The Big Delivery

November 5, 2023

Howdy folks,

Well, it's been a better week than last week, what with losing Forest and all.  We keep soldiering on, though, taking care of the rest of the critters.  That's a big enough job in and of itself.  The boss is doing better, having been through this up and down with pets many, many times, just like us.  In fact, with another twenty years on us, she's been through it a lot more.  In our little pet cemetery here on the ranch, by far most of the graves belong to her animals from over the years.  Ours have been a much more recent addition.  So, just like any other week something big happened and needed to be dealt with.  In this case, we were getting our delivery of wrapped alfalfa forage from Texas.  I had talked the boss into getting a whole tractor trailer load of it and was confident that I would find a way to get it all put away.  A 50# bale of this stuff is currently about 2/3 the cost of a regular, square bale of hay, so we decided to stock up.  I hadn't heard much about it since then and have been busy taking care of all of the other sticks in the fire that I have.  Suddenly, in a very matter-of-fact way, the boss let me know on a Wednesday afternoon that the load was coming in the morning.  Yikes!  Not completely a code red, but near enough.  First and foremost, I didn't know how big this truck was that was coming and if it would be able to make it back to our ranch from the hardtop.  Best case, I could get him all the way up to the barn, by the houses.  Next-best scenario, I could get him to a big turnaround on the old driveway where we have a gravel pile.  Worst case, I'd have to unload him out on the Frontage Road and bring everything in one pallet at a time.  28 times over!  So, I gave the guy, James, a call and talked with him for fifteen minutes or so.  He told me about the facility where he picked the forage up at, how far away he was, how the drive had been, where he had to be the day after, etc.  Then, I asked him just how big his rig was and what my particular concerns were.  So, we hung up and I went back to getting everything ready for the next morning.  I charged up the backhoe's battery, checked on the tractor and moved a final few things out of the barn so that I would be able to start putting loose bales in immediately.  These were 1500# pallets and the backhoe could pick them up off of the truck just fine and set them on the ground.  The tricky part was to pick them back up with the backhoe(trying to see through the front loader to handmade forks that just dangle down below) to move them from the old driveway, via the new one, to the barns.  From there, I take over with the smaller tractor to get them placed in their final spot.

So, James, the trucker, texted me a picture of his truck right after dark and I thought, 'Dear Lord, how are we ever going to get that truck back into the ranch!'  Still, I figured we could come up with something and I told him to let me know when he was getting close to our nearest interstate exit in the morning and that I'd meet him there and drive him in.  I hopped up into the cab once he got there and asked if he wanted to hop into my car to do a little scouting first.   'I'm not worried about it,' was his reply.  With a seriously mischievous grin on his face, I must add.  So, we headed back to the ranch with me leading the way and got him turned off onto the ranch road and through the gate.  It winds a bit, with steep culverts on each side, and then we're the first turnoff.  Once I saw the turn and the truck together I figured I'd be unloading him right there on the spot and gumming up the road for the rest of the ranches.  I turned off and waited to see what he would do and he just very slowly coasted ahead past the turnoff and kept drifting to the other side of the road.  Then, he sat for a few minutes observing everything.  Finally, he started lurching forward again and then just made a sharp turn to the left and drove straight off of the road through the chollas and junipers.  At this point, I saw what he was doing and got ready to roll as he made a huge cloverleaf turn, opposite of our turnoff, only to come back around at it straight on.  That problem was solved.  I knew he'd never get up to the barns, so we just headed up to the gravel pile and I got him situated.  While he was untarping everything, I drove my car back to the house to park it and jump in the backhoe to head back out to the truck.  Thirty minutes later I was unloading the first of the pallets.  Ninety minutes later we were all done and just chit-chatting a bit before he had to head back east to Oklahoma, before then heading back north to home sweet home in Wisconsin.  Just another week on the ranch!

So, here is a batch of pictures from this week.  First up, a shot of Erin enjoying an early morning dip at the hot springs.  Then, an artistic rendition of James getting his tarps in order.  Another artistic rendition, then, of me catching my breath a few days later after moving bales of hay around in the barn all day.  Next, charging up the backhoe the night before.  Then, the shot that James sent me of his truck...i.e., the moment I knew that the next day was going to be very interesting.  Next, a series of ten shots from the delivery: the buggy waiting at our turnoff; three shots from the backhoe while unloading; James' truck with Starvation Peak in the distance; two shots of me moving the pallets back to the barns; then, two shots of all 28 pallets lined up next to the barns; and, finally, the barn all put back together again with 1250 bales of hay in it, which is a record!  And, last, but not least, a shot from a few weeks ago of the air compressor hooked up to the irrigation system while I was winterizing it...an action shot, if you will.

That's it for this time!