Monday-
Its a late start for me today, i have to phone the office at 7am to find out whats going to happen.
Normally i leave my trailer in a nearby bit of forest over the weekend and take my unit home, but
with the bad weather forecast i had gone for the more cautious approach and dropped it in a local bus park.
With hindsight i would have been better leaving the whole lot coupled up.
I have a load already on , so at least i have something to go with.
I am told to go and get my trailer on and phone about 8 am.
After a bit of spinning i get the unit hooked up (its OK when i get under the neck of the trailer).
Along with my neighbour " Norrie " we are to head for the sawmill at Dalbeattie.
We are asured that there is no snow there 
.
We finally get on the road and find the roads are well gritted and clear.
We seem to have escaped a lot better than some parts of the country.
The rest and be thankful looks stunning today.
The run to Dalbeattie is uneventful and when we get there we find there is no snow at all.
A quick tip and when we phone in we are told to head for home, they are having difficulty getting loads out the forest
and we are to phone in the morning to find out where we are loading.
Its a straight run home and we get parked with a little bit of spinning and sliding.
Tuesday-
No snow last night but there is still a lot in our street.
I phone the office and am told to meet one of the loaders at the end of a forest road on Loch Awe.
The roads are once again clear and only a wee bit of slush lying on them.
Once off the main road the road is down to a single track , on some of the corners i have to venture out onto the
fresh snow.
I catch up on a builders transit and he soon pulls in and lets me past (seems more than happy to follow me ).
When i reach the end of the forest road , i find Archie the loader driver is sitting there already.
There is no way i am going to get in the wood today , so the load will need to be brought out to me 
.
This morning i get my initiation in fitting Snow Chains .
We fit a full set of 4 single chains , its made easier by the fact that you can lift the rear of the loader using the jack
legs.
With a bit of huffing and puffing we get them done ( much respect to the guys that have to do this in a blizzard).
Then i lock my truck up and go for a wee run in the loader.
The forest has a good coating , but the chains make short work of the snow.
I am loading 3.7m logs for lockerbie , so it will take 2 runs to get a full load .
As we return down the forest we encounter another problem .
To get the weight on the loader, its been piled that high it wont safely go under the height marker goal posts.
These are in place to warn us about low power lines ahead.
So instead of unloading the logs , its a case of swinging the crane round and tucking the boom down low enough.
With this done its a short drive to the main road and i start to get my load on.
When Archie goes to get the rest of my load , i get turned round and await his return.
Soon i am loaded and on my way to the EON power station at Lockerbie.
This run goes without a hitch and when i am tipped i am told to head for the fish food plant a bathgate.
The run up the M74 goes OK till i reach Cairn lodge services and it starts to snow , a taste of things to come lol.
I go into Hamilton serves for fuel and am told its a 100L limit as they are running short (3 days snow and the whole
world is grinding to a halt).
I make it to J4 on the M8 and then it turns to a winter wonderland.
I finally make it to the Ewos factory and get myself weighed in and parked up in the yard.
I go and get a shower , the grass along the front of the factory is that deep with snow the track is up to your knees.
Another of our trucks has arrived an he gets parked outside
Soon after one of jenkisons curtainsiders arrive and gets shuffled out the way.
I trudge my way over the weigh bridge and head to the truck and bed time
Wednesday-
Well Wednesday starts very early lol.
i am rudely wakened at the back of one by very loud scraping noise at the front of my truck .
On opening the curtains i see there has been a heavy snow fall and the night shift guys are scraping the yard
with a home made snow plough.It,s doing a good job .
Back to bed and soon i am back asleep
The clock goes off at 5.30 as they usually start loading at 6.
When i open the curtains i find its bloody snowed again .
Like a sad git i measure the snow lying on my trailer ( 10 inches overnight ).
The night shift guys had wasted their time…
Once more the day shift start clearing the yard and it takes a couple of hours till they start loading.
The space in the yard is vastly reduced by the piles of snow.
Finally i am loaded and get out the yard and go and play in the drifts .
This is the main M9 motorway out of Edinburgh .
When i finally get out the central belt i manage a stop , its reading a healthy -12 as i make a cup of
tea (just outside crainalarich).
I manage to get all my wet gear set up in the passenger side an with the night heater on full blast i try and
dry it out (steamy windows lol).
Another hours drive see,s me on the peir at Oban and the fish farm boat is waiting for the load of feed.
The boats crew give me a hand to fold the covers and we are soon unloading the half ton bags (4 at a time does not take
long to do ).
The weather has cleared away and it is bitterly cold standing on top of the load , but the view over Oban
bay is stunning.
Once tipped and the timber pins are set up, i am off to meet one of our crane motor for another load of timber.
Another load for Lockerbie (this time the sawmill).
i Am soon loaded and head for home , not to much to do this week so i grab the chance to get home.
Thursday-
I start early to beat the Glasgow traffic ( its bad enough on a good day ).
I hit some snow going up the hill after Hamilton and the Traffic starts to slow down in the inside lane .
When my wheels start to spin ,i take a chance and move onto the fresh snow in lane 2.
The extra grip helps and i pass the other motors struggling in lane 1 (funny how everyone follows you when you do this).
I tip at the sawmill and once more i am heading for a load of fish food (hungry buggers lol).
Its still mess and another jcb gets in front of me (might be the same one as yesterday lol).
i am l oaded a lot quicker today and i am soon heading home.
This load is not tipping till Friday , so its another short day.
Trailers dropped in the car park show some of the timber guys are getting loads, but its hard work.
I get a call at home to tell me the boat will not be in till later in the day ,so i have to pick up a trailer for the
paper mill at Irvine (fine short run for a Friday).
Friday-
I manage to get into our yard a lochgilphead.
Its on a forest road and the snow is starting to get polished and slippy .
I drop the trailer load of fish food and go to pick up the only loaded trailer, turns out it is a load of 2.5m logs
for Lockerbie again .
I phone the office to double check i am to go with it, i get my boss on the phone.
We come to a joint decision that as there are no back loads from down there and i have spare days holidays , i will just
go home with this load and go on Monday with it.
So its a short day for me and after i spin my way through the fresh snow in the car park , i get parked up .
It hasn’t been the best of weeks , but as we are having great difficulty in getting timber any loads are good loads .
Hopefully next week will be a bit better, but i wont hold my breath on that one.
Thanks again for looking
