Just One of Those Days

We’ve all had one. You get up in the morning with all sorts of wonderful plans, and nothing turns out right. One thing leads to the next, and all those good intensions get brushed away by the day’s fallout. That kind of a day was life on the farm last Saturday.
The April snowstorm hadn’t helped, with greasy roads and slush. We had to rope off our thawing parking lot before we started having to pull folks out with the tractor. It’s mud season—we all know it’s coming…or at least most of us know it’s coming.
We were expecting a large delivery for Farmstead, but mud season also means road ban season, where large trucks can’t come down Co. HWY A or Moose Lake Road, let alone our little gravel Fullington Road. Feed arrives via pickup truck, and everything that goes into the dumpster must be bagged for the crew’s hand unloading into their smaller trucks. Typically for freight deliveries, we meet the driver on HWY 77, unload the delivery into our own vehicles, then hoof it back to the farm. That was the game plan for the day, but a perfect storm of events turned that plan upside down.
It should have been Friday. That was our delivery day, but the snowstorm pushed back the route, so events were already out of alignment. The call came early in the morning. “Now, the driver needs to know that we’re in road ban season right now,” I reminded the lady on the phone. “We need to meet him at an alternate location, and—”
She interrupted me, “I’m sure that everything will be just fine dear.”
“Can I please get a message to the driver?”
“It’s your usual driver, and I’m sure he has everything under control dear. He’ll see you Saturday.”
I wasn’t so sure everything was under control, and Kara tried several times to reach the trucking department, unsuccessfully. Meanwhile, our substitute driver was trying to figure out how to navigate the slew of detours between Cable and Hayward before heading towards the farm. It was around 11:30 am when I looked up and exclaimed to Kara in the kitchen, “Uh oh, the truck is in the driveway.”
Kara threw on her coat and rushed out the door, hoping to stop his progress. That was when we learned that our usual driver (who knew our road-ban season plan) was on vacation and we had a substitute. No message on our part had reached him about the situation, and he hadn’t seen the signs. Good thing the parking lot was roped off or he might still be there.
And it was Saturday, so there were folks shopping or having breakfast and folks coming for the afternoon needle felting class. We unloaded the order and tried to help him get moving, but he’d sunken into the soft gravel, and no amount of rocking would budge the tractor-trailer loose. He was stuck. Time to call the tow truck.
So, the driver waited at Farmstead, trying to reach clients at future stops, trying to unravel where the communication chain might have been hung up. He had even talked to our usual driver beforehand, who then later remembered, “Oh yeah, you’ve got to meet them at a different spot when there’s road bans…wait…that’s now isn’t it….”
Class time arrived and folks inched their way past the semi to park in our service entrance, navigating past the roped-off parking lot. “Welcome to the obstacle course today!” I chimed as the students made their way inside. “It’s a rather unusual day on the farm.”
The tow truck arrived at 4 pm, just as the Needle Felt a Spring Chick class was letting out. Kara called up to the Fiber Loft, “If you’re planning to leave soon, now is the time to go because the tow truck is here, and I don’t know how long he’ll block off the road.” We picked up class quickly so students could make it home before the next chapter of this saga unfolded.
So now on our little lane we had a stuck semi, a tow truck, cars leaving, others arriving, and a FedEx delivery. Unable to get any closer, the FedEx driver hand-carried the large parcel to the door before backing out the full length of the half-mile lane. As cars squeaked past the semi, one aimed a little far to the right and slid into the ditch, so the tow truck had to pull her out. In the process, the tow truck also got stuck but was able to get out again.
Then the crew focused on moving the semi, which had sunken into the soft road. But in order to pull on the semi, the tow truck had to be facing the other direction, so backwards down the long lane he went only to back his way in again. The first attempt resulted in the tow truck being pulled around, but with the second approach, the semi started to move.
“You’re going to have to back out of here,” Kara noted to the driver. But with only eight months on the job, his backing-up experience was limited. Nervously, he eased his way along, navigating the turns and hills. At 6:30 pm, the rig was finally back on Moose Lake Road and heading off. No thanks to the breakdown in communication from headquarters that could have prevented it, but at least we don’t have a permanent multi-axel lawn fixture. And yes, the tow company duly reported the incident. Events like these help illustrate the value of road bans in spring!
So, yup, it was just one of those days. Hello mud season, goodbye best laid plans. See you down on the farm sometime.