Helpful Teenagers...
I'm back out on the farm again, having made the trip safely and without incident, at least until I got to the farm...
Mom and I had been up until 2am last night, packing boxes and loading the trailer. I had been loading the trailer until 1am, until I noticed that the lights on the trailer were getting dimmer and dimmer. The trailer draws it's power for the lights from the truck battery, and for this reason I had a battery-charger connected to the battery to keep it topped up while the lights were on. Turns out that the clamp on the negative post wasn't sitting quite right, so I had been running the battery down for the last seven hours. Crud... Once the clamp was properly connected, the battery started drawing full power from the charger - more than the charger could comfortably handle, so the automatic circuit breaker kept popping. Thankfully, it also automatically resets itself a moment later, so I didn't have to babysit the thing all night. Running the lights was drawing far too much power from a dead battery (would not have been a problem if the battery hadn't been totally drained) so I stopped the loading at 1am and just let the charger concentrate on recharging the battery. By 8:30am this morning, it was nearly finished, and by the time we were finally ready to leave it had completed the charge.
It was almost noon by the time we actually left Calgary, so we were running about four hours behind schedule (again). The Trans-Canada highway was in pretty good shape, with only a couple of places that gave me some concern. The rest of the trip was travelled at nearly full-speed (posted limit is 110km/h but I go a little slower when pulling the trailer.) Highway 37 which connects Shaunavon to the Trans-Canada was another matter. Our top-speed there was only 80 km/hr, but at least there was no wind and thus no blowing snow. Again, no problems at all, just going a little slower than we could on dry roads. We got to the farm around 6:30pm, having made excellent time (for winter conditions) and that's when the problem started...
We had stopped on the highway, and turned into our driveway. Said driveway has not been properly cleared of snow, and by the time I realized that we were slipping, it was too late. I put the truck into 4x4 mode, and this would normally have solved the problem. In fact, if it had been the truck alone, it would have solved the problem. But the truck pulling an 8000-pound trailer? That's another issue...
Unfortunately, both the truck and the trailer had slipped off the proper driveway and into the side areas, which are grassy and currently under about 2 to 3 feet of hard-packed snow. Keep in mind that it was also dark now, as the sun had set about 20 minutes ago (absolutely gorgeous sunset, BTW...) With some rocking back and forth and digging, I had managed to get the truck closer to the house, but it was also slipping further and further off the driveway and into the side areas, dragging the trailer with it. Or was it the trailer dragging the truck into the ditch? Either way, the bottom line is that we were really getting stuck. My little telescoping emergency shovel proved to be totally useless, breaking in half as I tried to dig the snow out from under the wheels. I marched up to the house to get the proper snow-shovel, and cursed myself for forgetting the one thing in Calgary that I really needed: My boots!! Thanks Murphey!!
I believe it was about my fourth attempt at digging the truck out (I had finally managed to get the truck and trailer into a straight line, so I had hoped it would finally get loose once I cleared enough snow away) when another truck pulled into the yard. Four young men (I'd guess they were all in their late teens) had driven past the farm, and had seen the stuck truck and trailer. They actually turned around and came back to help! They grabbed another shovel from their truck and helped dig snow out of the way, and attached a tow-strap from their truck to mine. It still took a few attempts, but we finally got the truck and trailer pulled free and back into firm ground. They refused any kind of payment for their efforts, saying that they were glad to have been able to help. I thanked them very much (again) and said I hoped that someday I might be able to return the favour.
This is what people are like out here in the country - both the adults and the teenagers. They actually help each other, without being asked, and without any expectation of reward or payment. You just do it because helping your neighbour is the proper thing to do. Perhaps this is a little positive Karma Payback for the 13 years of clearing my elderly neighbours' sidewalks and driveways back in Calgary. In any case, this was an incredibly refreshing change from the kind of teenagers that I have dealt with in the city. You do hear the occasional story of teens helping people out, but not as often as you hear about the trouble they cause. I met four of the good ones tonight, and that's helped restore my faith in today's youth.