29/06/15

Not very busy today, it's both the time if year and the time of the month. The agricultural year is at it's quietest almost holding it's breath before the dizzying rush into harvest which is quickly followed by the start of planting again. All the livestock that gets turned out to grass is now turned out and the work load is that much less. Hence we are not in our usual mad rush. The day started with a meeting, necessary but not fun. Then Carlton store and a single drop. What would have been my third drop and collection were done by one of the blower drivers. I even managed to get loaded for tomorrow, see you then.

26/06/15

Today was an easy day and that wasn't only what our TC called it.  It really was easy, at least I think it was.  Kirkbymoorside store first and back in the yard and loaded again by ten twenty.  The second load was for Easingwold store.  Today is my final day as a Barry substitute, all good things must come to and end, I've enjoyed the change but I must admit that it takes longer when you aren't fully familiar with the area.  I estimate that yesterday's second load took about an hour and a half longer than it would if I knew the area as well as my normal area.  Lastly I had a collection from Masham, a very nice ride out.  The only trouble I had was the poor signs off the A1 othewise the day went very well.  I was back in the yard and clocked off by four.  I got home in time to complete cutting my grass before the rain.  See you Monday.

25/06/15

Thursday always used to be the day to be sent on silly missions and apparently it still is just the same.  For most of this week I have been a Barry substitute which means Barry is on holiday and I'm on his usual round.  They say change is as good as a rest and perhaps that's true today has been interesting, for want of a better description.  First load was a straight load to Easingwold store, easy enough and soon accomplished.  Back to the yard for my second load, very interesting!  Easingwold store again followed by seven drops to easingwold area.  So far as I could recall I knew only one of them but as it turned out I knew two but it didn't help much as I had forgotten that I knew the other one until I reached the village where the drop was. The first drop was down an overgrown drive, I'm surprised that we havent received a complaint about broken branches.

Well I got in here so I suppose should be able to get out, and I did, but I cracked my nearside mirror getting out.  If people are going to plant trees along a drive and then expect people to deliver they should have the sense to plant them further back.  Some people don't seem to realise that little trees become very large.  The branches will have thickened by next year and I won't be able to get in, the year after, if something isn't done, no one will be able to deliver with anything larger than a small van.   Either the trees will have to be cut down or the customer will have to collect the goods from the drive end and all becasue they didn't have the sense to realise trees grow.

The duck was nearly as stand offish as the cockerel the day before, it was wandering down the middle of the road at my penultimate drop.  But meeting me it took a wide detour avoiding me. I do like eating duck, perhaps it knows.

Yes the writing on the bags is correct, nearly two tonnes or reindeer pellets.  No they aren't pelleted reindeer they are pellets to feed reindeer.  Perhaps Santa is feeding them up in preparation for Christmas.  This was my last drop of the day.  I was supposed to collect from Masham but since I completed the last drop after five, no chance.  See you tomorrow.

24/06/15

Today didn't seem so bad when I started out. Easingwold store and three drops. So far so good. It didn't last. Easingwold store, easy enough, but then things got bad. I got a call from TC to say they had some drops to do from the store and their pickup was broken. Three more drops and my carefully planned route buffered. Then I checked my Huby drop to find it wasn't the conveniently close Huby. No it was a long haul, the day just got better. I was also loaded with some cattle licks with damaged lids, they leaked sticky brown water all over the body. It's not even my truck. Never mind I would be back in good time to clean it down. Five miles from base TC on the phone. Can you go to Dishforth and collect two tonnes of calcium. I had just enough driving time to make it. But no, Sutton Bank is shut, a truck either over or stuck. So now I'm sitting out my break at Dishforth, about five after I should have stopped and I'll be late back again. Still,what else would I be doing.  One the interesting side I have seen two buzzards and a red kite. See you tomorrow.

23/06/15

Met this cockeril near Louth but he was a bit stand. offish and wouldn't come any closer. His friend wasn't any better. Had a ride across the Number bridge twice, all in all a good ride out. See you tomorrow

22/06/15

The longest day is past and still no sign of summer. I don't like our version of global warming, it just doesn't work for me. I thought it should be warmer by now not colder. I was looking forward to spending my later years in a tropical paradise, but it seems not to be. I blame the government, yes it's all their fault! :-) But back to the job in hand, not a busy day Carlton store and area, but I don't see how North Newbald fits into Carlton area. But it's not mine to question why. All I do is  take what I'm told to where I'm told, what fun! Nothing particularly interesting about the day so I will say no more. See you tomorrow.

