Goin Truckin (Part 2 1st week of school complete)

The first of the three weeks of truck driving school are complete. We drove without a trailer all week and next week we are putting on the trailers. Which I am very excited for, I can't wait to start making those 500 plus horse power motors work a little. Am I a pro at shifting something with 13 speeds?? No. But I noticed the other day I started talking while down shifting and it was a sign I was getting comfortable.

I was on the go all week this week. Up at 5:00 a.m. to be in the barn by 5:30 to able to leave the farm at 7:00 to make it to Grand Rapids by 8:00. I still ran shavings two nights this week and keeping up a little with things at Pine Manor. I am riding with Dad and it has been fun to catch up on things during our commute to and back from Grand Rapids.

Right now I have the confidence I can learn and do this and look forward to seeing the rest of the country a top of a 80,000 pound 500 plus horse power chariot.

This weekend will be business as normal. Had dinner tonight with the barn crew, then went back to the Lamb's for a movie. Tomorrow we are moving 200 bales of  hay from Lamb barn over to Pine Manor. One of the guys in my class said to me the other day. Sounds like you are burning the candle at both ends. My reply was "I have been doing it for years." But actually I feel pretty good. I am learning something new that I enjoy learning about and look forward to the "next step"

Goin Trucking (Gear jamin; part 1)

Today was the first day of class, to my surprise I wasn't all that nervous. I guess being in class and learning how to drive something with 10 plus gears is not as stressful as being in charge of a barn and trying to keep several people going and keeping track of the happenings of the Critter Barn.

  There are three other guys in class. Tim a middle aged gentlemen who did factory and construction work and wants to hit the road, probably to North Dakota first. Doug another middle aged gentleman who is a tall and a little on the heavy side. He is a former welder and team leader at a local factory. He has been out of work so long he could no longer collect unemployment. Doug is very motivated and really raises the bar for the rest of us. He has  job with Warner Transportation lined up. Then there is Mon, he is probably in his twenties and is from a small country near China. I am sure he will tell more of his story once he gets more comfortable with us Yankees.

Firsts of all I am glad I decided to go to school instead of learning how to drive a tractor trailer on my own. The manual transmissions in these trucks are nothing like the manually transmissions in our passenger cars and pickup trucks. The RPMs and MPH have to be just right otherwise you won't be able to get into gear. Unlike our passenger cars and pickup trucks. Where you basically push the clutch in and put it into gear and let out the clutch. Also when you start out in a car; you push the gas and let off the clutch at the same time. In a big rig you don't use the gas at all. You let out the clutch; until you feel it start to grab, then ease off the clutch as the rig starts to roll forward.

We probably spent half of the day driving today. First around the parking lot, then around the industrial park then out on the public road. It was jerky with us rookies learning how to shift and from what our instructor Dave said was not having a trailer behind you the truck is very jumpy and shifts better with weight behind it.

The classroom work was a introduction to the truck and it's workings. Which I understood pretty good, probably because I have been around this type of stuff for a while now.

All and all I feel good about my first day of class.

Back in August I started "Out Here" and in the first few post I think I mentioned about hanging on because it was going to be one hell of a ride. The truth is "Out Here" wasn't started to be a blog strictly about horses or farming. No it was started for the future as a place for you all to tag along for the ride and for me to have some fun along the way.

So here I go. My last day as a Critter Barn employee was Friday and my first day as a student, enrolled into a truck driving school, starts Monday. I want to thank everyone at the Critter Barn for all the good times and hard work and am hoping to be back around Christmas to help out with "live nativity".

Never before have I felt like I am standing in the cross hairs of life. It is go time and I feel it. At this moment I don't know what state I will be living in next month. It is a uneasy feeling. Not wanting to leave what is called home. But yet feeling that there is more out there for me. Feeling that for the last nine years I have helped Pine Manor chase there dreams and wander if it is time to chase my own dreams. It may sound weird but I feel like I have to give up what I know and love in order to have my own sunsets.

All I know is I want a live stock farm of my own someday. I also want to breed/raise horses and chase a national championship. This dream has been festering the last couple of years and by late last summer I knew what I would need to do to make it happen. The only way I can do that is to have my feet moving 24/7.  

I have wanted to be out on the road forever. All those years of helping Terry and Kris with There trucks and trailers, then watching as those diesels tugged those trailers off. Delivering shavings helped scratch that itch for a while. I learned a lot and met some great folks along the way. But now it isn't enough.

Hang on this is going to be fun!!!

Kody

A special thanks to those who listened as I battled with this the last couple of weeks.

Devin
Monica
Susan
Bev
Denise
Roger
Mark
Marry
Wally
Dale/Ray
Betsy

And a huge thanks to my parents.
You have stood by me through so much, thank you.