My son, now 15 and I caught a hatch-ling painted turtle near lake Ontario 2 years ago. We've kept in a tank for all this time in his bedroom. Unlike our Red Eared Slider that is now huge, the Painted never got tame and recently has become an escape artist. Somehow this thing is able to climb out of its tank. We decided it was time to return it to the wild.

Painted Turtles are quite common here, so we decided to release it in a pond near our house. This is an undeveloped town park. Last year I could drive in with no issues. This year the weather brought down a small tree, and budget cuts prevented the town from mowing the grass. The tree was lost in the tall grass.

I drove in and over the small tree and got stuck. The ground was soggy and the front wheel dug in about 6" and there was no getting out. Jake turned the turtle loose and we walked back home and got a few yellow pine planks. I wanted to teach him that you don't always need to call a tow truck. Besides, those guys always laugh at you and I couldn't see spending the money when all I wanted to do was set a stupid turtle free.

Most modern cars can only be jacked at certain points. The point I needed to get the front tire out was too low to get the jack under. We jacked the back up, pulled out the tree and used it and a couple of the planks to hold the car up a bit. Now the front end was out far enough that we could move a plank and the jack to the front jacking point. We got the tire out of the hole, filled the hole with sticks, and put a couple of planks under the wheel. We then put planks behind the wheels, lowered the car off the jack, and backed out.

We actually had a good time. These father-son bonding times are few and far apart. Won't have many left before he's on his own. Time to enjoy them while I can.