19/06/15

Only a short day today, things have quietened down, it's a time of year thing with agriculture.     But saying that I had a full load though only three drops.  Carlton store and two farm drops followed by a collection from Friendship Estates.  All went well and I was back in the yard with no more to do than have my lunch break,  unload and wash my truck off.  The most amusing item of the day occurred on the A64 on my way back to base.  I was overtaken by several motor bikes, this isn't unusual but the third bike had a life size unclothed blow up woman mounted in the pillion position.  Not only that but from the way her hands were waving about I think she wanted to get off.  I wonder if he realised that he could blow her up when he reached his destination ;-) Sorry I wasn't in a position to take any pictures.
See you Monday, have a good weekend.

17/06/15

First job of the day was a trip to Hull with the seed dresser.  The powers that be have finally decided to get the generator set serviced in the hope of correcting the non starting problem.  The interesting part of the trip was that 'the powers that be' had forgotten the name of and address of the company whose premises I was to drive to.  Problem one for the day, luckily I had been there before, once, about a year ago, hence I had a vague idea of where I was going.  A search of the internet via google found the correct company with address. I find it helps a driver to know where he is going, funnily enough most of my fellow drivers agree, but the office doesn't seem to think a mere detail like a delivery address is of any importance.  They place a greater emphasis on messages like "leave goods behind Fred's gate" and seem to think this is enough.  I truly have seen instructions like this, though the name wasn't Fred.  But all this is beside the point, I found said generator company and the generator set received said service.  The only problem with the whole thing was that the engineer didn't actually find what was causing the problem!  I hate intermittent faults, they never show when you want them to.  I was back at base before lunch and was given a ticket to take a load of scrap pallets to a recycling company out in the wilds near Ebberstone.

It was a nice ride out, with spectacular views of the North Yorkshire countryside for the final few miles.  See you tomorrow.

16/06/15

A hot and muggy day today.  I don't have air con so I had the windows open most of the day.  I didn't go to Carlton store today but I was delivering into the area.  The third delivery was to a farm with a Thorne address and, true enough, it is in the Thorne area but can only be accessed via Fishlake with a vehicle larger than a van.  There is a very irritating bridge with a two and a half tonne weight limit meaning anything larger than a small van has to go round.  The trip round is interesting, yes that's the term, interesting.  Anyway I had to use the interesting rout to get to a place which, if the bridge was upto standard, I could get to in quarter of the time.  But having said that I enjoy the ride to Fishlake, though it does have to be driven with care.  After two more drops I had a collection of wild bird feed.  all went well and I was back in the yard by four, giving me time to unload.  See you tomorrow.

15/06/15

Only three drops today but then a long run to Wragby in Lincolnshire for eight tonnes of grass meal.  Grass meal is strange stuff to load, the pallets fit on the truck but the bags always overhang the pallets leaving a bulge in the sheets on both sides.  Doesn't look good if Mr VOSA is on the prowl, not that this anything wrong with the loading it just looks as if there is.  I was hoping to come back over the Humber bridge but the road I would have used has a railway bridge which has had a weight limit of seven and a half tonnes imposed on it.  Perhaps it is crumbling onto the railway track but I can't use it so I had to go round.  Nearly a two and a half hour ride back to base and I ran out of driving time on the way back and had to have a three quarter hour break hence I was late.  See you tomorrow.

12/06/15

The outward load was only small, approximately three tonnes, most of which was for Carlton store.  Of the remainder one tonne was for a customer at Hotham and the rest was for my Mother.  At least this meant that I got another coffee and a piece of cake, lemon drizzle cake no less.  Mother may be well over seventy but she still makes an exceptional lemon drizzle cake.  I didn't stay long as my next pleasure was the collection of a load of fert from Goole docks, not good, not good at all.  We haven't been collecting from Goole this year thank goodness.  Last year I had several waits of over two hours for no reason that I could discern other than they weren't organised.  I have to admit that this time there were improvements, they had painted lanes for queueing for the weigh bridge, so instead of weighing off facing both directions you go round the yard and back over the weigh in the same direction, much better.  There was only one in front of me so I didn't have to wait much over a half hour.  For the sake of comparison if I had been on the dock at Terra in Middlesbrough with three trucks in front of me I would have had a wait of about the same length time. But I got weighed out and on my way, I even managed to get the woman on the weigh bridge to smile without breaking my leg.  My drop was East of Osmotherley, a very interesting place to drive to, no wonder the instructions said no artic, a small van would be more appropriate.  Its not that I mind driving these roads its rather that other road users are shocked to meet anything larger than a car round the next blind bend.  You can tell by the look of panic on the faces of oncoming car drivers.  My pictures don't do justice to either the beauty or the size of  the road.  All in all a fun drive in and out.

