The Oklahoma Unwelcoming Committee

This isn't what I was going to post today. I've been feeling guilty for not posting something, and so last night I decided I'd get on here today and post something I've had in mind for a while.

But then things took a different spin for the day than I expected and even though I might not should do so, I'm going to post about it because I feel the need to express my outrage.

I woke up this morning shortly after Malcolm had crossed into Oklahoma. We're on our way to Alabama where we will deliver tomorrow morning. Now let me stop here and first say we've had many lovely drives through Oklahoma, and I think it's a fine state. There are a number of good people there, including several blogs that I enjoy reading, and my cousin lives in Oklahoma City, so I know for a fact there are good people in Oklahoma.

But today we met one of Oklahoma's worst, and this individual left a very bad taste in my mouth for that state. I don't think I'll be able to drive I-40 through Oklahoma again without feeling disgust.


We stopped at a truck stop in Hinton, OK to grab some lunch and when we left it was my turn to drive. The truck stop was situated as such that you had to pull out onto a side road and then stop before turning onto the main road to get back to the interstate. I pulled up behind the two trucks waiting in line at the stop sign and waited my turn.


As the truck in front of me took his turn to get on the main road, I began to pull forward when a white pickup truck whipped out of the fuel island at the gas station and zipped in front of me. I was in the process of getting stopped before I hit him and Malcolm reached across and blew the air horn at the pickup driver. I can't see that that was out of line considering he'd cut us off like that.


Now, apparently it was more than this guy could stand, because he proceeded to park in the middle of the road, jump out of his pickup, and came storming back to the driver's side of the truck screaming profanities at me. Because the truck was running and because I had the window rolled up I couldn't hear exactly what he was saying and I don't care to know. I just know it was nasty and he was apparently quite outraged at us and I was a bit shaken up over it.

Malcolm leaned across me and rolled the window down a bit and told the guy to go get in his pickup and get out of the way, at which point the animal (I can't call him a man because he didn't act like one) threw out a few more nasty remarks to Malcolm and then....SPIT IN HIS FACE!!!

Brace yourself because this isn't the end!
He then storms back to his pickup, grabs a 2x4 our of the back and proceeds to swing it around in a very threatening manner, even hitting his own pickup with it with as much force as he could manage, and shaking it at our truck still yelling and shouting.

At this point I was really shaken up, and overwhelmed, kind of frozen. I mean, what the h*** is this guy's problem!

He then gets back in his pickup and for a brief moment I thought it was thankfully over and he was leaving. But no! He throws his pickup in reverse and backs up to the front of our truck as close as he can and sits there. By now there were two other trucks behind me waiting to turn and I'm sure they had seen the whole thing, not to mention all the people fueling their cars at the gas station (because apparently EVERYONE in Hinton, OK needed fuel this morning!)


Finally the guy zoomed off and turned onto the main road, thankfully in the opposite direction that I was going, and we moved on to I-40 and got on down the road, with the trucks behind us lending their support on the CB and asking if we got his license plate, which of course we didn't. Kind of didn't think of that in the heat of the moment not to mention that he was parked so close to us I could only see part of his vehicle.


I can't imagine where he needed to be so fast on a Sunday morning that he couldn't' have waited the extra 30 seconds it might have taken me to maneuver through that intersection. Seriously, if it was that big of a rush, then he shouldn't have had time to put on his little show for the entire truck stop!


And so I want to just express my thoughts to this individual. Please excuse anything I say that might be offensive to you:

I just have one thing to say to you, you little pathetic excuse for a human being! You may think you are big and bad, but really...you are just a pathetic little sub-human of a man who has a sorry ass vehicle, a beer gut, and your balding badly on top, and can't even spit good! Even I can get a better wad of spit together than that and I'm a girl! Apparently you were just as big an ass hole as a child as you are now, and the other boys wouldn't play with you and have spitting contests with you because you never learned to do it like a real man! And in case you haven't noticed...a 2x4 isn't' going to stop my 80,000 pound truck so next time you decide to whip out your little board and threaten a driver, you better sure as hell hope and pray that the driver behind wheel is like me, because I know about half of them would have just run your ass over!! Maybe I should have!

Now...I feel better! I spent most of the rest of the morning feeling violated, shaken, and near tears. Later, as I drove along composing this blog post in my mind, it all changed over to anger and then I got to the point where I could actually kind of laugh about it. I mean seriously, what kind of loser hits their own vehicle with a board to display anger? How pathetic!

