From Nowhere to Somewhere

The great wash out of February turned our 3/4 mile long driveway from a 4×4 only road into a road to nowhere. When Maxx the Jeep starts sliding and there are holes large enough to bottom out the Big Puppy Truck it is definitely not the sort of place to bring Dog Tired! So with road conditions heavy on our minds we decided on an early March trip with the goal of fixing the road, and (of course) seeing Honey.

Arrival was late on Friday and the weather was turning cold. The barn was empty and Honey was nowhere to be found. Pokey set out to collect a few more downed trees for firewood. Fortunately there was an ample supply of fallen trees easily accessible as it was soon dark and Pokey’s headlights are about as bright as a flashlight duct taped to the hood.

Saturday morning arrived cold and bright with a chill wind blowing, but along with that cold wind the new day also brought Honey and her friend Bun, running through the fields. We gave “Bun” her name as she apparently likes to eat.  We know that she belongs to the neighbors across the street.  She’s an older Chocolate lab. Honey, of course,  outran Bun on the race to the barn. Bun lost interest and headed off across the field while Honey ran up for belly rubs and breakfast. Honey was her happy self, looking for belly rubs and food. She ate a full breakfast of dog food along with homemade biscuits. She really grew in the past weeks! Much taller, but still thin.

After breakfast it was time to play in the dirt. The first order of road repair was the hole by the gate. When we first saw the property it was a large rut, which grew and grew and after the washout it could swallow a coffee table! With so much water running through that area this needed rocks, and fortunately “tobacco road” provided rocks in abundance. The tobacco fields have access roads cut through them for tractors, Pokey made his way down the road and the loader bucket was filled with rocks. These rocks then became the base to fill in the hole. My fitness tracker approved of the activity, apparently filling a front end loader bucket with rocks counts as a “spontaneous workout”!

  With the rocks in place it was time to work on the road. Pokey has a box blade with teeth that weighs around 1000 pounds. Dragging the box blade redistributes the dirt and rocks in the road, cutting down the high spots and filling in the low. After making quick work on the road to the barn it was off to the steep hill up to the plateau. That hill suffered greatly under the rains and was impassible for all except Pokey with his 54″ tall tires. In addition to filling in ruts and leveling the road the box blade is also highly addictive. During the course of the day the road went from a 5 foot wide tractor only “road” to a nice leveled road between 10 and 14 feet wide. The sharp turns and odd angles were removed and an extra section was added to make it easier for trailers to make the turn past the barn.

We also had a few new visitors ….. In the barn.  If you look closely you will see a bird in the middle of that rope.  A nice already made nest!

And, I spotted our first deer on the property.  It was up on the plateau.

Now, the road leads to somewhere, our paradise.