Relative Something

Despite our interest and energy to get this fencing project going full-tilt, the elements continue to hinder progress. We have gone from the problem of having too much snow in the way, to having too much snow melting all at once.

We were able to get a good start in the morning yesterday, while things were frozen solid from the overnight temperatures. The first two loads of fill arrived and the truck slipped, slid, and spun wheels to successfully empty them. The skid loader was used to spread the dirt out, between deliveries, which provided increasingly better traction for the truck on each subsequent pass.

Unfortunately, by late morning, the melting snow was creating streams of running water, and the new dirt was quickly transforming into a mucky soup. We only got 3 loads delivered. Work stopped at lunch, and will resume again this morning, for as long as the overnight freeze lasts.

I filled in the idle time with some trimming of tree limbs and then sweeping dirt and mud off the driveway. That dump truck was a lot more abusive to our asphalt driveway than anything I did this winter, plowing snow with the tractor. Where the tires rolled off the pavement, they broke it up pretty bad along the edge, and then created significant ruts in the soft, wet turf. I was able to stomp the turf back down a bit, but there isn’t anything I can do for the broken asphalt.

I’m not able to be home today, to oversee the operation, so I will be anxious to see, at the end of the day, if a second day of this activity will cause even more damage. I won’t be too surprised if it does. We are accepting it as a price we have to pay for trying to get this done at this time of year.

We are just happy to have this progress happening, even if it is something of a stunted progress.