At the end of a Gravel Road

should not be a burden at all unless…

Unless it has rained almost continuously off and
on for the last two months .

Back in February and April we had a lot of fog.
There is an old saying that if you get fog,
ninety days later you will get moisture of some
kind.

Well one of my neighbours kept track of the days
we got rain.  The ninety day theory seems to
be true for we have had much too much rain this
spring.  Though she says it should have ended
a day or two ago, but maybe she missed a day
or two of fog.  The rain should be finished in a
couple of days though, hopefully.

The weather man says it will be a beautiful day
on Sunday for the first football game of the year.
But they usually say that if there is going to be a
game.  Wouldn’t want fans to be discouraged,
would they?  I hope he is right since my son and
his girlfriend are going to the game, though it
probably wouldn’t bother him that much.  Well,
I guess it would depend on how much it rained.

Sorry, got off on the wrong track, was suppose
to be discussing the gravel road track.  Basically
that is what it becomes, a track.  When the rain
first starts, the road is slippery from the clay
base.  The more it rains and the more people
drive on it, it becomes a track or I should say a
rut.

If you don’t want to get stuck or end up in the ditch
you have to stay in the track.  Sometimes that track
is full of water, and it usually ends up all over your
vehicle, right across your windshield.  You continuously
have to have your windshield wipers on and if you
didn’t keep your washer tank full you would have
a hard time seeing.

Most farmers this spring have gone around with a tan
vehicle no matter the real colour.  There isn’t much
sense in getting it washed either because you still
have to go back over the road to get home.

So, with most days raining and farmers driving on the
roads most days, that rut gets deeper and deeper.  If
you only have a car then forget about getting out, you
would be hung up the first few yards you traveled.  The
last steady rain nearly stopped even the trucks from
navigating the road.  If you didn’t have a 4×4 then you
could forget going anywhere.  The ruts were so deep
they were close to touching the underside of the truck
and then with water in them you needed all four wheels
to keep going.

I have to say though, that it does dry up every once in
a while and the maintainer gets to go down the road
and fill in those ruts.  It has become a weekly job for
him though, don’t know if he likes the challenge or if
he is looking forward to just regular leveling and gravel
dispersion.

I know the farmers have had enough for a very long
time.  They are getting very worried for they haven’t
been able to plant their crops.  We have a short
growing season here, so if the crops aren’t in by
the first week in June if not sooner then they might
as well forget about planting.  If they do plant then
there is a very good chance of it being frozen before
it ripens.

So as much as I like my gravel road, since it is harder
to travel on a muddy dirt road, this year has been quite
an experience.  There are always good sides to most
experiences though, I haven’t had the dust coming into
my house that usually comes from all the big trucks
going by.  We are the only ones that travel on the road
by our house because going on past our driveway is a
dirt road.  Plus it doesn’t get rutted up like the main one
that we have  to travel on to get to the highway.

In a few months  it may be so hot we will  be hoping
for rain, but that is life.  Oh well….

Patricia