Yeah, I've been in enough sticky spots to have picked up a few tricks... with the clay we have, plywood never works very well - ends up becoming a projectile when the soil is as greasy as it was.
The distance I traveled into the ditch was traveled very slowly. The soil was too loose to stick the forks in and pry myself out. Each time I tried to maneuver a slightly different direction, a got a bit further down the hill.
I dug the machine out once by hand, added some 3/4" stone, but didn't work. By the time I was at the bottom, the skidder was stuck against a tree, so my opportunity to move was very limited without doing major damage to the tree.
So it got parked until Monday, when I could get a guy to help with truck and chain. 15 minutes later we were back in business.
