My post today is going to be short. I spent from 9-3:30 pm today at our land, putting erosion cloth down on the sloped edge of our new driveway. This driveway is version 1.3. I think I mentioned before that versions 1.1 and 1.2 failed and we got rid of the contractor who excavated the land for our long, sloped drive. Don’t worry. He was paid. But, we were very unhappy about the job that was done and were sure the driveway would fail, yet again, by spring. We cannot live on our ridge top remnant prairie without a sustainable driveway. This one looks to be much improved with no less than three culverts, a riprapped trench up the entire left side, a new and improved entrance to the prairie at the top where our house and my husband’s shop will eventually be, and a nicely graded right-hand side. Local people who knew of our driveway plight laughed with delight when we told them who was involved in this new 1.3 version. We were told that we’ve called in the “big guns” as so we had! And, we are so pleased!
One of the parts of this new driveway agreement was that my husband and I would take care of laying the erosion cloth. This is what we did for six hours today. We worked continuously, and my husband was there an hour before I arrived, so we both put in a long day of sweat equity on our land.
We used to be avid This Old House watchers. This was back in the day when Bob Vila was the host and a few years into the new (now, old) guy Kevin O’Conner arrived on the show. They used the term “sweat equity” a lot. And, today definitely fit that bill.
When I arrived (I had to stop for my coffee), my husband told me he had a “sneak attack” job for me! I was to go through the woods – that is full of buckthorn – to the top edge of the erosion cloth and put soil staples every foot. You can see my view in the 8th picture below. It was steep. More than a few times did I feel myself start to slide down into the paper….just imagine if I were a drop of water! My husband placed and unrolled the cloth, stapling the middle and the bottom of the cloth. His obstacle for the day was trying to stay balanced and not twist his ankle on the rip rap stone.
The final photo is our job, well done, for the day. We need to return tomorrow to do the other side. We are both looking forward to fewer obstacles and assume it will go more quickly! We certainly put sweat equity into this property today. And, you know something?! It felt great!
Today is Slice of Life: Tuesday. This is a weekly forum hosted by TwoWritingTeachers.org. Thanks go to them for creating a warm and friendly place to share our writing each week.
The Apples in My Orchard 
This is some beautiful land you have. And, that is some hard, tedious work. Sometimes its nice to work hard and feel really tired, like you’ve done something really worthwhile. I always feel good when I do that. I hope you are resting now, knowing that you’ve put in a hard day’s work.
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Thank you! It was a good feeling to work hard…we did it again today. Had to get in what we could before the rain!
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