Getting the Wood -- the Harder Way
We were getting perilously close to running out of firewood, and running out of options to get more.
Between this in the main box and what was in the smaller box on the front porch, we had perhaps a week or so of wood left.
The Fernley Big R Ranch & Home said they had no more of the fire logs, and that we had purchased the last pallet that they have. They also said they had no control over their own ordering and that they just sell whatever is delivered to them and did not offer me any help.
I called the Fallon Big R, and while they said that they had one pallet, they also said that they could not transfer it over to the Fernley store, although they said that if we would commit to picking it up by the next day, they would hold it for us.
(Not all Big R stores are owned by the same company. For example, the store in Klamath Falls is owned by a different company. The Fernley, Fallon, Sparks, Lovelock, and Winnemucca NV stores and the Burns OR stores are all part of a company called Big R West.)
This presented a problem, as the utility trailer is not in good enough condition to travel more than short distances at low speed. The 80 km (50 mi) round-trip to Fallon at highway speeds was out of the question. So we needed to rent a trailer.
Towing capacity for the ton of firewood was not an issue. The Astro has a 5000 pound towing rating, and the the hitch is actually good for more than that. The only issue is the trailer's capacity. U-Haul rents trailers with sufficient capacity. Unfortunately, they have none available out of either Fernley or Fallon. The nearest store with sufficient capacity is in Reno, and it's apparently in "captive" service, meaning that it must be returned to the same store from which we rent it. The cost was not outrageous (about $40 net of tax and tow insurance), but the travel was going to be annoying.
Lisa and I put together a plan. If I could get away from work a little early (I was able to arrange it), we could drive from Fernley to Reno, rent the trailer, drive to Fallon and get the wood, bring it home, unload it, and return the trailer to Reno. If necessary, we could take the trailer back the next day as long as we returned it within 24 hours (actually 25 due to their grace period) of renting it.
Here's what the route looks like on Google Maps; however, it doesn't show the back-and-forth nature of the trip. This map also includes the extra stops we made at the end, about which more later.
So after clearing my calendar and promising to check back in with Day Jobbe once I was finished, I made the necessary trailer reservation and blocked the pallet to be collected by EOD Wednesday. Just after 11 AM, we set off for Reno. There were other people ahead of us when we arrived at the Oddie Blvd U-Haul, and we did not get our trailer checked out until officially 12:38 but not hitched and off the lot until about 1 PM.
Lisa is better with handling towing and did the rest of the driving today.
Fortunately for us, the snow flurries and gusty winds that we had on Wednesday morning had cleared, as per the weather forecast. If the forecast has not shown that we should expect clear weather for the time we were towing, I would have called the whole thing off.
We made a short stop back home after collecting the trailer. This is apparently the heaviest open trailer U-Haul rents. Lisa says it tracks well. They have a variation of the same trailer than has a folding ramp, but we did not want that, because it would block the forklift from being able to load the pallet. Indeed, we wanted to be able to fold the gate straight down, but the chains that hold it are welded, so it sticks out the back.
We drove to Fallon, paid for the pallet, and the forklift operator was able to push it just past the center line of the trailer so that it rode properly. Lisa tied the load to the trailer to try and prevent it from shifting. She kept the speed down for the drive home. It's a 4-lane road between Fernley and Fallon, so I do not understand why people seemed so annoyed. Passing us was not difficult; why should people think that they should be able to drive 75 mph in the slow lane?
When we got home, it was around 4 PM and the sun was on the far side of the house. The air temperatures were starting to fall, although it was still above freezing. Lisa backed the trailer into the East Lot along the fence (happy again that we don't need to worry about bothering the owner of the lot), untied the ropes, and we started unloading. As usual, Lisa handed logs from the trailer over the fence to me.
Including taking breaks to go warm up, it took us about two hours to unload the 390 logs. This fills the wood box to about two-thirds capacity. Lisa continues to talk of building a second wood box so that we can store as much as three pallets at a time. We're hoping that what we have now is enough to get us into spring without having to search for more wood.
After sweeping the sawdust out of the trailer (and putting the pallet aside to be cut down into burnable pieces later), we set off for Reno about 6 PM. Fortunately, traffic was light enough that we got to the U-Haul store with fifteen minutes to spare before they closed. They checked us back in, saving me from having to take more time off work today.
As we were already in Reno, we had two errands to run. First was to Best Buy to pick up a new monitor we ordered a couple of weeks ago. The storms had delayed its delivery to the store until a few days ago. Then we went to Raley's in South Reno/Galena because we could and because with another set of storms on the way, we'd rather not have to make yet another trip to Reno soon.
By the time we got home, we had run up 340 km (about 210 mi) and we were both really tired. I hope we don't have to do trips like this very often, but given the issues we've had with getting wood, I'm concerned that we will have to do so next season. I'm thinking of contacting Big R West and asking them what it would take to order five or six pallets in advance for next season, staggered over time. If there was some way to get them off of the delivery truck, we could conceivably even take delivery of them all at once and store them in the West Lot. They do come wrapped in plastic as you can see in the photos, and we now have a space we could put them. The only issue is that while a nearby business is willing to unload the pallets, they might be reluctant to take their forklift off the paved surface and risk getting bogged down in the dirt.