The rest of the day has gone smoothly though these drivers in Arkansas are stressing me out. Traffic is more congested here than I'm used to and everytime I pull into the left lane to go around someone who is moving slower than me, they inevitable speed up and then I can't get back into the right lane. I'm fed us with this eastern driving and we're not even across the Mississippi River yet!

We'll deliver north of Birmingham in the morning and after that, we were going to go to New York state, but that fell through and I have to say that after today, I'm not regretting it. I don't think I could handle the traffic after this! Instead we're reloading in Sunflower, Mississippi (what a great name for a town!) and going to the Houston, TX area. And then from there we're going to North Dakota and then to Montana. Thank God I'll be back in my Montana by the end of the week. I am very much looking forward to hitting that state line!

Trucking 101: The DOT Annual Roadcheck

This year marks the 23nd year that the CVSA (Commercial Vehicle Safety Administration) has conducted their safety blitz. For a 72 hour period, the DOT cracks down on commercial vehicles, performing safety checks and inspections at weigh stations and roadside check points across the country.

For truck drivers, its 72 hours of slightly strained nerves, waiting to see if you'll be the unlucky soul told to pull around back for an inspection at the weigh station.


For the past three years, Malcolm and I have lucked out. (I hope I'm not jinxing our luck by writing that, because this years safety blitz doesn't end till tonight at midnight.) Not that we have anything to hide or worry about. If we were checked, we would pass with flying colors. I have great confidence in saying that. However, you just don't want to be checked. You can take any driver and any truck off the road and if the DOT really wanted to, they could find something to make an issue over. These are machines that work hard, and humans that make errors after all!


Anyway, its three days of strain, crossing fingers as you approach scales, breathing sighs of relief as you get through, etc. Usually we are just rolling around our usual western stomping grounds where we know the weigh stations reputations, where to look for portable weigh stations to be put up and so on. One year we took the week off, being due for some home time anyway. It was just convenient to not be on the road during that time.


This year was a little different. The Roadcheck started Tuesday, and we were loading in Ohio. We had to drive from Ohio to California. You can imagine the number of weigh stations we passed along that 2200 mile trip!


It seems our luck held with us through it all though. On Tuesday, the scales in Illinois and Iowa were so overwhelmed with trucks when we arrived that they were either temporarily closed as they tryed to clear their ramps, or sent us through the bypass lanes as the scale lanes were full. Nebraska and Wyoming actually prepassed us, which surprised me as the previous states had had their prepass turned off, or were giving everyone the red light to come in. Utah pulled me across the scale, but sent me on my way, and Nevada sent Malcolm through the bypass lane.


The only weigh station I was really apprehensive about was the Truckee scale in California, basically for 2 reasons.
1. California DOT has a reputation among truckers...and its not a good one.
and
2. Where as many weigh stations just pull you around to their rear parking lot for inspections, or have only one inspection bay, the Truckee scale has a nice big 3-4 truck capacity inspection barn! Oh lucky me! And to my horror, I was the ONLY truck on the road as I approached the hill leading to the scale around 4:00 this morning. Needless to say my guts were a little in knots.


And then surprise surprise (and shock!)...they had the Truckee scale under construction and completely shut down! I stressed for nothing. Oh how lucky I felt! Such a pitty...hah!


Truckee was the last scale we had to cross before delivering this morning. We're now just east of Sacramento waiting to dump off the poultry meal, then head to Stockton to reload. The next trip is only 45 miles loaded and we won't be crossing a scale, so unless they set up a portable somewhere or are pulling trucks over for random inspections on the roadside, it looks like we'll be making it through another Roadcheck season without memorable events!


Now that I went through all that, I do want to make a point of saying that as much of a personal nuisance the Roadcheck actually is, I do think its a good thing. There are a lot of careless drivers, faulty equipment, and fudged log books on the road. However, to be honest, they advertise this thing ahead of time. We've known for weeks when they were doing their check this year, with plenty of time to get equipment and paperwork in order, if the need had been there. So I question how effective the DOT is in this "crackdown." On the other hand, if they "inspire" companies to clean up their act, if even for a few days, I guess its a good thing.


According to LandLine Magazine, during the 2009 Roadcheck there were a record 72,782 inspections performed at 2,100 locations nationwide. The vehicle compliance rate was 80.4 percent, and the driver compliance rate was at 95.7 percent, both record setting percentages. I'll be interested to see what the results are this year.

