The U-Haul Composting Disaster

Half of the load.

Oh boy... where to start.

What gardener could pass up the chance at a huge cash load of compost? This gardening girl could not. After a previous post on composting one can understand that only so much compost can be acquired through the waste produced by their own home and yard. Anything is better than none, but more is better!

That's why when the opportunity to get more had sprouted up how could I not take advantage of it?

So one day I ran into some friends I had not seen in awhile. We got to talking... which usually hits on gardening eventually... whereupon we were reminded of an idea we had come up with earlier in the year where we should all get together one day in spring and rent a U-Haul truck to collect compost for our gardens. When you don't own a truck you have to be more creative at times on how to get things done.

We determined that in two days all of our schedules were positively aligned to allow us to follow through with our compost day plans.

First off, it had been raining. When we got going on that damp Tuesday morning it was chilly and gloomy... but not raining. So far so good. Probably should have checked the weather though.

Our friends car was at the shop, so we had to pick them up before we headed to the U-Haul. This will prove its complications as you will see. First off, I would like to say how proud I am that I was able to fit, four people, ten five gallon buckets, three shovels and a garden fork in my Honda Fit (a small car that lives up to its name).

After renting the U-Haul, instead of driving the truck and the car over we somehow decided it would be better to U-Haul-pool... two people in the cab and two in the ... back? Talking about precious cargo.

We signed in at the public works facility and backed right up to a fresh pile of compost that was just brought over by another friend who I didn't even realize worked at the facility who was operating the heavy machinery there. The first shovels full of compost entered the U-Haul around 10:30am, by 11:30am or a little later we ... were sagging. And by we I mean the U-Haul. It was a bit surprising how fast we filled that thing up! We were in such a routine of shoveling and filling up buckets and emptying them in the truck that no one really thought about... maximum load capacities or anything like that.

Oh my.

So we began to worry... are we over our maximum weight capacity already? Have we gone too far. We stopped loading up the compost and... realized that it wouldn't be safe to allow anyone to ride in the back anymore... because risks of suffocation and death. Therefore, because my car was not there we had to all U-Haul-pool in the cab of the truck... four adults in a three person capacity vehicle. My boyfriend was driving, so one friend sat on the lap of the other and I sat in the middle where I couldn't get my seat belt to work... and our friends' seat belt just wouldn't stretch that far... so you have now three persons driving without a seat belt in a U-Haul truck full of dirt and possibly over their maximum weight capacity.

This situation had us all slightly unnerved. What if the police pulled us over? Our paranoia led us to take as many back roads as possible to our first stop, my garden. This decision was made mostly because the trip to my home had the least steep hill and this made us feel that it would be the safest route to take for our overloaded U-Haul which was definitely not enjoying all our golden compost.

When we pulled into the driveway... we were in celebratory mode, because... we made it! You would have thought we just survived some great battle. We all jumped out of the U-Haul to go inside the house to recover... but my boyfriend was still driving...

Lets back up a second here to our garden fence design, which has an extra wide gate that allows for a truck to drive in if needed to unload manure, compost, a roto-tiller (if we ever get to use one) and other supplies as needed.

...My boyfriend was driving the U-Haul to the garden as was earlier mentioned by myself to the others that this would make it so convenient when it came to unloading (we were already tired as it was). If we were not all so exuberant from our victorious journey, our brains might have been more reflective on the fact that it had been raining for several days in a row. If we had thought it over better... we would have realized what a horrible horrible idea it was to unload the U-Haul at the garden.

When I went back outside, I found the U-Haul stuck in the backyard lawn. I have to hand it to him, my boyfriend made it quite far before it got hampered down by its own weight and the wet ground. It may have well made it if he didn't slow down to turn to avoid a group of bushes.

We did what? We got a U-Haul truck full of compost stuck in the backyard? Yes. And it went from bad to worse as we tried to get it unstuck.

Before.

And not so far after. It got worse believe me.

We tried several ideas for backing it up, but only succeeded in digging the tires deeper into the earth. The ground was just too soft and the truck too heavy. To lighten the load a little we emptied out my gardens' share of the compost. At this point everyone wanted to just get it out as fast as possible to speed up getting the U-Haul out of the lawn. On the other hand, I argued to use the wheelbarrow to fill up instead of just dumping all the compost in the lawn. While everyone dumped the compost onto the lawn I was transporting wheelbarrow full after wheelbarrow full to the rows of the garden. I felt some slight irritation from the other members of the use, but whats the difference if its dumped on the lawn or in a wheelbarrow? I felt this was more efficient in saving energy and time by not moving the stuff more than needed.

To make matters even worse the lawn is sloped, so every awesome attempt we made to back the big boy up only caused it to slide sideways down the hill slightly. Which was always... into the the pile of compost that was just dumped onto the lawn... hysterically. OK, it may not have been funny at the time, but it makes me laugh out loud now thinking about it (actually I think I laughed then too, just not everyone one else who were even more tired and irritated by the whole situation). By driving/sliding into the pile of compost we had to dig the truck out of the very compost we had transported with it. Using the wheelbarrow wasn't such a bad idea after all. On top of that, the truck was ever slipping closer and closer to our perennial rhubarb patch, which is just starting to pop up.

By around 1:30pm we were giving up. Our whole hearted attempts to get the U-Haul out of the lawn only advanced us further into the soft soil. I had in fact renewed my AAA membership and called them up to see if I could use my one of my service calls. Unfortunately AAA said they would not service a vehicle such as our 14' U-Haul. Hmm. By around 2:00pm we bade goodbye to our friends as a taxi (because my car was at the U-Haul store still!!) drove them away (one had to go to work). We all had given up to call a tow truck, but my boyfriend was determined to save money and get the U-Haul unstuck. Which after about an hour or more he too gave up.

Which is why Mr. Towman had to visit our house.