Driveway Repair

The last few weeks and months of rain have simply pounded the state, and in certain areas, the damage is pretty extensive. Even we have taken a few hits, especially the roads and our driveway. We live on a dirt road that is a hill, and when the rain pours, it becomes a bit of a river. Normally it’s not too bad, but every once in a while, the road floods and gets washed out. This time around the damage was not horrible, but there are some sections along the side that are precariously missing, reducing it to a one lane road.

There is a culvert running beneath the road that drains into our front yard, which is a bummer, but that’s just the way it was designed. The front of our property gets soaked, it literally becomes a swamp, and affects our driveway. It also makes for mosquito city, but that’s an issue everywhere. When the water is extensive, it overwhelms the culvert and runs across the road and into our driveway. When there’s enough of it, like this last time, it washes out part of our driveway. Small channels are one thing, but this time around we had some big ruts.

The town came and fixed the roads, and I figured it would be no big deal for them to toss a little gravel onto the end of our driveway, but no such luck. We were on our own (what else is new?). No problem, we’re New Englanders in training. Our neighbor has a massive pile of dirt and gravel across the road from us, and I asked him if we could take some. He said to help ourselves, and even offered to level our driveway later in the day with his tractor. N and I went out there with a wheelbarrow and two shovels and filled in the gaps, which are always bigger when you actually confront them.

It took about 6 loads, but we managed to fill it in and make it look presentable. We had to be places later in the day, but when we got back, EB had in fact come and smoothed over our handiwork, so it looks nice. Plus, it gave N and I a chance to do real-man’s work and feel like capable workers. You can’t beat that feeling, especially when you’re a real man in training.

We looked into buying a small quantity of hard pack, which we might use to cover the dirt, but that’s another project for another time. Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Richard Childress for the pic.