you like to ride in the snow or rain they are worth it. We ride ours year round. I just ordered a windshield wiper. $500, ouch.

Snake629 wrote:I know it's a lot, but if you like to ride in the snow or rain they are worth it. We ride ours year round. I just ordered a windshield wiper. $500, ouch.

Welcome to the forum from CT. I look forward to seeing some photos of your adventures.