Well, I think I have mentioned the trailer in my back yard, but I have not given you the low-down on how it got there and what has been happening since. I hope I get this right--one day last week, Tom and I went to the Traffic Management Office at Aberdeen Proving Ground to arrange to have our household goods delivered to our new home. It has been in storage since the end of September. So, the arrangement was that the moving company would load the shipment on Tuesday, deliver on Wednesday. So far, so good.
All day Tuesday, we expected a call from the moving company, telling us what time to expect the truck to arrive. By 4:00pm, no such call had come in, so I called the company. Uh-oh, no answer. OK, they'll call in the morning. We set out alarms for 7:00am, got up, showered, dressed, fed...and waited. By 10:30, I decided to call the company again. Just as I was looking up the phone number, they called. They were on the way and would arrive in about an hour. OK. A little late to get started, but we'll deal. I asked what size truck they were bringing. The answer was TWO trucks--a tractor trailer and a smaller moving van. I cringed at the tractor trailer and pointed out that our road is too busy and not large enough to park a tractor trailer out there while it is unloaded. The driver seemed unconcerned and said they would assess the situation when they got here. Believing him was mistake number one.
So - the trucks arrive and the men are very concerned about pulling that big semi around our circular driveway. Me, too. But the driver indicated that, if I didn't mind that he crushed some of the vegetation at the side of the drive (we were looking at spiky green-leafed plants that produce a purple flower in spring followed by dark berries in summer) that he could do it. Believing him was mistake number two. Believing ONLY the small green plants at the edge of the driveway was all that would be damaged was mistake number three.
From the start, there were problems. The tractor could pull around the drive easily--alone. Attach a fifty-two foot trailer and that means the tractor has to pull V E R Y wide in order to get the trailer to remain on the driveway. So the first thing to be damaged was a very old, very large azalea bush. I had been taking pictures for the blog when things started going badly. I stopped when things started going badly, so I wouldn't make them feel like I was being litigious - so I was out there when the tires smashed my beautiful shrub...and one of the workers saw me watching and asked "Do you want the azalea?" Do I want the azalea? DO I WANT THE AZALEA? Well, yes, as a matter of fact I DO want the azalea, but more importantly, I want my septic system intact! Those shrubs hide two different service ports for the septic system! I managed to point that out before they crushed it with the gigantic truck. SO they did some back-and-forthing and finally (after driving off the edge of the driveway and crushing a drainage pipe, damaging the retaining wall and generally making a mess) got the truck in a position that it could be unloaded.
I do have to hand it to these guys--they hustled unloading that truck. It was unloaded and the paperwork finished by about 7:00pm. Then it was time to get that trailer out of there. Yeah. They tried--for hours they tried. They drove off the driveway, again, broke more of the retaining wall and somehow managed to break the belt on the truck's alternator and eventually overheating the motor as it spun it's wheels in my flower garden. At one point the trailer seemed to be inches from our back porch. They gave up with the truck overheated and sitting in the back yard. Then they arranged for a tow truck to take the tractor, but left the trailer sitting in the yard. It sat there for Thursday and possibly Friday--I forget how long now--I just know that they consulted a towing company who made more sense than the first group of men. However, they suggested removing a tree so that they could swing the trailer around and pull it straight out of the driveway.
Somewhere in the midst of all this, our new next door neighbor came over and introduced himself to Tom--and mentioned that he needed to point out our property line to him, as the truck had damaged HIS retaining wall, which adjoins our shared driveway! He built the wall himself, and had already fixed it, but what a way to introduce ourselves to our new neighbors!
The next day, we get a call from the original driver, who says he is on his way with a new tractor and he is going to pick up the trailer. Making this very long tail a little shorter, he made the problem two or three times worse, finally giving up when the truck was jack-knifed up against a tree in the back of the house. The tractor had some damage, as did the trailer. It was not good.
Nothing happened with the truck on Sunday, except that we joked about how to incorporate it into our landscape design.
On Monday, TWO tow trucks and a driver showed up, did even MORE damage to the yard, but THEY GOT THE TRAILER OUT OF THE YARD! WOOHOO! I do have pictures and will post them as soon as I get to the other computer, where they have been downloaded.
Here it comes!
First sign of trouble--the driver cannot navigate while still ON the driveway.
The back end of the trailer was had already taken out some azaleas, and was about to run over the septic cleanout!
The first tree the truck wedged up against....the tractor has already been removed and gone on it's way.
This is the way the trailer was left the first day.
This is the result of the original driver trying to get the truck out a couple of days after the delivery. He made things worse....
One of the two tow trucks it took to get the tractor and the trailer out of our yard--five days later!
