Ok, so my wife drags me to the home and garden show last Saturday. You have to understand that there is 30" of snow on the ground, ice has been on the roads for a couple weeks and the HIGH temps are single digits. Not feeling the whole "get ready for spring" thing, ya'know? Anyway, we go and wander about. Every so often there is a sign up for a give away where they get your name and bug the snickers out of you at dinner time for the next decade. 
Well, we sign up for several. Then on Sunday, she gets a phone call. She apparently had her name pulled for a "stone patio fire pit" and to come get it between 5-6 that night, oh and bring a trailer.
So, I have a small 5x10 trailer with 2k axle under it and a 18' trailer with two 6k axles. The small one is accessable, the large is blocked by snow piles up to my waist. naturally, I bring the small one. We get there and amid the chaos of the vendors taking down all the displays, we find the location of the "stone patio fire pit". It's the Grand Prize of the show :thumbsup: cool. There are 2 burly guys stacking ornate bricks on a pallet and a 3' steel fire ring next to it. So I ask if that's it. (them) Yeah, oh "the rest of it" is outside. (me) Huh?? (them) yeah, the other 7 pallet of stone are outside
Ruh-Roh
Apparently, the grand prize was a 14' stone Patio, wrap around stone bench, two stone pillars and a stone fire pit "kit". Some assembly required.:laughing: Oh, and 4 of the smaller pallets are labeled with tare weights of 2800 pounds each. Those were outside in the snow. The fork truck could pick those up and move them, three of the pallets were from the show inside and were too heavy for the tracked fork truck to pick up. Ho boy, trouble. Good thing they had a BIG fork truck there too! The 8th pallet was with left over stuff and was "only" in the 2000 pound range.
First trip home was with one of the heavy pallets in the back of the 3/4 ton diesel and the lighter 2000 pound ones on the trailer with 2k axle. (uh, yeah :confused2: I know) We dropped the trailer and the wife and kid unloaded the truck by hand while I used the mighty kubota to clear the 300 yard run of snow to the big trailer. After an hour of fighting, the trailer was stuck in the snow and the tractor was also stuck. So I sent the wife with the now empty truck to get a 2nd load in the truck while I got the stuff unstuck and out. FYI, I was stuck when the tractor slide sideways while clearing snow from around the stuck trailer, with the back blade between the tires. Yeah, that was "fun" to get corrected. Turns out if you can't get traction in one place, use a 20ft chain to move to a better spot with more traction and pull. Also, running around to the back of the trailer and picking it up with the FEL and repositioning it at a better angle also helps. but a whole new path has to be cleared to get around :confused2:.
After 2 hours, the wife was back, the truck unloaded and trailer out. Whew. But it was close to 9pm and well below zero. Thankfully, they said we could get the rest the next day.
So, next day I find they have a guy with a fork truck to load the trailer. Yeah! I was dreading hand loading 12,000 pounds of stone. Well, I got 4 pallets on the trailer and the back of the truck was squatting like a bear in the woods. So... nothing for the back of the truck. Slowly drove it home, dropped it off and went back for the last 2 pallets. The guy with the fork truck was gone , so hand load the truck, bring it home and hand unload. Oh, my back is still hurting.
Unloaded the small trailer yesterday. Attempted to move the big trailer back to shelter, but the tongue weight is too much for the kubota to lift with the FEL or the 3pt. Attempted to unload the front pallet so the trailer could be moved, but the bricks apparently got warm enough in the sun over the past week melt the snow on the bricks and ice glue them all together into one solid rock hard mass. Oh well, spring is only a few months away. Maybe. Forecast calls for temps in the cold to dang cold to even colder than that over the next 10 days. Only day 8+ are warmer than the 20's. I really hate all the this global warming, if it gets any warmer I'll freeze!
Anyway, now I have a project for spring / summer. Anyone want to do some ground prep and lay 20,000 pounds of stone?
Well, we sign up for several. Then on Sunday, she gets a phone call. She apparently had her name pulled for a "stone patio fire pit" and to come get it between 5-6 that night, oh and bring a trailer. So, I have a small 5x10 trailer with 2k axle under it and a 18' trailer with two 6k axles. The small one is accessable, the large is blocked by snow piles up to my waist. naturally, I bring the small one. We get there and amid the chaos of the vendors taking down all the displays, we find the location of the "stone patio fire pit". It's the Grand Prize of the show :thumbsup: cool. There are 2 burly guys stacking ornate bricks on a pallet and a 3' steel fire ring next to it. So I ask if that's it. (them) Yeah, oh "the rest of it" is outside. (me) Huh?? (them) yeah, the other 7 pallet of stone are outside
Ruh-Roh
Apparently, the grand prize was a 14' stone Patio, wrap around stone bench, two stone pillars and a stone fire pit "kit". Some assembly required.:laughing: Oh, and 4 of the smaller pallets are labeled with tare weights of 2800 pounds each.
Those were outside in the snow. The fork truck could pick those up and move them, three of the pallets were from the show inside and were too heavy for the tracked fork truck to pick up. Ho boy, trouble. Good thing they had a BIG fork truck there too! The 8th pallet was with left over stuff and was "only" in the 2000 pound range. First trip home was with one of the heavy pallets in the back of the 3/4 ton diesel and the lighter 2000 pound ones on the trailer with 2k axle. (uh, yeah :confused2: I know) We dropped the trailer and the wife and kid unloaded the truck by hand while I used the mighty kubota to clear the 300 yard run of snow to the big trailer. After an hour of fighting, the trailer was stuck in the snow and the tractor was also stuck
. So I sent the wife with the now empty truck to get a 2nd load in the truck while I got the stuff unstuck and out. FYI, I was stuck when the tractor slide sideways while clearing snow from around the stuck trailer, with the back blade between the tires. Yeah, that was "fun" to get corrected. Turns out if you can't get traction in one place, use a 20ft chain to move to a better spot with more traction and pull. Also, running around to the back of the trailer and picking it up with the FEL and repositioning it at a better angle also helps. but a whole new path has to be cleared to get around :confused2:.After 2 hours, the wife was back, the truck unloaded and trailer out. Whew. But it was close to 9pm and well below zero. Thankfully, they said we could get the rest the next day.
So, next day I find they have a guy with a fork truck to load the trailer.
Yeah! I was dreading hand loading 12,000 pounds of stone. Well, I got 4 pallets on the trailer and the back of the truck was squatting like a bear in the woods. So... nothing for the back of the truck. Slowly drove it home, dropped it off and went back for the last 2 pallets. The guy with the fork truck was gone , so hand load the truck, bring it home and hand unload. Oh, my back is still hurting.Unloaded the small trailer yesterday. Attempted to move the big trailer back to shelter, but the tongue weight is too much for the kubota to lift with the FEL or the 3pt. Attempted to unload the front pallet so the trailer could be moved, but the bricks apparently got warm enough in the sun over the past week melt the snow on the bricks and ice glue them all together into one solid rock hard mass. Oh well, spring is only a few months away. Maybe. Forecast calls for temps in the cold to dang cold to even colder than that over the next 10 days. Only day 8+ are warmer than the 20's. I really hate all the this global warming, if it gets any warmer I'll freeze!
Anyway, now I have a project for spring / summer. Anyone want to do some ground prep and lay 20,000 pounds of stone?
