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Writer's pictureCrazy Jar Lady

Haulin'.... Jars!


I drive a normal everyday farm truck and I can haul alot of things; all sorts of necessary items for living on a farm and having livestock. But I hate hauling most everything. If I can't close the tonneau cover to keep things from flying out of the bed or getting wet; it irritates me to no end. This follows on the heels of years of hauling all kinds of big, top heavy items; hay bales falling out of the truck, feed bags falling over the sides, losing a bucket going down the road.... Not my forte. I still have not mastered it.


Fast forward to Wednesday, I needed a pallet of feed AND there was a lady selling 33 dozen jars in the same town! Score! 1 trip, less fuel, right? Beeeepppppp, wrong..... My truck is a short bed and while that makes it far easier to park and maneuver around, it doesn't make it great for hauling excess items. It's also a quad cab, which in the case of a normal person would mean I could have filled the backseat with jars, right? Beeeeepppp, wrong..... The back seat is the doggies' riding spot and the doggies have a required appearance at the feed store; per employees request. While the doggies are used to having part of the seat and floor (doggie eye roll here) taken up with whatever items I've scavenged that day, I leave a "generous" spot for them.


I picked up the pallet of feed first, AND stopped at the thrift store; that way I knew where I could fit jars. OR so I thought.


This kind woman was shutting down her household for the end of life move to assisted living/nursing home. Her husband of I dunno how many years was ill and you could tell she was weaker than she would like to be. She knew some of my elder family and that made her about 85. She wasn't going to be canning anymore and was tickled that I was going to get them filled up again. I have to say, it was so nice to be able to buy clean jars ready to wash and use rather than dusty jars from a barn or basement that needed to be soaked and scrubbed by hand. Box by box, her daughter and I hauled the jars up from their wonderful, house-on-a-hill type, dry basement. (Basement envy for sure.)


As each box came up to the truck, I had to realize that my plans to haul everything in one day was gonna be difficult to achieve. I set boxes ontop of the thrift store purchases. I filled the passenger side of the back seat and the floor board with boxes. I packed boxes into every crevice around the pallet; turned them onto their side and finally was able to set a few along the top of the pile, behind the cab, in front of the pallet. They were set down under the bed rails enough they wouldn't be able to wriggle out. OR so I thought. After visiting for a few more minutes, I took off on my way home. An hour drive. With every bump resulting in a glass on glass tinkle. (doggie eye roll here; this... AGAIN Mom?)


I don't drive slowly. I have gotten better in the past few years but I was hurting from hoofing boxes up from a basement, through a garage and climbing into the truck to stash them. I still had to unload feed and all these jars when I got home. I kept things just above the speed limit and went about my merry way. OR so I thought.


On the 4 lane, there is a large bump that goes over a bridge that I had completely forgotten about. Well.... the jars reminded me. Crash, jingle, bang.... Look out the rearview to see a little box fly away! What jars were in it? I can't remember, I keep going, I see nothing wanting to cause trouble in the rear view.... Look in the mirror to see a shower of glass explode on the road. A jar flew off and vaporized when it hit the pavement at 70 miles an hour. What in the world? Not a good place to pull over, hope that's the only one. Pretty soon I see a shower of white dust again in the rear view mirror. I still have heard nothing rattling about or causing any trouble. I finally get to a spot to pull over and see nothing amiss. Get back in and haul on home.


Handsome had gotten off work and was waiting for me. I was pissy and tired and I don't think his day had gone all that well either. We proceeded to unload the feed and the jars and then I see them.... 4 pint jars lined up on their side along the back wall of the cab, in front of the roll part of the tonneau cover. It was the box of 6 pints that had flown out and 4 of them managed to hang on for their lives!


I drove back to the spots on the highway to see if there was anything needing cleaned up. There wasn't a sizeable piece of glass to be found. It was just white dust. Talk about a physics experiment.


What have you hauled that flew out or got lost?

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