28/07/15

This is definitely not North Yorkshire. It's hotter and drier. We're enjoying it though.

27/07/15

The driver is on holiday, a week in Madeira. Great! :-) What a happy driver. The landing was exciting, strong cross winds and a short runway. The passenger across the isle from me crossed himself when we hit some turbulence coming in to the runway. He was gripping his wife's hand very firmly as we landed. Gives one so much confidence. See you tomorrow, off perhaps not.

27/07/15

No more work for two weeks.  No, I'll correct that, no more work at my full time work for two weeks.  Anyone who knows my wife will realise that I won't get away with no work for two weeks I will be working just as hard at home for at least one of those weeks.  We are going to Madeira for the first week, should be fun.

23/07/15

Back to work today.  Only two days left before I have two weeks holiday, one week away in Madeira and one week at home decorating etc, but I'll be working with my wife, which I enjoy.  Back to today, There wasn't anything outstanding or problematic about today, a long day but that's not unusual.  My deliveries were Carlton store and area, all deliveries I know and have delivered to before.  Deliveries done and a collection from Penistone, again all went well and I was back in the yard by just after five.  Sorry so far as I can remember there was nothing interesting about today making for a very boring blog post.  Perhaps tomorrow will be more interesting, see you then.

22/07/15

A day off today with my wife at Driffield show.  We haven't been for around five years as my wife is usually still working, but this year the schools in this area broke up a week early.  The day wasn't hot and there was a light amount of cloud, it all made for a good show day.  We had a good day, we met several acquaintances who we hadn't seen for some time.  The show is now around twice as large as it was the last time we were there so it took us nearly half a day to orientate ourselves.  There was nothing earth shattering about the day, just an enjoyable day.  See you tomorrow.

21/07/15

I have mints and my radio is working, all set for a better day.  The load wasn't big only about five tonnes for six drops.  Intermingled with a collection of fert from Howden Dyke, some of which was for delivery to a little village near Leeds.  I had a long run round but all was achieved, though I had a late finish, half past seven.  On the way back from the Leeds drop I saw three red kites over a field of newly mown grass, what a sight.  I'm not at work tomorrow, my wife and I are going to Driffield show.  We haven't been for several years as my wife is a teacher and usually hasn't broken up for the summer.  But this year it's all come together so we're going.  Might see you tomorrow.

20/07/15

Monday again, I'm sure someone has managed to get more Mondays than the required number in every week, they come round very quickly.  Well my Monday started well, I was loaded in descent time and the work wasn't too onerous.  I got my loading tickets confirmed and all was well.  As is my normal practice I placed my mobile phone in its holder took my extra strong mints out of my bag and put them in their own trayand switched the radio on then it all went wrong.  I reached for a mint, I like a mint when I set off, it clears the lingering taste of coffee.  My mints had gone and haven't been found since.  After a hasty search I gave up and turned the radio up, nothing; things just got better.  The mechanical geniuses had been fitting a new starter motor and had disconnected the battery thereby decoding the radio.  Bugger, if I wanted music I'd have to sing and I don't even inflict my singing on myself, never mind other innocent members of the public.  I have a truly awful singing voice, and that's no exaggeration.  So no mints, no radio and its Monday morning, bad, very bad but it could be worse, I think.  But the rest of the day went well enough until I reached Howden Dyke for my collection, though I had my paperwork for the collection no one had thought to arrange the collection with the vendor of the goods.  I rant our TC and was told someone would get back to me with a release number for the collection.  Three quarters of an hour later I'd had my break and heard nothing, I called our TC again, I think he'd forgotten me, hurtful isn't it, but eventually I was told to leave it and go back to Carlton store and collect the waste and pallets from there.  The highways agency has seen fit to close a significant bridge for the next six months, I know it's falling into the river but really, I need that bridge.  Just to make things even more interesting they decided to renew the tar and chippings through Carlton on the same day.  Now that's planning for you.  But all in all it wasn't really a bad day.  I bought some more mints at the shop in Carlton, enough for the next two weeks and when i got back to base I was informed that the code for the radio was probably written in the front of the instruction book for my truck.  It was and the code has been re entered things are set for a better day tomorrow.  See you then.

16/07/15

Only one delivery today and a small one at that but that doesn't make for an easy day.  I had a collection from Howdendyke of ten tonnes of fert to go up to Kettleness.  Lovely views but not the best place in the world to get to. It didn't seem much of a day but the work took me all day.  I have some good pictures but they haven't uploaded yet so I'll add them when they do.  See you tomorrow.

