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.

Well that was fun!

After chores I headed up the driveway. We were supposed to get about 3" of snow.
Three inches had already fallen as it was chest high on Charlie when he'd gone out on the porch. Three inches had blown into there.

It was over ankle deep and even though that is not an official measure, it was deep enough to call it 4 to 5. No matter, the snow was there and it was deep enough and the winds on the ridge were howling.

I can't resist trying to take some photos of snow blowing and snow drifts....

The road is out there. Just not very visible.

After Rich decided to take a nap, I headed up to feed Sven and introduce him to Charlie.

Charlie tried to play with him like he would another pup. Sven tried to butt him in the head. After a bit, everyone got along with a lot of sniffing. Charlie even went in Sven's crate with him.

We felt it was too cold and snowy to take Sven outside we all got dressed and ventured out. The temps were pretty mild and soon the kids and dogs were at play.

I keep forgetting how much fun I had as a kid with huge piles of snow. Huge piles are the best for throwing yourself down and over the side.

The dogs just ran and chased and rolled in the snow.

Dixie must have heard us from her big bed in the shed down at my house. She appeared and joined in the fun. She watched over the kids like she was their mom.
As the kids dropped over the steep pile of snow, Dixie went down to make sure they were all right. They used Dixie to help get themselves up.

Charlie and Dixie had a blast. Lauren had to take Basil in as her legs got so full of snow balls she could barely move. Dixie and Charlie have hound dog coats so they don't collect the snow.

But we all had a blast and too soon I had to take my dogs and head back down the hill and return to my mundane tasks of chores and supper.

It was a great snow day. Sure the schools were closed and the roads were terrible, but we made the best of it.

Good neighbors are the best.

Basil....

All dogs slept soundly last night.

This morning brings sunshine and we can prepare for another 'event' this weekend.

Weather a very strange year so far.

We've swung wildly from very cold to just freezing. From frigid to mild with rains.

Thankfully the animals seem to be taking this weather in stride. 
The mules and horses refused to go to the stock tank on Sunday until we put down barn lime and a combination of sand and hay chaff.

We've had an ice event each week. 

Who came up with the name Ice 'Event'? 
Once a week the temperatures have swung to just above or right about freezing and it has rained.

Getting anywhere safely on the country gravel roads has become an issue. Our township is running low on sand according to the patrolman Rich talked to our town only has one bin left of sand/gravel.

I hope that is enough to get us through to a real melt down!

Traveling back and forth to work has become rather unpleasant. This is a shot I took -- yes I stopped-- of 'good' weather and good roads!

There are no shots of course of the bad places, the scary twists and turns that come down off the ridge at an 8% grade into the valleys.
It is trips like these that make me dislike working period. The drive to and from work is stressful. 

This is one of the roads I take to and from town or work. This is a nice sight to see on a slick day. Fresh sand and gravel over ice.

And...this is where I park when it gets like this. I can walk up to the ridge from home and I don't have to worry about falling off the driveway into the woods and wrecking the car.

Our road is a dead end road. It doesn't rate getting more gravel/sand on it as there is only 3 homes on it.

My neighbor on the top of the hill has purchased 'chains' for his and his wife's vehicle. He found out the other day that even the 'chains' didn't help. 
This is a shot of the road from our mailbox area. This is good winter driving!

Yesterday morning I took a sled-full of hay chaff, sand, salt, and screenings up to the ridge and spread it behind the Subaru so that my neighbor could park behind me. Our driveways were still solid ice. It is surprising how this mix adds traction to an area!

In the afternoon, the temperatures rose yesterday and the sun came out. 

Rich used the skid steer to break up ice around the stock tanks and then proceeded to work on the driveway.

I was so happy that I quit doing all of my catch up work around the inside of the house and came outside to enjoy the sunlight and the mud/ice.

Mud and ice! Snow slush! 
I know it looks like a mess. But it is much better than glare ice.

It was only in the places that the sun shone, but it made us very happy.

And it made Val-Barbie happy too!