Junk Piles are good.

~~~ Well when it the frost comes out of the ground and you need your driveway redone, things get messy. I've begun to park my 'Ru at the bottom of the hill where the driveway is solid and has a firm base.

Down on the flat is where all the moisture runs to and it gets pretty slimy and slippery during the warmth of the midday. 

I had a delivery from Amazon coming and well, I didn't believe it was actually being delivered by Amazon. Until now our very rural area is only served by the postal service and UPS, FedEx tends to get lost somehow and can never find our house or road. It was one of those things: When I see it, I'll believe it.

While I was making lunch for us I saw someone running across our yard and thought: Wow! That must be Amazon! 

I met the young man at the porch door and he said, "Hi! I'm stuck can you help?" 

I looked out and there was his van in one of the turn around areas below my 'Ru. Normally it is a good spot to turn around in the winter and dry season. An awful spot when the frost is coming out of the ground.

He'd driven around my car to turn around. He asked if I could just pull him out with the truck. And I replied that the truck didn't work. He looked stricken until I told him that I had a better idea than the truck.

I walked over to the junk pile where I'd stacked hubby's collection of expanded metal mesh. If you don't know what I am talking about, it looks like this:

I had 3 large sheets with pieces cut out of it. They were approximately 6ft by 4ft. I had him help me place one sheet in front of his back tires and the other two sheets behind his tires. 

Thankfully he had a lot of common sense and hadn't tried to rock himself back and forth in the grassy section. He would have just dug holes and we would have needed the skid steer or a tow truck. 

I told him to follow my directions and idle forward onto the metal, then we replaced the sheet behind the tires and I had him idle out in reverse. 

I got my package and he explained that he thought twice about coming down our driveway and going around the car, but then so many people complained about delivery. I assured him that I'd never complain when the driveway was bad.

There actually is a place for delivery instructions, which I will edit in the future. Apparently I can tell Amazon to leave the package by the mailbox.

What amazes me to no end is that modern delivery vans are poorly designed with cheap tires and rear wheel drive only. That is fine for most city settings but very poor for rural areas.

When I got the young man safely turned around, he thanked me, apologized, and apologized again for all the trouble. I set my package down in the snow next to hubby's plow. I told him when he was pointed up the hill to get around the Subaru and 'Give 'er hell' getting up the hill. 

He did and he left with spinning wheels but made it up our hill.

I rescued my package from the snow and when I got to the house I got a message via Amazon: Your Package has been delivered, photo:

It looks like it was dumped in a junkyard. That is where I 

put it while rescuing the van....

A survey was attached to the photo asking how the delivery was. I imagine the young man was apprehensive about his new gig and getting stuck in my yard. 

I took the survey and assured Amazon that their driver had handled the package with care and was courteous.

At least the young man had a good story to tell at the end of the day. About the old lady who ran out grabbed expanded metal sheets off her junk pile and got him out of the mud.

I have experience with a mud.

Here are some mud photos from the years past. Now do you see why I hired someone to finally rebuild the lower driveway??

The driveway only looks this bad during the spring thaw when the frost comes out of the ground. Once we are past that, the ground is solid and I tend to forget what a pain it is in the spring.

Last note.
I woke up with a terrible sore throat this morning and mild headache. Geeze. It's been at least 10 years since I've had a cold.

Charlie and I will be spending the day upstairs in the spare bedroom reading and napping.

Have a great Sunday.