I know this is a pretty boring photo of one of our trucks at a gas pump. But there's a little more to it.
Back in early April, when we first announced our impending move to New Hampshire, I mentioned that a major reason for relocating was to be closer to services so we could reduce our operating costs for increasingly expensive things like gas. In Montana, we were 70 miles from anywhere, so it was a 140-mile (225 km) round trip to take an animal to the vet clinic or to get supplies and groceries. Even though we tried to be very efficient and disciplined about going to Missoula or Helena only once a week — we'd pack as many as 8 to 10 stops into a single day in town — it was still a pricey fill-up-the-gas-tank trip. Plus, we'd be on the road most of the day. Of course, if an animal needed to see a vet outside that once-a-week schedule, off we'd go to the clinic.
So once I got to New Hampshire, I kept an eye on the gas tank in the truck I drove out from Montana. I had filled it up the day I arrived in Lancaster, eight weeks ago last Friday. I was amazed as I made trip after trip into town that the gas gauge hardly budged. I'd call Alayne back in Ovando and say, "Hey, I'm still at three-quarters of a tank!" And this was making many more trips into town than I usually would — we still intend to consolidate multiple errands into single trips, as we did in Montana — but in the first several weeks of trying to get settled, it was harder to be quite as organized and efficient.
Well, two months later to the day, on Friday, it was finally time to fill 'er up — and that's what you see in the photo above. It was hard to believe one tank had lasted that long, given the number of trips I'd made, but that's what being 3 miles (5 km) from town will do for you. It was satisfying to know that this part of the plan was already yielding results.
Alayne and I have discussed trading in one of the trucks for a smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicle at some point, but we want to get a routine established here and see how much we'll use both trucks before making that decision. (Both trucks are also completely paid for.) We haul a lot — whether horses, hay or other heavy, bulky loads — and there have been plenty of times when one of us has been on the road hauling horses to the vet clinic or loading up the truck with supplies while the other has needed the second truck back at the ranch. So we'll see how we end up.
But in the meantime, it was good to see the first direct cost savings we anticipated as a result of moving to New Hampshire. In fact, eight weeks between fill-ups is even better than we had expected!
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
Leave a reply to Barb Ribinski Cancel reply