Daniel is a good son. His mother, Carla, and I may be biased, but he’s a smart young man. Bill and Georgia Jones, Battleground, think so, too; their daughter, Katie, married him.

Daniel has a penchant for technology. That’s good — to a point.

Daniel and Katie were visiting one Saturday afternoon. They had come to work sheep, but Daniel came around to the patio carrying a helicopter-style UAV, with a big grin on his face. Bill had found the unmanned aerial vehicle on sale. By the price tag, it could have been a toy, but it even had a small camera in its belly.

Living in town, Daniel hadn’t flown it yet.

Doomed flight

UP, UP AND CAUGHT: What goes up will come down — unless it's a drone that gets caught in a very tall tree.

I could tell no work would happen until he tried out his new toy. So — “Go fly your drone," I said. “How high will it go?”

“Probably 100 feet,” Daniel answered.

He launched it, and it nearly disappeared into the noon sky.

“Whoa, that’s more than 100 feet,” I said.

“Yeah, that’s cool,” Daniel said.

Katie, as flight manager, added, “Daniel, you better get it back to earth.”

There was just one problem. A 3-acre homestead with more than 60 trees isn’t the best place to land a drone.  

“Uh oh,” we heard Daniel say.

“It’s caught in the tree!” Katie exclaimed.

Without a clear line of sight, I figured, OK, it’s 15 or 20 feet up, no big deal. But no, it was near the top of a 50-foot maple, firmly lodged among the branches.

“Well, have fun,” I said. “I’m going to the barn.”

Their first attempt? Throwing a soccer ball up to knock the UAV loose. Daniel was a high school quarterback, but he threw horizontally, not vertically. Time after time, the ball never reached the drone. The ball even got stuck once!

Bill Field, quit reading now!

“Dad, can you bring the farm pickup over?” Daniel shouted. I knew the rest of this story wouldn’t be suitable reading for Purdue University’s Bill Field, the Extension farm safety legend. I was right!

I pulled Old Red under the tree. Daniel climbed in and fired the ball. No luck. Next thing I knew, we were putting a 16-foot aluminum stepladder in the truck bed. Daniel climbed up and threw again. Still no luck!

Daniel disappeared and came back with a long pole. Once a handle for a tree trimmer, it’s now used to lift Christmas lights into trees. He found a broom, secured it to the pole with duct tape, and then fastened a dowel rod on the end. It looked like either a lightning rod or a unicorn’s horn — probably the latter!

Daniel climbed up. Katie and I each held onto a corner of the ladder in the truck bed. Katie had a better view. She got excited. The drone moved. Finally, it tumbled down.

Everyone survived. We worked the sheep. I went on to other things. That night I related the tale to Carla. Daniel and Katie had sheepish grins.

“What?” I asked, puzzled.

“Ah, we flew it again,” Daniel said.

“And?”

“It got stuck again.”

“In the same tree?” I asked.

Silence meant yes.

“Where is it now?” I asked.

“Oh, we got it down,” Katie answered.  "It was only 20 feet up this time."

Really? Boys and girls and their toys, what fun!