What is the strangest request for service you ever got a call for?

[Groundman One]

No I just said they could give something to an animal charity if they wished.

Beauty!

 

[JR Hill]

I had a neighbor ask if I would dig a new hole for his outhouse. I said "Sure, no problem" before I had scoped where it was located. I made sure to let him know that the dip and curl of the 410j backhoe was going to be at least 4 1/2' so he was going to make up different framing for the 4' footprint of the outhouse base. But when I got there with the hoe I realized the trail to the outhouse was barely 8' wide with mature oaks and ash on the uphill side and a 15' steep drop off into the creek on the other. No other way around. I was having nightmare daydreams of the path caving into the creek bottom with the 20k# rig at the bottom. I'm not sure how the machine could be recovered.

I swung the hoe as far as I could to the uphill side and got to the spot, strapped the outhouse to the bucket and set it aside. All good. I started digging out the new pit and dropping the fill into the old pit. I was hitting something. Trying not to make the hole bigger was impossible for what was: a 20"+ diameter boulder and it sure the heck wasn't basalt. And of course it wasn't in the middle. In the end it was a 6'+ square hole 5' deep. When I set the outhouse on the expanded frame it broke one of the green treated 6x6s from Home Depot. He was supposed to use RR ties....

I got the hoe out and am still obviously alive. A favor for a neighbor can be one of the biggest mistakes.