Step One And Two

Last winter I was bemoaning the trials and tribulations of the muddy path from the house to the bull barn. The once rocked road had disintegrated over the years and we were down to sloppy ruts that held rotten water infused goop that splashed on the tractor and pickup when we drove on it. The ruts were getting deep enough that we had to straddle some sections when crossing with the Gator because of low ground clearance.

A smoothing of the ruts along with a new coating of rock did not happen in the fall last year like planned since the hot, smoky weather and busyness of the oddball firewood year kept us hopping.

The wonderful thing about getting the interior of this barn remodeled so that it has more workable space for projects demands that this road get the fix it so desperately needs.

Step one is getting rock.

Our old farm truck, The Big Red Beast, was able to haul loads of rock but the tired and well-worn mechanics of the hydraulic dump bed has been on the decline for several years and a layer of rock along the smoothed path was impossible.

With a bit of tinkering, the strong hydraulic arm was able to extend but not at the same time that the truck was moving to scatter the rock. Piled is better than no rock at all, but that means that now we have piles along the path without a way to go around them to the bull barn.

Step two is smoothing the rock along the road.

Our trusty logging bulldozer was moved across the county road after the last truck of logs left the landing. Mike moves bits of the pile one way then another before getting one pile thinned out. He moves on to the next pile after that.

Our sloppy mess of a road is back to having a solid base (mostly). Once the whole thing is packed down solid we will get a few truck loads of smaller gravel of three quarter inch minus in size to top the base. Our muddy ruts should be only memories when the rain begins in the fall.