I knew that it had to happen, but I was hoping against hope that it wouldn't.

Late Monday evening I decided to make a mad dash for town to see if I could find some sort of fan that could be used on the forklift heater. I was almost to town when I got the call from Krl that Delfino, my lead forklift operator had come over to the trailer telling her that his forklift had a lot of problemmas. It infuriated her that after that he began spitting Spanish, not even trying to communicate with her.

I could only imagine what might have been wrong, but I did understand the second part, the other forklift would not start, it was "todo", completely, dead. Turned out Kyle had tried to start if without cycling the glow plugs and burned a battery cable off.

Since I was already an hour away and in town, I felt I needed to complete my quest for the fan. Last year the forklift dealer had located a bolt on heater for the forklifts. This in conjunction with the weather covers makes for a pretty comfortable work environment in a harsh forklift application. The original fan lasted from December 'til March and then back on the job again from October until the end of November, then the center broke out. The dealer was not able to order just a new fan so he ordered an entire heater assembly. Basically, he charge the company $219 for the fan and just threw in the remainder of the heater kit. He said the parts were not available separately. The new fan lasted less than a week and the center broke out of it. Now the manufacturer wants us to return the entire kit and they will replace it. Since I hadn't even installed the heater core or switch, we just threw the new broken fan back into the box to return.

The closest thing I found was a twelve volt clip on fan at Wal-Mart, price $9.99. The smile on the night forklift men's face would've made you think it had cost a million $$. These guys are really O.K., they just want to know they are appreciated.

When I did returned to the jobsite I found the one forklift running but the other was out of commission because of a bale clamp problem. Earlier this year we had a problem and I had taken a cylinder to town to be repaired and welded. As luck would have it, the problem was the exact same thing. Turns out the machine shop welder didn't get any penetration on the majority of his weld. Frank, the plant Super and I looked at it and he told me we can do that good, and a lot cheaper. Long story short, Frank did a bang up good job welding the mount back on the cylinder. It ended up taking me until three Tuesday afternoon to get the forklift back in service, but I did take time to install bolzoni sleeves in it while I had it apart.

Probably the wildest thrash of the year was Monday night. I had laid down on the couch and was watching T.V. with one eye, while Brandy cuddled and snoozed when I got called out. The backup forklift had a problem. Turns out it had blown a transmission cooler return line which Julio had re-installed prior to my getting there, what he needed was transmission fluid and lots of it. I thrashed through the supple trailer and found seven quarts and he located two more on the bale dock and the machine was back in service before we had a big mess.

If all else fails we revert to an old metal wheeled cart, and it ain't fun!

When I finally returned to the trailer Tuesday afternoon, we had just began to put seed into storage for more outside trucks. I had one scheduled to be in at 5pm. I had barely sat down when there as a loud knocking on the door. Gilbert, one of my seed haulers was upset. He had been asleep for about five hours but now he wanted to load so he could work on his trailer. He was not tactful, he was not courteous. We had been pointed down this road nearly all season, but especially since his father left the jobsite because of illness. Since then nothing I had done had suited Gilbert. He was going to complain and gripe and moan no matter what. He told me if this is the way it was going to be he might just gather his things and go. I told him to make the call, but that was exactly what the GM was hoping for. It has been a job to keep all the truckers working because of the seed that was sold outside to dairies. Gilbert refuses to understand this. When the seed load being put up was complete, Baldemar went to get him and Gilbert refused to load. I probably added fuel to the fire because when he refused I flopped the valve another direction and began putting another load up. When Gilbert's other truck arrived they had a meeting and began loading tires and supplies to go home. I didn't talk with them, I didn't help them. Really I am relieved, because Gilbert had been like a bad seed. He won't be invited back unless his father comes again. Gilbert has a lot of baggage and in simplest terms he isn't worth it.

I find myself looking to this weekend. I expect the yard to be cleaned either Sunday or Monday which should mean that we will cut back to one crew. I have heard other rumors that we could go to one crew Friday (which would fit with the pay cycle). Scuttlebutt has it that Frank is having a difficult time getting enough people from the two crews to stay to make one. Everyone is ready to go home.

Me included.

I have been on the phone with seed brokers holding contracts with the gin, telling them they had better get their trucks here if they want to fill their contracts. This might stretch out a little but it won't last forever.

FATHER, calm me, soothe me. Help me to be patient. Help me to be fair in my dealing with others.