Westward Bound

After a wonderful weekend at my parents and visiting other family, we are now westward bound.

Over the weekend we spent time in the Chattanooga, TN area with family, since we didn't have a load to work with. Mom and I spent the time antiquing in a little town near my parents home, had coffee and cookies at one of her favorite stopping places, and just enjoyed each other's company. We also spent quite a bit of time visiting my grandparents, relaxing at home, and of course there was a wonderful meal at my dad's restaurant, Couch's BBQ.

While I was doing all that, Malcolm spent some time with his uncle at the shooting range, and visiting with him and his wife at their house. And then Sunday night before we left, we went to Malcolm's cousin's house to visit with him and his wonderful wife and meet their "new" baby (who is almost 6 months old but we hadn't met her thus the "new" to us), Keziah.

It was a wonderful weekend and the extra wonderful part is knowing we get to do it all over again in a few weeks when we go back for our planned visit over the 4th of July.


Monday morning we loaded organic soybeans in Orlinda, TN and delivered this morning in Upper Sandusky, OH. Now we are on our way to reload in Wapankeneta, OH and we'll be in Sacramento, CA on Thursday morning.

I don't have any pictures to share. I left my camera in the truck all weekend. And over the next couple of days its going to be drive and sleep as we have over 2200 miles to do before Thursday morning. But after that I'll try and do better about pictures to share with you!

Hope your weekend was as joyful and relaxing as mine, and that that pattern continues throughout your week.

Branding at the JM-

As promised I'm posting pictures of the branding at my in-law's on May 20th. I got a little camera happy, so bare with me ;)
First though I want to introduce you to this little guy. He is my sister-in-law's new prize. She traded her two mini horses for this bred mare b/c she loves blue eyed horses, and just because...it sounded like a good idea. Then little bit arrived and look at him! He has two blue eyes too! The daddy is gray and white and it looks like little bit is going to be the same, but with the blue eyes of his momma! He is, thus far, still nameless. Such a cuttie needs a special name, so Rachelle is waiting for inspiration.

On to branding....after several days of cloudy, damp, cool, windy weather, branding day dawned sunny and warm and with just the right amount of breeze to keep the smoke and bugs moving away but not blowing dirt around. It was the perfect Montana day!

We started by rounding up all the cow/calf pairs and herding them into the corrals, then sorting off the cows and pushing them back out into the surrounding pasture. I was on horseback throughout that process, so no pictures of that. We'll start here...

...with the worried mamma's waiting for their calves. Well...two of them were worried. Apparently the fresh grass was too appealing and most of the mamma's got distracted from the immediate "emergency."

The calves on the other hand were not so easily distracted for obvious reasons.

Here are all 380 or so waiting to have the ranch brand put on their sides. Don't they look excited?

Once the calves are separated and contained in the one corral, there was some planning, job assigning, chatting, etc.

At the Johnson's ranch, they don't rope and drag and wrestle to the ground to brand. We used a different method that's not quite as "authentic western" but it sure does save some back work and also keeps things moving a little faster, or at least I thought so.

Its like an assembly line. To start, a group of calves is pushed into the chute, where several people hold them there until its their turn.

Here is my lovely sister-in-law Rachelle. She was at the front of the line and her job was to push each calf into place when it was his/her time to be branded. This was one of the little guys and he decided to take a nap while he waited his turn. He'd had a long morning. Rachelle decided to take a break with him.

Next the calf is pushed into the chute and the grapple bars are squeezed around him to hold him in place. Then the table is lifted...

...and the calf is now in position to be branded.

Last time I was able to make it to branding we branded, gave shots, and castrated the bull calves. But this year they had already done the shots and banded the bulls when they were born, so all we had to do is brand. It was a pretty fast process, and even with all the joking and goofing off, everyone worked together like a well oiled machine.

This is my in-law's brand. It is read as "J. M. Bar"
I got an easy job. Malcolm's mom and I took turns writing down the color and number of each calf's ear tag as it came through. But mostly we just chatted and enjoyed the wonderful weather and being outside.

After the brand is on, the table is set back up and the calf is released....

....to go find his momma....

...which can be a big job when there are 380 or so mamma's to search through. Sometimes it takes a while (especially when your momma is one of those out there grazing way out there on that distant hill), but eventually everyone pairs back up.