See you Monday.

11/06/15

A busy day. Finally caught up with everything. Weather warm and sunny and all well with the world. I still haven't heard about the job I applied for so things aren't looking good. Suppose I'll have to keep going a little longer. I did come across a very narrow gate way and had a choice of scraping my left or right mirror. I chose the right as I could fold it in and out from! In and out with both gate posts intact! :-)
See you tomorrow

10/06/15

Neither a good or bad day, unremarkable. See you tomorrow.

09/06/15

Today has been a much better day, not only have I delivered everything that I had tickets for I have also managed to complete yesterdays collection.  That only leaves me with the two deliveries that I couldn't complete yesterday and then I'm caught up.  Today started with a trip to the Whitby store, you couldn't with for a better run at that time in the morning on a clear day, beautiful.  I was even given a cup of tea when I got there, what more could a driver want.  The second load should have been four drops but we didn't have the fencing post which made up the largest part of the drop so I didn't load any of it.  Only three drops and a collection of some steel work that was delivered incorrectly.  All went well though I nearly delivered some feed to the wrong farm.  At least with bagged feed I can put back on the truck.  Once all that was done I had a run to Penistone to collect seven pallets of horse feed.  Not a particularly scenic run but it was still a good day and all went well.  I was back in the yard by a quarter to six.  See you tomorrow.

08/06/15

What an irritating day.  I had to leave two deliveries and one collection undone, and all through no fault of mine.  I hate ending the day like that. Roll on tomorrow, see you then.

05/06/15

Friday the fifth of June, I'm superstitious about the fifth but so far as I know nothing went wrong.  But there again I may be speaking too soon, I might of missed seeing a speed camera van or something even worse.  But for now I will accept that all was as I suspected and nothing went wrong.  That is nothing apart from having to go to Helmsley store first followed by my usual run of Carlton store and  area.  I knew, as soon as I saw the tickets for my second load, that it was going to be a late finish and I wasn't disappointed.  I predicted half past six and I think I finished just before that, but not by much.  Yes I know that isn't late but consider this, I had started at six pm and I like to finish by five in Friday  I have shopping to do, I know how to have a good time!  But despite my fears Friday the fifth passed and so far as I know I survived relatively unscathed.  I have no other comments on the day and no pictures, good or bad.  Have a good weekend, see you on Monday.

04/06/15

In the meeting room at the top of the offices attending a CPC course. No pictures, no fun. Couldn't work in an office. Back to normal tomorrow, see you then.

03/06/15

Nothing out of the ordinary today, Carlton store and area, only six drops in all.  Oh that is except for a custommer expecting me to get my truck down here.  I could have got down, no problem, but I would have removed a lot of branches in the process.  It wouldn't have done my mirrors any good either.  Needless to say I didn't go, the customer came up the drive with a dumper.

Look what I met on my travels.  What a beastie.

CPC course tomorrow, now that really will be fun.  See you tomorrow.

02/06/15

Another day and another jigsaw load but once again it all went on, just.  The drops were all easy enough and all in a fairly tight area.  I left the last drop until after I had collected fourteen six hundred kilo bags of fertilizer from Howden Dyke.  Leaving the last drop was mostly due to the continuing closure of a small but significant part of the A63, Selby bypass.  The drops went well, the collection nearly so and the final drop went well.  The fertilizer was to go to Farndale, now that if fun and I'm not being entirely sarcastic.  Just look at the road I was driving, I was brushing the vegetation on both sides and at one point had to stop for a suicidal chicken which didn't think I had any right to the road and refused to move.  To make life more fun the road is a dead end.

The road was fun but just look at the view, and my pictures don't do the countryside justice it is simply beautiful.

See you tomorrow.

01-06-15

Flaming June, Ha! Flaming wet that's what the first of June has been.  But at least it's not as bad as the first of June in 1975, snow, yes snow stopped cricket.  But today has been bad enough.  I think we are experiencing global wetting not global warming.  But on the more serious side the work for the day wasn't bad, long, but not bad.  I got a good start loading, the load was a bit of a pig but it all went on.  The only hitch was that I had a long run round and then a collection.  Everything went well and i was just in time for the collection.  I rang first to check the latest loading time, which was half past four.  I made it for four twenty five.  I made it back to base for half past six, just over a twelve hour day.  The things I do for fun.  See you tomorrow.