We’ve got gravel, yes we do! We’ve got gravel, how ’bout you?!

Anyone who has ventured up our driveway during the last few years will understand the hugeness of this: “We got gravel.” Four trips by the dump truck, and our driveway is no longer something we have to warn people about. At least we don’t have to warn them in all capital letters. There are still a few rough spots, but most of the canyons are filled in.

Half of the last truck load was dropped in our “parking spot” Monday afternoon. It may come as a surprise to you, but dump trucks don’t really dump all that accurately. They can do okay given enough room, but in the confines of our parking spot, the best the driver could do was get the gravel dumped out in two patches about 6-8 inches deep. It was up to us to get the extra moved from the center out to the sides. Monday is one of my work-at-home days, so at 5:00 I headed out with a shovel and a rake and tried to move stuff around. The light was fading fast, so I brought out our electric lantern and kept shifting it every few minutes. Do I need to say how hard it is to spread and level dark gravel in the dark? There was a lot of squinting and wishing for cat vision. I stopped when Andy got home, and he went out for a bit but gave up.

It rained yesterday and all day today. Now we have WET gravel to move. Whose idea was this anyway?

The worst part is we’ve had to park the truck on the hill since the parking spot is under construction. The parking brake on the truck has never really been 100% since we moved here. I worry a bit that we’ll wake up in the morning, and the truck will have rolled down the hill into the barn or the pond or the sheep.