What happened to making a living trucking?

It used to be that a person could make a decent living trucking, what the hell happened? It has gotten to the point that you can't even put food on the table now , if you can afford the table to begin with. This is getting pretty sickening and i don't see it getting any better anytime soon.

Another Wonderful Monday

After having 3/4 of last week off and a wet 4th of July weekend we got word we could go back to work this morning. I had a feeling it was going to turn out to be a headache but didn't know to what extent. First off after leaving my house at 2:45 a.m. I made my way to the truck and then over to the job.I arrived at the road at 5:30 and made contact with the crane operator who was full of encouragement when he said get it really rolling and don't back out of it till you see me.Swinging the corner the road was covered in 2 inches of slimy muck,with all the wheel locks in but 1 I slipped and spun up the hill till i could see the boom in the air." That wasn't as bad as I thought", I told him as I topped the last part of the hill. "Wait till you get down here by me it gets alot worse" he laughed.Great i thought and as i got down where he was the road got softer and softer. I stopped by him and let him get half of my front tier on so I would have some weight on my drive tires for traction,slowly i made my way down to the turn around. After a few trys i finally got my self turned around and dug my way back up to the crane. After finishing off the load I tried to get started out but there was no way that truck was going to move. We ended up getting a skidder and pushing against the wood on my trailer to give me a push till i could go under my own power. When they got me to the top of the hill the road behind me was trashed. After strapping my load i headed to Bucksport with the load,but just before i made the half way point i met another truck that apparently was coming back from there. He asked me where i was headed and then informed me that the mill wasn't taking any treelength wood deliveries till Tuesday so i might want to find out what to do with it. I called the boss and he asked what the condition of the road was,when i told him it was a mess he told me to take the load home and take it down in the morning because he didn't want us on the road so it might dry out some.So here we go again playing the wait and see what happens game.What a wonderful Monday.

Well this Week They Dropped the Bomb

This week started off like last week in Shirley RAIN,and a lot of it. It is getting kind of sickening Monday hauled 2 loads but wasn't much because where the wood is put up is dam near impossible to get to because of the rain. So tuesday morning 2 of us came in and grabbed last loads on the main road with hopes that when we came back we would be going to try to get some of the other wood. Of course this was the day the forester decided to pay a visit to see how things were shaping up. Before i could make it back for my second load he decided we needed to leave the job to dry out so i got the call to go home and my favorite saying" I'll call ya when they will let us back in.Hmm that is looking like next monday now that work so very well for bill that come due wether or not your working.

Cables versus Straps

I have been hauling wood for years and up until a few years ago i had only ever used straps.They work good but come the winter time they are a pain,because they will freeze to your load and are sometimes hard to free up. They are also harder to roll up in the winter time because of being stiff. Cables on the other hand will not freeze to your load and since they are usually attached to your trailer already they can be wrapped up in a figure 8 pattern and your done. I have found they cables last alot longer than the straps too. I generally only get about 3 months out of straps before they start to fray then break. Maybe in flatbed conditions straps might last longer but as far as wood goes i feel the cables are the answer. Straps hold fairly tight but they will allow wood to slide out on occation,where as cables will literally cut into the wood and bind in solidly in place. People like both but i perfer the cables over the straps anytime,just watch for the wires sticking out sometimes those can hurt lol.

Will The Rain Ever Stop HA HA!

The past week seems like all it has done is rain. For a while the weatherman said we needed some rain because it was getting dry but this is ridiculous! They said on the news the other night we had received something like 5 and a half inches of rain in like 10 days. Now the ground has soaked up all the water it can handle and pools of water are everywhere.This causes problems with work because the foresters are more likely to shut us off from hauling because we are beating up the road so bad and the cutting and yarding in the woods are effected greatly also.So far we have had 1 good day in 2 weeks but not much drying went on in that short of time. Oh well we'll just have to wait and see what next week brings, the predictions are rain half the week but what can you do.

Shirley Maine 3 Miles Instead of 35

Well this week brought a little change they moved us from township 35 over to Shirley which is next door to Greenville. The job has only 3 miles of off road to travel but the ground is very wet there and it rained almost daily this week which made the hauling shutdown on Thursday instead of Friday, next week having only a 4 day week also due to the Fourth of July is not helping the paychecks much. The truck road there has alot of loam mixed in the gravel so the more it rained the more slimy the road got, and with the short steep hills it made more of a challenge of getting up and then coming down plus turning onto the main truck road. One ruck came down the hill a little too fast and failed to make the turn,causing the crane to have to come out and almost fully unloading the truck before he could pull it back into the road. There is alot more wildlife in this area we have seen Moose, Deer,Coyotes,And a ton of Rabbits, Ruffed Grouse and Hawks. The area is nice and has alot of beautiful scenery hills, lakes, ponds, and not many houses. All in all it is a pleasant change from the studmill road.

Week 2 at T 35 MD

Week 2 went pretty smooth for a change other than picking up a few more nails in the tires but no major problems. There seem to be alot of turkeys in the area i see anywheres from 3 to 15 a trip.There is now a family of ducks living in one of the brooks in the area that runs through the Sunkhaze Meadows refuge , I see them go acrossed the road as i neared one of the brooks. Inspection time came so that took a little time up trying to get into the garage so that could be taken care of, But all in all not much happened exciting or otherwise.