So..that's the process, and now here is a video so you can see it in motion and see how fast it really goes. If the thought of branding makes you squeamish, then don't watch. It's not gory, but the calf does bellow a bit during the process. The video will also give you an idea of the amount of noise 38o cows and 380 calves calling for each other can make! We didn't realize how noisy it was until we watched the video that evening.

Sweet freedom. Rachelle has a few longhorns (that are hornless) and this is one of her calves out of one of those cows. They always have the cutest calves. My in-laws have an assortment of colors. I like the little red calves best.

But the brand sure does show up nice on the white calves!

It was sweet to watch the reunions that took place between the calves whose mamma's had stayed close by to wait.

but sometimes there were still some issues on getting back together. Don't worry though. Calves are excellent fence crawlers. He'll manage to crawl through to his momma in no time at all!

And right before lunch break, I got to brand one too!

At the end of the day everyone was worn out, and some of us were sore. This is what Rachelle's leg looked like after 380 calves had kicked her before being pushed into the chute. And if you think this is bad, you should have seen it the next morning.

And this is me, tired and slightly sunburned, but happy after a fun day. The girls were a bit traumatized and very clingy for a while. They didn't' appreciate being left in the kennel all day long.

While us girls were inside relaxing, Malcolm and his dad enjoyed some quality time outside with some target practice at some muskrats that needed thinning out.

So there you have it! That's branding day at the Johnson's ranch! Hope you enjoyed it!

We delivered in Kentucky this morning and our Ohio load got messed up. So instead we're just passing through Knoxville, TN on our way to Chattanooga. We're going to spend the weekend with our family in Tennessee and then load north of Nashville on Monday morning! We'll be at my parent's in a couple hours and everyone is really excited, except the girls who don't' realize yet where we are going. They are all piled in bed back in the sleeper. But I'm sure they will be thrilled as soon as they realize we're going to play out of the truck all weekend.

Hope you all enjoy the weekend and I'll be back on Monday!

Hitting the Road Again

After two weeks (we extended our home time by a few days more than planned) at home...we are hitting the road again. We are rested, regenerated, and eastward bound. We took a load of wheat screenings from Billings to Idaho and delivered this morning. And now we are headed to Ogden, UT to reload and go to Kentucky. Haven't been over that far east since Christmas time I believe!

Our little "vacation" at home was really nice! We started off with a bang, heading to Baker and the in-law's for Malcolm's little sister's high school graduation...

followed by a nice little graduation party in town. The cake was kind of cool. Her mom had taken her senior picture to the baker and they had it printed on the cake. I thought that was neat. There were also lots of jokes as it was being served as to who got to eat Justine's elbow, nose, etc. Always lots of laughs with that crowd!

The following day we branded calves, with the help of a few friends and neighbors. It was lots of fun as usual. I have far too many pictures and a video to boot, but branding is enough to fill its own post. So I'll have that up to share with you in a few days.

Back home on Tuesday afternoon and another week still ahead of us! We just relaxed and played. I had ordered a candle making kit a few weeks prior to coming home. I've wanted to try my hand at candle making for some time, and decided to take the plunge. It was surprisingly easy, and lots of fun!

The kit included 5 scents: vanilla, lavender, ocean, black cherry, and hot apple strudel. I made them all, and even played around and "invented" my own combination of lavender vanilla. I keep teasing Malcolm, telling him I'm going to retire from truck driving and make my fortune making and selling candles. Well...it might not make me rich, but I do enjoy making them, and look forward to coming up with some more creative containers for my future candle making fun!

My other "project" was this:

I'm sick and tired of my jangly earrings being in a wad in my jewelry box. So I finally stormed off to the craft store, grabbed a few items, and came home and made myself an earring frame. I was quite happy with the results.

Malcolm was also feeling rather crafty. We totally abstained from "trucking" work while we were home, and he spent the majority of time playing with his guns, and building a reloading table, followed by doing some actual reloading. He had a lot of fun.

The weather was nice while we were home, though not many days were conducive to being outside as much as I had wanted. It stayed coolish, but the main reason I stuck to the indoors was the wind. It was a breezy two weeks for the most part, and even on the warm days, the wind makes it feel cool. We still enjoyed it, and were thankful for the almost predictable afternoon rain storms that came rolling in almost daily. The day before we left, the sun shone and the temperatures went up into the high 60's and the wind was absolutely calm all day long. The girls and I spent practically the entire day sitting on the porch reading, birdwatching, and soaking in the fresh air, while Malcolm loaded up and went to the shooting range for a while before coming home to mow the yard one last time. It looked great when he was done. By the time we get back, we'll probably be able to bale hay in our back yard though! It was growing fast with all the rain we've had so far this year.

