Leo Muldoon has passed

May he #RIP.

Leo got me out of all sorts of scrapes including one wintry day he had his almost brand-new tractor clearing one of our ponds so my kids could skate that Xmas. I watched as he elegantly swept back and forth rather majestically moving snow to uncover pristine ice beneath.

However, I noticed that he had set up a pressure wave in the ice caused by his front tires, the weight of the tractor and the momentum (mass x velocity) of this combination meaning that the ice could crack at any moment. Yelling and running towards Leo, waving my arms and making throat cutting gestures, he got the message to skedaddle out of there. He gunned it for the shore but alas didn’t make it. He and his tractor broke through the ice and sank faster than a U-Boat.

Leo was a big guy, but he manoeuvred himself out of rapidly sinking machine canted 45 degrees to the horizon in no time and threatening to turtle and take him with it. Man, he was quick. I reached out and helped him regain the shore, half soaked with freezing water. I sent him home immediately with instructions to keep warm and drink some Rye, which he did.

Next, I called Bill Karson to IMMEDIATELY send out heavy lift equipment—if we didn’t get Leo’s $250,000 tractor out of that pond, it would freeze overnight, burying the vehicle til Spring and making it an artifact not a piece of active farm equipment. We raised the U-Boat and fixed it up for Leo, so he was back in business less than two weeks later.

He smiled and laughed about it. He lived a charmed life and was charming and kind. That was the type of person he was.

More at, https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/obituary-dunrobin-farmer-leo-muldoon-became-the-face-of-the-2018-tornado.

Prof Bruce