Help hard working family start over

There comes a time when we can't let pride get in the way, especially when it comes to survival of a young family who has worked so hard and overcome one disaster after another for almost 8 years.  I'm talking about my son and his fiance and 2 young children.  

The picture you see was the final straw from which we need your help to recover from.  Thankfully, no one was hurt--physically, but financially.  We band together to help when someone has a fire and looses their home....so I was hoping that maybe we could help this family who lost their means of making a living and after a series of one thing after another, their home could soon follow.

To give a little background, he was proud to have bought his own tractor trailer when he was barely 21.  No one could predict that it was right before the economy went into the "Great Recession".  That was followed by the paper mill in our town closing.  Although that is sadly becoming common these days, our town is isolated and 70 miles from "civilization" and was built solely for the benefit of the paper mill--a true "one horse town".  

He managed to roll with the punches trying to be flexible and reach for any opportunity.  He got a newer used truck that could be more flexible and be able to work in the woods as well as on the highway and hopefully have less repairs.........the truck burned to the frame.  He was months without pay until the insurance company finally settled the claim and he bought another used truck.

Then the fuel prices went over $4/gallon causing a loss of income of $1,000/week.  The cost of fuel also affects many other things, including tires, parts, etc.  I can't remember exactly when but he hit a moose....actually the moose it him!  He was without pay for another 2 months....partially the insurance company and partially the shop ordering the wrong hood and other things that caused a substantial delay.  

Through trying that much harder, working longer hours and somehow managing to convince a lender, he bought the truck of his dreams!  Still used but it was so nice to see that beautiful thing....especially if you have to live in it to earn enough to maintain the business and your home....well guess what.....it was a lemon!!!  It could barely go 30 miles before emissions problems shutting it down repeatedly...thereby missing loads and severely cutting his income.  As if that wasn't enough, he had to hire a lawyer to make the dealer give him his money back.

By this time he was getting deeper and deeper into financial trouble.  Who could endure all this?  He eventually ended up in bankruptcy loosing both his truck and his log trailer, got the 1996 truck you see above hoping that before too long he could pay it off and maybe he could make it if he didn't have a truck payment.  After only 5,000 miles he lost the engine, costing $20,000 to rebuild!!!  During all this time, mill after mill is closing all over the state.  What people don't realize is, that the fewer mills that are open, the longer wait to get unloaded, therefore loosing how many loads you can make in a day and therefore, income that is already being eaten up by increasing costs and less pay.

So then he tried this, and then he tried that....and it all becomes a blur of a nightmare you can't wake up from.  He's tried to sell the truck, tried applying for other work having already sold just about everything of value just to make ends meet, he was hauling in MA and something broke on I-95 he coasted to the breakdown lane, got out of the truck and a car came flying into the the trailer and hit hard enough to break the trailer wheel and other damage and bounce off inches from where he was standing and had to come up with the money to fix it enough to get it off the road until the insurance could kick in.......one year he tried the scrap business until the prices went way down...........then he looses the transmission.........another $7,000 and a couple weeks of work because of trying to juggle money to pay for this....so deeper and deeper you go.  You've got so much money invested in the truck, AND you've got a family to feed.....by this time, you're at the eleventh hour of loosing your house....month after month after month.

Seemingly simple things like the drivers seat was worn out....the seat you live in for 14 hours a day +/-....he tried putting pillows here and there pounding around in that for months on end thinking, maybe next week, maybe next week........well the seat finally gave out completely so there went $400 that would've gone to one of the other bills that was in the eleventh hour.  Thankfully  he found work with a very good man.....at times like this it's like an angel that drops from the sky.......then the turbo goes.......thankfully, someone had a used one & he just prayed it worked.  It did!!!!  The truck ran like a charm, his back & hips weren't crippled anymore and he had a good job he loved.........that lasted about 24 hours...he meets some pickups pulling snowmobile trailers coming out of a curve on a narrow branch road, slows almost to a stop and the tail started wagging the dog and the trailer pulled the truck over and for the first time in 13 years of driving, he rolls over and no money left at all.  

The truck is still sitting on the branch road after finally being uprighted today but is not driveable.  Just to fix it enough to get it home (3-4 hours away) will cost $600.  It can't stay where it is very long, not to mention needing to work on it and scramble to try to get some more loads before the spring mud season brings everything to a hault.  (And when he got home after all this, there was a notice about having 5 days to save his house)  :(  As for the truck, It will take a bit more to fix everything and the money is gone and what he did have had to go towards repairs, plus Mother Nature has caused a loss of work also,  now he's behind on fuel and insurance and the registration is due.  If you know anything about trucks, everything has at least three zeros behind it....so that's how I arrived at the goal.  

Believe it or not, after this long tale of woe, I've actually left out A LOT....this is the Reader's Digest version of what the last 8 years has been, but I thought by explaining some of what's gone on you would realize this isn't just one incident, it's been a string of hard times.  So as hard as this is to ask, I don't know anyone who has rebuilt himself so many times and has somehow found the endurance to pick himself up and start over so many times and now this, when he has a good job, a rarity these days, and new motor, new transmission, new turbo and even a darn seat and  so close to grabbing the ring he's been reaching for by getting back to work and saving his house.  Thank you for your patience in reading this and we will be forever grateful for any help we receive.