Day saved for delivery truck driver

Earlier this week we got a call from the shipping company that our Mongolian yurt was ready for delivery to the farm. The yurt is from tipis.es and an import from Mongolia.

It had been raining for the last few days on and off. The ground in front of the farm buildings was covered in mud and regular vehicles would not have been able to drive on it.

The week before a delivery truck for wood was parked in the grassy area were we unloaded the shipment. After two days of no rain and sunshine I told the driver of the truck with the yurt to also park in the area where the other guy did so successfully when it was still raining. Well… This time the truck sunk in and the driver got pretty uncomfortable with the situation when he called his boss on the phone.

We did try to dug the tires out and put some planks in to give the tires something to hold on. Unfortunately the rear tires of the truck were pretty much out of grip and so nothing really helped. I then called the neighbor who has a tractor and asked for help. After thirty minutes he showed up and were able to pull the truck out.

Now that we had a tractor with a hydraulic arm and forks on it it became easy to unload the crate with the yurt. The truck and the loading equipment is made for situations where there is a loading dock and even pathways like the ones in a warehouse - not for delivery to a farm over dirt roads. But we managed to get the yurt out safely.

A tractor is such a wonderful tool on a farm. To get one is high on our list of things to acquire. The neighbor uses the forks to move around bales of straw for his cows and horses. We may go for a used backhoe instead as we have a lot of construction projects in mind and based on this couple’s experience a backhoe is also a pretty good tool for moving around wood logs and other stuff.

The muddy area where the pigs were roaming was no obstacle for the tractor with the big tires.

I’ve been moving the 4,50 m long wood boards (5 cm x 15 cm) by hand. Their weight is heavy and my body only allows two at a time on the shoulder. It worked but I would probably have had to run back and forth 50 times or so. With the tractor it was a job for a few minutes including tidying up the stack at the destination.

In the country side a good relationship with the neighbors is important and great if everyone has something to share and contribute to the common effort of working the land.

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21 Jan 2018

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