17/07/15

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary thirty three years and still counting, hasn't she done well putting up with me.  But back to work.  Today started well, I was loaded the night before and my first load was a store load to Kirkbymoorside, no problem.  Or at least that's what I thought.  I even went in a half hour later than normal, my tickets were confirmed and I only had a drive of about seven miles, easy.  No not a bit of it, my truck wouldn't start, great.  When our mechanical geniuses arrived it still wouldn't start, not even for them.  For some reason the starter motor had decided to pack up.  At least it happened in the yard first thing in the morning rather than out at my final drop.  Even when they found the problem it didn't help me we had to transfer the load to another truck so I had a different truck for the day.  But apart from that the day went well My second load was for my usual area but not Carlton store followed by a collection from Walden  Stubbs.  I only just made it before they closed.  See you Monday.

14./07/15

Today didn't demand as early a start as usual, I got a quarter hour lie in and was at work by six fifteen, yes!  The first load was all to go to Helmsley store so I had time to fuel my truck, fill up the add blue and fill the screen wash. I was at the store and had the gate open before the store manager arrived, but only just.  The second load was for Carlton store, two farm drops and one house drop.  All went well I even found someone with a loader at the house drop.  Well I've got to have some luck occasionally.  Lastly I had a collection from a small village near Leeds, again everything went well and I was back in the yard by a quarter to five, I didn't get tipped but you can't have everything.  I just hope I didn't miss seeing one of North Yorkshire's motorist taxation vans.  I don't think I was speeding but!  See you tomorrow.

13/07/15

The Scottish have a word for days like today "dreich", meaning dull, overcast and drizzly. I think the word encompasses the feelings engendered by the sort of weather we had today perfectly, especially when spoken with a good Scottish accent. But apart from the weather my day has been pleasant, not too arduous but with enough work to 've interesting. And all accomplished in good time. The only slight problem I encountered was caused by an insufficient address and an incorrect post code on my delivery ticket. The ladies in the office should really take more care. I lost a half hour on this delivery because of their mistake. I'm going to Helmsley store first  tomorrow, with a full load. See you tomorrow.

07/07/15

Tuesday and it has brought an explanation of what went wrong yesterday with the order for six one hundred and ninety seven litre tubs of proprionic acid and why I delivered only four.  In my tickets was a reprint which compromised the full order for the customer again and this time the number of drums was stated as six.  Obviously the reprinted ticket and the original ticket were both in circulation and I had been given the first ticket to load but our TC had confirmed the amended order which was for four tubs of said chemical.  For a change not my fault nor the fault of the warehouse staff, yet another example of how poor our computer system is.  But all of that is beside the point, back to the days work.  Carlton store and five drops, the last being the biggest and a mill drop, six tonnes for a firm in Gilberdyke and a collection from the same place.  I couldn't picture the second to last drop, though the name seemed to ring a distant bell.  One of the warehouse staff knew roughly were the drop was and I thought I knew.  On approaching the farm I remembered why the name was familiar, one of my long time friends used to own the place.  Sometimes I think my memory is failing and at others I realise its just that I have a lot more experiences to remember than I had twenty years ago, pity I can't add a second memory stick.  The day went well and other than solving the mystery of the incorrect order there was nothing particularly remarkable about the day.  I had a small delay whilst finding someone to weigh me in at the final delivery but other than that everything went well.  I was back in time to unload and park up.  I'm off work for the next three days so I'll see you on Monday.

06/07/15

Have you ever noticed how quickly
Monday morning comes around? Perhaps they have slipped an extra Monday morning in each week while I wasn't watching. The day started badly, I slept through my alarm and woke with a start at half past five. Hence I have been suffering a caffeine deficiency all day, that's no way to start the week. But, much to my surprise things didn't get much worse.  Apart from me not spotting that I was two drums of proprionic acid light for my second to last drop, that is.  I was on my usual run, Carlton store and three drops. Only my last drop was out of my normal area, Goxhill in North Lincolnshire which involved a trip over the bridge, much to my pleasure. Then a collection from Immingham Bulk Park, of fertiliser for a farm at Lockton. I decided to go back via the M180 as the feet was drilled nitrogen and no matter how well you strap it it can move if you shake it about, the motorway route is flatter and straighter. All went we'll unroll I joined a queue on the A64. When I finally got to the front there was a horse drawn gypsy caravan. I'm sure there was, and possibly is, a place for horse drawn transport but that place isn't the A64. Tractors are bad enough but a horse drawn caravan is ridiculous.  I was an hour late to the customer and an hour late home and all on reduced caffeine, not good.

