Compacted Gravel versus Water – what wins?

Last Monday after the second day of compacting the gravel driveway, Craig decided it was time to try out the new metal hook he had gotten to put on the front end of Katie to help lift and move fallen tree branches. There was one in particular that came down last spring that was huge and was partially supported on its way down by 3 small trees and still partially (barely) connected to the trunk.

I was there in my chainsaw chaps ready to cut the logs into liftable size pieces but Craig was in the mood for dragging larger pieces. Guess what happens when you drag a heavy log across the freshly compacted gravel. I was a tiny bit perturbed for a mini second then just laughed.

Two days later we got 9 inches of rain over 36 hours I understood that compacted gravel is no match for large quantities of water running down hill.

At the bottom of the driveway is a stone bridge over the ditch that Craig designed and built in 2016. Thankfully he put fir tress on either side of the bridge as Wednesday when he left during the rain to go to a dental appointment this is what he found at the bottom of the hill. Because of the two small trees just above the center of the photo, he was able to see where to drive.

As soon as the rain stopped the water receded enough that he was able to see the bridge was intact when he came back home two hours later. After the second wave of rain came later in the day, this is was we were left with on Thursday.

Here is all of our gravel at the bottom of the hill across the grass

Craig spent 2 days reclaiming gravel and spreading it up the driveway again. There is still much gravel raking to do but the driveway is pretty much repaired and ready for a day of compacting before it rains again tomorrow.!!!

The forces of nature are amazing.

Today is gorgeous and I will go up and down this driveway as many times as I can to get it as compacted as possible before it rains. What we had last week was the worst it has been the 10 years Craig has been here.

There will be a wonderful Mexican meal at the end of the day at a local family owned restaurant.

A perfect Mother’s Day.