1 year

Today marks a year since moving here. Shipping our 6th chicken cycle happened to fall on the same day and, yes, it certainly was memorable. I had concerns about the driveway being too soft for the trucks to drive on and had a couple loads of gravel hauled. The gravel truck got stuck but my neighbour arrived shortly after and was able to pull him out. My neighbour spread it around with his one tractor while I moved gravel around in the load out area. We thought we'd have the chicken trucks come in from the south instead of the north this time as the north driveway has remained solid despite all the snow melting and then rain. The only drawback is that the narrowness at the approach isn't very forgiving to big trucks trying to turn in or out. The first truck driver thought he be able to head out the south way ok if he got moving fast enough. Both sides of the road being soft and having a 54' trailer was not a good combination and he ended up coming a little too far to the right and the back of the truck sunk down and he gave stuck a new definition. I called my neighbour around 12:15 AM and he came with his Versatile. The trucker brought a tow strap with him since sometimes one truck will help pull another one around the yard in these muddy spring conditions. My neighbour tried to use it with his tractor but then moved to his longer strap. He pulled him a couple feet ahead and then attempted to pull him out by lunging ahead but not a whole more progress was made. I believe at this time the tow strap bust apart rending it useless. In the meantime the front tires on the chicken truck were miring down and the same thing was starting to happen with the Versatile.

Plan B was to remove the chicken crates to lighten the load with the forklift which is used for loading and unloading. However, considering the angle of the truck it wasn't even possible to remove the back crates. And, now with the truck being moved a little further ahead, it was in the absolute worst spot for the forklift to try and remove the chickens from the front of the truck. The forklift operator tried to drive to the front of the truck and sunk right down on the side. So, my neighbour unhooked his tractor and came and pulled him out. My neighbour's nephew arrived with their other tractor but with the clutch almost gone in it, it didn't end up being used.

Plan C arrived with the discussion to call a tow truck with a winch from Yorkton which is over an hour away but who they call when they run into impossible stuck situations.

Plan D (at which time I was hoping we weren't going to travel through the whole alphabet trying to find a solution) was thankfully the final attempt and successful solution to our problem. My neighbour called another neighbour who is a county councilor and farmer in the area and has a JD tracks tractor. He arrived around 2 AM and pulled the truck out almost effortlessly. And, I finally breathed a sigh of relief that the truck remained upright and intact the whole time.

So, that was enough excitement for today. Another day, another year, another challenge. What can I say? The worst didn't happen, the weather cooperated, I have neighbours that will get up in the wee hours in the morning to come help simply because it is the neighbourly thing to do, and the rest of the trucks made it out the north driveway with no problems.

What can you say about where you live?? Right now I think my area ranks at the top. :D

You can see the tracks on the left where the forklift got stuck and where the truck got stuck on the right.

More truck marks due to the soft ground and heavy trucks but at least they didn't get stuck driving through.