The picture below is of a ten furrow reversible plough which will require a tractor of over two hundred horse power to pull it. I learnt to use a plough nearly forty years ago using a three furrow plough pulled by a tractor of forty seven horse power. How things have changed!
I think I counted the furrows correctly

03/07/15

Friday and for the first time in three weeks we aren't going anywhere this weekend, I get to enjoy my home and small orchard for the weekend.  With this happy thought in my mind I approached the days work with a positive and cheerful attitude, not that I don't do this on a normal work day, well not always.  The load wasn't bad though I did have six drums of proprionic acid to deliver, I hate the stuff.  I can taste it for days in the air, after carrying it, but that's life sometimes.  The load comprised five farm drops and Carlton store followed by a collection from Walden Stubbs.  The day went very well, I found farmers with loaders when needed and there was no one in front of me for the collection.  It was around four pm when I got back into the yard and I even had time to unload and start reloading before that weekend feeling took hold and the loading staff and myself lost the will to rush about.  See you Monday have a great weekend.

02/07/15

Thursday, the day before Friday.  The weekend is on its way!  Theoretically I had two loads, and apart from being told that I should be at Carlton store for as near eight am as possible the order of loading was left to me.  It appears that high command has issued an instructions that runs as follows, "Ye! let it be known that on sundries days all stores shall receive delivery or their allotted goods by eight pm and woe betide any lowly driver that hinders this order."  This is a great instruction, it takes me an hour and ten to reach Carlton store when there are no road works and with he Selby bye pass shut it takes an hour and twenty five.  This means that is only possible for me to reach the store by the pre ordained time if I am loaded and have my tickets confirmed the night before and this is a situation that rarely happens, not even once a month.  So on Wednesday I was informed that the store manager had complained that he wasn't receiving his sundries on time.  This was, at best, an exaggeration and  more correctly a falsehood.  When I asked said store manager if he knew he had complained I received a blank look, which I expected.  He knew nothing of said complaint.  But that's beside the point, I arrived before nine pm, which was good all things considered.  It was a terrible load with no even surface that could be properly strapped even if I had wanted to.  I would have liked to fit another ten bags on for one of the three remaining drops but it was completely impossible.  Apart from that everything went well with the first load but it was still nearly two pm when I arrived back in the yard for my second load.  Of the three drops we didn't have the goods in the yard for one so I asked our TC where I was bound on the morrow.  After consulting his book of works and a suggestion from me it was decided that I would be able to complete the last two drops the next day.  That gave me time to load for Kirkbymoorside store and deliver said load.  Not a bad day.  See you tomorrow.

01/07/15

The start of July and it's the hottest day of thSee youear. Does this pressage a good summer?  Back to the serious business if keeping UK agriculture up and running, yes, work. Today's run round only needed to include a Doncaster drop to cover all the extremes of my area. I started at Newbald with a farm drop. I saw no one and, of course, it was all to come off by hand. Then forty rolls of silage wrap to Howden, and the only machine lift of the day.  From there to Carlton store for a small drop and to collect two bags of hen meal to complete an order for later and also collect a single bag for Gatehelmsley on my way back to base. Next drop was a tonne of horse feed at Halifax. All by hand and again there was no one there. Horsey people love work, they could watch it all day. Then off to Wyke just North of Leeds with nearly a tonne of mixed product. Once again all by hand on my own, must be the heat keeping the customers in doors.

Great view, just a pity about the rest of the way out.

I wish people who plant trees would trim them. I folded up my mirrors going in and out.

A dying digger just entering terminal decay.

see you tomorrow.

30/06/15

The last day of June and it's warmed up at last. Strange day today, Helmsley store first. As I was loaded the night before I had an extra half hour in bed. Kirkbymoorside store next, so far so good. Carlton store next, so far so good. Then comes the sting in the tail, fertilizer from Howdendyke to Gothland. Our TC blithely told the customer I would be there around three pm. Sure!  I arrived just after four pm to a sarcastic reception. Thanks TC!  The customer was OK with it though and I got tipped and off. But it was six by the time I got diminished. But on the good side the views were fantastic. The picture doesn't do it justice. See you tomorrow.