Between this in the main box and what was in the smaller box on the front porch, we had perhaps a week or so of wood left.
The Fernley Big R Ranch & Home said they had no more of the fire logs, and that we had purchased the last pallet that they have. They also said they had no control over their own ordering and that they just sell whatever is delivered to them and did not offer me any help.
I called the Fallon Big R, and while they said that they had one pallet, they also said that they could not transfer it over to the Fernley store, although they said that if we would commit to picking it up by the next day, they would hold it for us.
(Not all Big R stores are owned by the same company. For example, the store in Klamath Falls is owned by a different company. The Fernley, Fallon, Sparks, Lovelock, and Winnemucca NV stores and the Burns OR stores are all part of a company called Big R West.)
This presented a problem, as the utility trailer is not in good enough condition to travel more than short distances at low speed. The 80 km (50 mi) round-trip to Fallon at highway speeds was out of the question. So we needed to rent a trailer.
Towing capacity for the ton of firewood was not an issue. The Astro has a 5000 pound towing rating, and the the hitch is actually good for more than that. The only issue is the trailer's capacity. U-Haul rents trailers with sufficient capacity. Unfortunately, they have none available out of either Fernley or Fallon. The nearest store with sufficient capacity is in Reno, and it's apparently in "captive" service, meaning that it must be returned to the same store from which we rent it. The cost was not outrageous (about $40 net of tax and tow insurance), but the travel was going to be annoying.
Lisa and I put together a plan. If I could get away from work a little early (I was able to arrange it), we could drive from Fernley to Reno, rent the trailer, drive to Fallon and get the wood, bring it home, unload it, and return the trailer to Reno. If necessary, we could take the trailer back the next day as long as we returned it within 24 hours (actually 25 due to their grace period) of renting it.
Here's what the route looks like on Google Maps; however, it doesn't show the back-and-forth nature of the trip. This map also includes the extra stops we made at the end, about which more later.
So after clearing my calendar and promising to check back in with Day Jobbe once I was finished, I made the necessary trailer reservation and blocked the pallet to be collected by EOD Wednesday. Just after 11 AM, we set off for Reno. There were other people ahead of us when we arrived at the Oddie Blvd U-Haul, and we did not get our trailer checked out until officially 12:38 but not hitched and off the lot until about 1 PM.
Lisa is better with handling towing and did the rest of the driving today.
Fortunately for us, the snow flurries and gusty winds that we had on Wednesday morning had cleared, as per the weather forecast. If the forecast has not shown that we should expect clear weather for the time we were towing, I would have called the whole thing off.
We made a short stop back home after collecting the trailer. This is apparently the heaviest open trailer U-Haul rents. Lisa says it tracks well. They have a variation of the same trailer than has a folding ramp, but we did not want that, because it would block the forklift from being able to load the pallet. Indeed, we wanted to be able to fold the gate straight down, but the chains that hold it are welded, so it sticks out the back.
We drove to Fallon, paid for the pallet, and the forklift operator was able to push it just past the center line of the trailer so that it rode properly. Lisa tied the load to the trailer to try and prevent it from shifting. She kept the speed down for the drive home. It's a 4-lane road between Fernley and Fallon, so I do not understand why people seemed so annoyed. Passing us was not difficult; why should people think that they should be able to drive 75 mph in the slow lane?
When we got home, it was around 4 PM and the sun was on the far side of the house. The air temperatures were starting to fall, although it was still above freezing. Lisa backed the trailer into the East Lot along the fence (happy again that we don't need to worry about bothering the owner of the lot), untied the ropes, and we started unloading. As usual, Lisa handed logs from the trailer over the fence to me.
Including taking breaks to go warm up, it took us about two hours to unload the 390 logs. This fills the wood box to about two-thirds capacity. Lisa continues to talk of building a second wood box so that we can store as much as three pallets at a time. We're hoping that what we have now is enough to get us into spring without having to search for more wood.
After sweeping the sawdust out of the trailer (and putting the pallet aside to be cut down into burnable pieces later), we set off for Reno about 6 PM. Fortunately, traffic was light enough that we got to the U-Haul store with fifteen minutes to spare before they closed. They checked us back in, saving me from having to take more time off work today.
As we were already in Reno, we had two errands to run. First was to Best Buy to pick up a new monitor we ordered a couple of weeks ago. The storms had delayed its delivery to the store until a few days ago. Then we went to Raley's in South Reno/Galena because we could and because with another set of storms on the way, we'd rather not have to make yet another trip to Reno soon.
By the time we got home, we had run up 340 km (about 210 mi) and we were both really tired. I hope we don't have to do trips like this very often, but given the issues we've had with getting wood, I'm concerned that we will have to do so next season. I'm thinking of contacting Big R West and asking them what it would take to order five or six pallets in advance for next season, staggered over time. If there was some way to get them off of the delivery truck, we could conceivably even take delivery of them all at once and store them in the West Lot. They do come wrapped in plastic as you can see in the photos, and we now have a space we could put them. The only issue is that while a nearby business is willing to unload the pallets, they might be reluctant to take their forklift off the paved surface and risk getting bogged down in the dirt.