10-4 Magazine November 2024

10-4 Magazine / November 2024 13 people, and got to see a lot of neat places, so they have no regrets. After Vicki graduated from high school, the couple had their first child in 1968 – a son named James Edward Stearns. Eddie (55) works in the logging industry and runs a log loading shovel. Their second child Nicky was born in 1970, but, sadly, she died from H1N1 (the Swine Flu) around 2010. Their third child, a daughter named Valerie, was born in 1971. Ken made sure they all graduated high school (unlike him). Growing up, Valerie liked spending time with her dad in the shop over shopping or doing other girlie activities, and became a bit of a tomboy. Valerie married Jed Boles in 1998, a local log trucker, and the couple had a son named Chandler later that same year. Unfor tunately, tragedy struck in February 1999 when Jed was involved in a fatal accident in his log truck at the age of 33. Chandler was just eight months old at the time, so he never knew his dad. But these days, at 27 years old, people tell Chandler he is exactly like his dad. After Jed’s death, Ken became a father-figure to Chandler and was a big help and suppor ter to both his daughter and grandson, as they moved on with their lives as best as possible, but it wasn’t easy. In 2000, when Ken was rebuilding the Kenwor th, Valerie was dating our past cover trucker Josh Sanaski (January 2019), so he was hanging around the shop a lot at that time. He helped Ken with some of the truck rebuild, and later, when he built his own rat rod Peterbilt, painted it with the same “arrow” scheme, but in different colors. Tragically, Josh passed away suddenly in November of 2019. Growing up, Chandler loved hanging out with his grandpa, and he had toy trucks all over his room. To this day, he still enjoys building truck models and custom painting them. After high school, he went to work at a rock pit, and eventually star ted driving a dump truck. Not too long ago, he decided that he wanted to get his CDL and star t log trucking, so his mom helped him pay for the driving school so he wouldn’t be indebted to a company and be stuck working for them for years. Before the classes were set to begin, there was a two or three month period, so Chandler went out with his grandpa to learn. Ken was hard on him, for sure, but Chandler appreciates everything he taught him. Now driving a five-axle 2018 Kenwor th W900B with a 2-axle trailer for Clint Pascher out of Olympia, WA, Chandler is officially the fifth generation in the family to drive a log truck. When asked about her thoughts about her dad, Valerie said, “He’s the hardest working man I know, and he doesn’t have an ‘off’ button. Waking up early and going to work is all he has ever done, and it’s all he knows – it is second nature to my dad.” When Chandler was asked for some thoughts about his grandpa, he said, “Grandpa taught me that if you take care of the things you have, they will last forever.” Chandler was not able to be at the photo shoot with us because he had to work, but he drove by a few times, and always made sure to honk his horn. He also was the one to polish the truck and help his grandpa get it ready for the shoot. Valeria has fond memories of the old A-Model and told a story about how when she was little, she used to swing on the two safety chains that hang below the stinger hitch. Those chains were her swing set, and she’d swing on them for hours, and never once hit her head on