So that brings you up to date. We'll be in Kentucky on Friday morning, and then we have to hurry on up to Ohio to reload before they close for the weekend. Hope you all have a great week and I'll be back around in a day or so with those branding pictures.

Home Again, Home Again, Giggety Gig

Another gift from God and a lesson in trusting Him and not stressing over things.



I was so stressed out about getting home on Friday, getting the grad gift figured out, found, and purchased, and all the other little things that needed done so that we could get to Baker on time and relax and enjoy the weekend there.

I wish I was able to control my emotions better and not stress and get worried about that sort of thing because I know God will take care of it, and everything will get done, and if it doesn't get done its not that big of a deal.

Anyway, God let me stress a little and then took over (prooving a point to me) and things have just fallen into place even better than I thought they would.


For starters we didn't have to sit in Idaho for a day. Mark, the broker, found a load of fertilizer that delivered in North Dakota this morning and now we're on our way to reload corn in Steele. We'll be home tonight, and in the morning we'll dump the corn off at a feed lot 5 miles from our house. How much closer could he have gotten us? (well there is a feed lot TWO miles from the house, but I'll settle for what we got)


Then yesterday I contacted my hair girl, who is a doll and has become a friend, and asked her for ideas about a grad gift, because my sister-in-law is going to cosmetology school and is going into that line of work. Not only did my hair girl have a great idea, she is going to pick it up for me, getting it at her cost, and all I have to do is swing by her shop to get it before we leave.



And not exactly in sink with the story, but still taking stress off my mind...our April trip sheets were due in to the prorate office in Billings the first week of May, but I haven't been able to get to a post office. Last night we passed through Billings and were able to swing by their office and drop the packet into their mail drop slot. So that's delivered, and I think before the Oregon fuel taxes are due this month so I might still be on time...sort of! That was a load off my mind too!


So...home agian, home again, giggety gig... a day earlier than planned and now with one less thing to do! Hope you all have a great weekend and I'll be in touch sometime next week.


I'm leaving you with a picture from last evening. It drizzled rain all day in Idaho, but last night just north of Idaho Falls, the clouds broke and the sunlight hit the rain clouds. It always makes them look so much more dramatic and threatening...and beautiful when it does that!

On Donner's Pass Tonight

We crossed Donner's Pass on I-80 in the Sierra Nevada Mountains this evening around 7:00pm.



Today we loaded blood meal in California. Yep...blood meal. Don't even ask...trust me.




It rained all day, kind of drizzly. I told Malcolm it was a good thing it wasn't winter cause when its raining in the valley, you know what its doing on Donner's. I should have kept my mouth shut.


Well its wasn't so bad really, just foggy and towards the top it finally got down around 34 degrees and that really fine mist of snow was falling. But it was still early in the evening, and I hope the west bound trucks we're passing now aren't going to dilly dally in Reno.

Last weekend they shut down the westbound side for a little while over night because of snow.

Over the top, and on down towards Nevada where the sun was breaking through the clouds and it was almost 50 degrees.

And I got to Reno just in time to see it and the surrounding hills bathed in sunset light.

We'll deliver in Idaho in the morning, twiddle our thumbs for the day, and then load potatoes going to Jamestown, ND. That is supposed to deliver Thursday, and then we're hopefully going to have a load of corn coming back to Billings Friday. Its cutting it close, but at least we're going to make it. Graduation is Saturday afternoon, so I'll scramble to do some laundry, get the girls bathed and clipped, pack the car all on Friday evening and we'll leave for Baker on Saturday morning.

Got big plans, fun stuff in mind, for the whole time we're out of the truck. The only icky part that I'm not looking forward to is I'm having Ella spayed on Monday. I feel for her, and its going to ruin her vacation, but in the long run its worth it. She's due for another heat in a month or so, and she hates wearing those panties. So she'll be happier in the long run and so will I. Other than that...lots of good stuff should be going on and I'll share all when we get back, you know I will. Might even manage to get some posts up while we're home, depending on internet cooperation as usual.

But hey...that's still several days ahead. I'll be in touch before we get out of the truck.