Wow, we even got our Toyota T100 pickup stuck in the mud. That’s how soft the ground is with all the March rain.
If anyone knows of a good guide to making a cheap, light-duty gravel road, I could use some pointers. I’m thinking of investing in a gravel loop across the pasture so we never have this problem again.
[Update, March 30: the ground hardened just enough for me to escape. Yee-haw! I discovered that the pickup has enough ground clearance for me to drive right over my ultra-low electric fence (with strands at 5″ and 10″ off the ground) without carrying it away. Which is just as well, since the ground was so soft that I wasn’t stopping for anything.]
I Publish Books! Norton Creek Press
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Your previous post on “Cheapskates on meds” comes to mind! Don’t skimp on your gravel roadway…you’ll just end up with a rocky-muddy hole!
Here in the mountains we still have lots of gravel roads, steep grades and long driveways ‘up the mountain’. The following issues are critically important.
Number 1 issue: GRADE by ‘crowning’ the roadway. If you have ‘water collection’ problems you need ‘drainage solutions’….flat is bad! It will cost more in time or money to grade, but you’ll regret any other approach. Flat is really bad.
Number 2 issue: You live in Oregon. It rains there. (Yes, I know). Our current drought aside, it rains alot in NC too. Plan for removal of water via drainage ditches. PLAN on a design, provide culverts for your driveway or ‘drive over’. Grass grows in Oregon; seed the ditches to prevent erosion.
Number 3 issue: Use ungraded (unfiltered and unscreened) sand and gravel, forms a more solid, firmer surface. Just order it from the quarry-they know what your need. Pay them. It takes an incredable number of truck loads of gravel to do the job, but ‘crowning’ helps reduce the cost.
Number 4 issue: TALK to a professional. I turned to you for chicken raising because you do it and appear to have succeeded or at least survived. I have bought your books and follow your website for the same reason-I suggest you do the same. Talk to professionals; talk to the quarry, talk to equipment operators and professional road construction people, talk to the county and state permit officials. They know their business. If you want to do the work yourself pay a professional his consulting fee-it will be well worth it. This is probably not the time to turn to old 1970’s reprints of Mother Earth News.
It bears repeating-a flat road will be a muddy, rocky and expensive mess!
ALWAYS ask yourself this question…where is the water going to go? You have to remove it from your pasture and send it somewhere else.
GRADE, PLAN, TALK,
WHERE’S THE WATER GOING TO GO?
Good luck, sounds like a good idea…better than being stuck!