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Bros. He had been there forever and he also took the time to teach me many things. I take great pride in being on time and doing my job to the best of my ability. I never had any complaints so I got along great with my superintendents. In the fall of 2011 I decided that it was time to stay home and focus on working around here. I had been gone so much that I had lost touch with many of my friends and everything that was going on around home. But instead of working for someone else I decided to start a custom crop spraying business. I bought a 1992 Kenworth w900b with a 425 cat and a 15 speed and called my company AP Custom Contracting. I struggled a bit with the name as I did not want to limit myself to any one aspect of the industry and settled on this because it pretty well covers anything I want to do in trucking or farming. Spraying crops is not as easy as it sounds, Mother Nature is a big player in the game. There are a number of things you have to consider not the least of which is applying the herbicide at the right time for the crop. I found it a challenge but I absolutely loved it. I had to go to school to get my applicators license which took me a few times but I did get it which is something I was proud of because I really sucked in school. I worked for Sturgeon Valley fertilizers the very first year I own Sprayer and then continued on from there, eventually expanding with a fertilizer floater as well. A floater spreads dry fertilizer that the farmer works into the ground himself. I had found that truck on Kijiji during harvest time so I wasn’t able to get away but the guy that owned it in Clearwater, BC, told me that he would hold it for a while. As soon as we had time my good friend Brian and I ran over to look at it and when we got there we found it was full of green moss. It obviously hadn’t been used for a while but it was definitely the one I was looking for. We took it for a spin and it stalled the first time I used the Jake so I had to get it boosted as the batteries were toast from sitting so long. That didn’t stop me though, I went to the bank got a certified check and an in-transit permit and drove it home. It has come a long way since then. I polished it, put on new rims and rubber, new exhaust and all kinds of other little things to make the truck look the way it does now. I still have this truck and will forever keep it and hold it dear to my heart. I now keep it in the shed during the winter time and use it as a spare in the summertime. I ended up buying a used set of grain trailers in Saskatchewan and decided to haul some grain. There is not a lot of money to be made doing that but I loved doing it and it was a good fit to fill in my time between my other jobs. I drove the 92 Kenworth and sprayed and hauled grain with it up until I bought a beautiful candy apple red 2001 Kenworth W 900 with a C16 cat engine. It was on consignment with Regina Custom Truck Sales and Lou Nogue, the original owner, had bought it new and kept it in mint condition. Talking to him was what convinced me, so I drove it home from Regina and loved every minute of it. PAGE 24
In the fall of 2013 I bought a new set a grain trailers to match the truck and everything was going along great, business was steady and I was pretty proud of what I had managed to accomplish. Then on December 19, 2013 a kid crossed the centreline on the bridge in Fort Saskatchewan and I hit them head-on with a full load of grain behind me. The truck, the trailers, and two pickups were totaled in the accident. Fortunately everyone survived but it shut down traffic for about three hours while we cleaned up the mess. Doug from DRM Recovery came to the rescue and we moved the truck and trailer out of the way and then split everything and hauled the truck home to the shed. I ended up selling the truck later on to a guy in Plamondon Alberta. I’ve been in some pretty hairy situations over the years but that accident by far scared me the most. It took me a while to drive again but three months later I went out and bought a new trailer and started hauling grain again. I’ve been pretty fortunate with the law-enforcement. I haven’t had many problems with them. I do my job and I make sure everything looks good when I go across the scales which I’m sure has had a lot to do with the fact that they treat me well. If you look good they seem to have a different attitude and I’ve learned that if you treat people the way you want to be treated, you usually don’t have too many problems. They have a job to do and if you go in with an attitude they are just as likely to give one back. I believe strongly in the whole yes sir no sir thing and no question is ever a dumb question. Live and let live, we’re all in this together. I bought a 2006 Kenworth tri drive in August of 2014. It had a stainless tank on it and I hauled water locally with it for a few winters in between the crop spraying and grain hauling. I also used it to cater to the sprayer in the summertime but with the oilfield slowing down and the future uncertain I decided to sell it after just a few years. The years flew by as I was looking after farmers doing custom spraying and running the fertilizer floater and hauling grain. It was awesome but in the spring of 2015 I needed new equipment but the prices had gone up so much that it didn’t make sense anymore so I decided to sell my custom spraying and floating business and just focus on trucking. I sold my sprayer and my custom built set of super b’s to a farmer in Saskatchewan and the fertilizer floater went to a local friend of mine. After selling the sprayer business I bought a Muvall equipment trailer from the local John Deere dealership. I knew the trailer had been well looked after, with only a few guys pulling it, so I decided to take a chance and buy it and move some equipment. I haven’t looked back since - it’s been awesome. I work for a lot of the local dealerships and farmers and I love every minute of it. It’s been a lot of fun moving different equipment and delivering equipment to farmers and other customers. My heart has always been in both farming and trucking so this combination is a great fit for
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april 2017