25th - 28th March 2008

Tuesday.
0645 Start. First job was to unblock the yard, machines here and there barricading the place up over the Easter break to be moved. Once cleared it's off to Takeley near Stansted Airport to load one of our Yanmar 75's.



Or at least most of it as the bonnet is missing, thanks to a driver having reshaped it.



I'm off site by 0800 and off along the A120 and A12 towards Ipswich turning off just before the A14 to drop it off at Washbrook down a narrow windy lane. It's an awkward place to get into, a little track off a sharp bend on a hill, reversing in on the slippery road calls for difflock but it's not impossible.

Once I'm empty I head up the A14/A140 to Denham nr. Eye in Suffolk, I'm loading one of our grab attachments there and I get them lift it on with the machine. There's also some hydraulic couplings to remove from their machine and I do this whilst standing on the back of the wagon as the ground is quite boggy. The fittings are done up tight and don't want to loosen even with a 2' long spanner. When the last one does decide to give way, I overbalance and fall clean off the side of the motor. Luckily I stayed on my feet and off my arse and didn't get too caked up. Luckier still I didn't fall awkwardly and injure myself. On reflection it wasn't the best way to attack the couplings but it's a lesson learnt.



I retrace my steps back into Essex and follow the A12 to Witham where I head up to Cressing just before Braintree. I'm collecting our 1.5t Hitachi ZX16 here, I'd purposely had the grab loaded far foward enough to give space to slot the maggot on the back.



It's a short run round to Greenshields JCB in Braintree where I load an old friend? a Volvo EC15 1.5t that used to belong to Jovic Plant in Chelmsford, it's obviously a part ex machine that has now been resold. It's loaded on the back and I'm just about done for time.

After I'd finished my break I call the customer in Corringham, and decide I'd better get shifting if I was to catch her before she went off to the school run. As it happens I just caught up with her as she was off out. Delivery note signed and keys through the letter boxI head back for the yard.

After sorting out tomorrows work I head off at 1615. 342Km

Wednesday.
0645 Start. It's all local first thing, down to nearby Cock Clarks to load a 120 roller.



There's another machine in the barn but as it's such short trips it's not worth squeezing them both on. The roller is returned to Lavenham Plant at Cold Norton 5 minutes down the road. On the way back there's a 6t dumper to collect from another site, it's loaded and dropped off back at the yard.



Back to the first site to load them machine from inside the barn.


It's almost completely dry of diesel, luckily I keep a 5l can in the toolbox for this sort of occurrence.



It's a bit unbalanced with all that weight on the front, getting it on and off back at Jovic plant was carried out very carefully.

Back up the hill to Danbury where I load the 6t dumper back on, now resplendant with new seat. The dumper is off to Brentwood where it's exchanged for one that had been hired in from Jovic.


No sign of the Apprentice today.

I'm heading for Takeley now and decide to take the M25/M11. Or at least I did until I got to Brook Street where I circuited the roundabout and went back into Brentwood.
It's a bit of a windy route Brentwood - Ongar - Leaden Roding - Great Dunmow and I experiment with a corner cutting route near Dunmow. Very narrow and no time saving but a change of scenery nontheless. At Takeley I'm loading a JCB 803 also heading back to Jovic Plant at Sandon. No more pictures today as my camera is playing up.

Finished at the yard 1645. 151Km

Thursday.

0645 Start. There's not much on the board this morning and it's all local, first job is off to Mashbury to load a couple of machines for a landscaper. It's a house on a country road and there's just space for me to pull up outside without blocking the road. I'd been told that the driveway would be clear at 0730 but there were 2 cars blocking it. As there's not much on I decided to sit quietly outside and see if they'd get moved. They didn't, and at 0800 I decide it's not too unreasonable to ask for them to be moved.

There's a skiploader to go on followed by a Hyundai 55. They're not going far, just along back to his yard at Little Waltham.

It's about 0900 and the next job is booked for 1000 in Chelmsford, I've got to ring and give an hours notice anyway but the guy is on site already so I head straight down to E2v to load.

There's an assortment of small stuff here to load, first on is a skiploader followed by a 1.5t machine. Next up is a little 80 roller and what's this, A WHEELBARROW? that's manual handling equipment.


Don't think much of that.

This lot is going to his yard at Felsted, and when unloading I put the wheelbarrow situation right by nipping it up against the dozer blade and tracking it off with the machine.

Well that's me done for now and I decide to park up in one of my quiet spots for a well earned brew. I've just finished and am about to shut my eyes when the phone rings, another job has come up and can I head over to Tollesbury.

Over at Tollesbury is an old Ford wheeled digger, it's almost up to it's axles in crap and there are buckets to round up. Although I leave that to the blokes on site, I still get involved and end up caked in mud. I load the machine on and go to town on the chains, these old wheeled diggers have a nasty habit of moving about in transit. I'm off with it to Latchingdon where I unload at a soon to be demolished garage.

Luckily the brakes work and I manage to get back down to ground level safely and miss the overhead cables.

Finally I get a chance to take a break, but there's another job to do yet. The next job is up at the other end of the county again at Sible Hedingham which is best part of an hours single carriageway away. There's a 4.5t Kobelco here at a site behind the Premdor factory, it goes on uneventfully in the rain.

It's down to Tiptree with this to their yard, and ironically being the cleanest machine I've moved all day it's the only one that makes a bid for freedom and slides down the ramps. Back to the yard for a 1715 finish. 245Km

Friday.
0645 Start. Nothing doing first thing, I'd planned to wash the truck down but as it was tipping down with rain I decided not to bother. There was an errand to run, taking a spare van over to one of our drivers near Braintree and driving his one back but real work didn't start until 1100 when I left the yard for Takeley (again).



I had our 3t Komatsu to drop off at the site compound.



And also a collection not on the site itself but about 50 yards away. There was a 3t dumper and a Hyundai 55 to load (just visible above), both these were delivered here a couple of weeks ago and were now caked in mud. They were delivered to the farm in Felsted where the little stuff went yesterday.



My next job wasn't until late afternoon, so there was nothing else to do but to park up put the kettle on and hit the bunk for a couple of hours. 2 hours later the rain has washed off a lot of the mud and I'm still going to be early so I meander off up the A12 at 50mph an stop to top off the fuel tanks. I'm going to Washbrook near Ipswich where I started out this week.


There's so lovely little narrow lanes to thread my way through.







And I manage to squeeze up outside the site where I've got a half hour wait whilst they finish with the machine. This machine is really caked but it just manages to slip and slide up the ramps and I'm off back down to Essex. Traffic is heavy on the way back and I'm finished at the yard at 1745.

That's me done for about 3 weeks now as I'm off to America.