Posts Tagged ‘driveway’
Not Whining
Darkness is here. I leave for work in the mornings now with the surroundings in total darkness. It makes for a drastically different drive from the mornings when painted skies of dawn filled my view over the summer. Before long this darkness will begin to feel completely normal, but for now I am very aware of the difference.
The chilly temperatures have me switching back to long sleeve shirts. That means the onset of the perpetual battle to avoid soaking the cuffs when I wash my hands after coming in from working outside. I’m considering making a couple of little “cones-of-shame” like the ones dogs sometimes have to wear, which I can slip over my hands to protect my long sleeves from getting wet when I wash.
Our home is under siege of the dreaded Asian lady beetle. I have gained a heightened sense of paranoia over my ever-present cup of ice water, ever since the time one of the nasty buggers made its way into my drink and I crunched it with my teeth. Even though I have a cover to protect the contents, I feel no sense of confidence that there won’t be a chance one of the invaders has made its way into the drink when I didn’t notice.
Cyndie and I have decided to order some additional loads of sand and gravel to have on hand before the snow flies. The ground is dry enough now that damage from the heavy dump truck will be much less than if we wait until spring, but I still fret over the impact that truck makes. We decided not to have him drive into the paddocks, but that leaves us with the challenge of choosing a spot where the loads can be dumped, and figuring out a way to spread the load out to the areas where we ultimately want it.
We also face the inevitable further abuse to the crumbling surface of our ailing asphalt driveway that the truck will dish out. We’ve given up on trying to repair the existing damage, but that doesn’t mean we welcome the increased distortion by the weight of a fully loaded dump truck. We want the sand and gravel, we just don’t want the abuse caused when it is delivered.
But I’m not whining. Really. Just venting a little bit. And it feels much better having done so.
Now I can get back to enjoying the splendor of a fall that is glowing all around our house this year. It is putting on quite a show!
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Tough Decision
We are approaching the first anniversary of our time on this property that we have named Wintervale Ranch, and many milestones have been achieved since last year, most significantly, the arrival of the four horses. With the completion of one phase comes the opening of another, and so now we set our sights on the next areas of immediate need.
Cyndie wants to put some sand or gravel over the topsoil in our paddocks, to keep them from becoming a dangerous muddy mess. I am wary of the scope such a goal would entail. That would take a lot of truckloads of fill. I would like to try redirecting runoff, first, to see how much difference we can make, and hopefully minimize the areas that would still require cover. In addition to the creation of drainage ditches to reduce water entering the paddocks, we are looking into gutters for the barn.
On the subject of fill, another load was just delivered on Monday, to finish the driveway loop when the culvert was replaced. That accomplishment came with a cost. Our poor asphalt driveway suffered another blow, because the ground was still soft from the rain we had recently received.
Right now, the driveway is our weak point. We don’t have a plan on how to deal with it, so we have just let it go, and of course, it just gets worse. Trying to plow it in the winter is going to be a real hassle. The expense of repairing it is daunting, and is the real reason we have done nothing. Our limited funds are being consumed by other commitments.
It was a very tough decision to make, when we chose not to accept any of the bids we received for asphalt maintenance. The long paved driveway was one of the special features of this place. I’m not sure we’ll have the patience to live through the process of letting it just disintegrate and become a (much more common around here) gravel driveway, which is the most affordable option.
I’d love to have a humble two-tire-track path with grass in the middle, but I think we are well past that, at this point.
For the time being, we are putting our focus toward other areas, and will try to make it through the winter without having paid for repairs. We’ll probably get it re-quoted in the spring, and replace just the sections experiencing the worst damage.
The destruction of the driveway that has been caused by our other projects is one of the more frustrating things we have faced in the last year. Luckily, the improvements have turned out so well, they make up for the angst caused by the compromised pavement.
Relative Something 