Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[Baymule]

It might help for you to have several heavy duty nylon slings for picking up stuff.

https://www.grainger.com/category/material-handling/rigging-and-lifting-slings/web-slings

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

SAT, I've been meaning to tell you how much I admire you and your wife's habit of reading together.
My husband and I do the same, but I could never read aloud for 2 to 3 hours. That's impressive!
45 minutes is about my limit before my voice starts going out.

Thank you, Miss @thistlebloom! Yes, we do that every night for about 2 hours before going to bed. I quit posting the book summaries on my journal because I figured I was just boring people, but we still read every night. We read between 2-3 books a week.

That is a serious bummer STA! Not sure how "heavy duty" that bucket is if you managed to bend a tooth. I wonder if it can be bent back where it belongs without just weakening the metal and having it break off.

It does make you wonder. I did a good bit of search on stump buckets, and that brand had one of the thicker steel plates being used. I plan on contacting the company to see what they say.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

I always read the summaries.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

All,

HELP!!! My Beautiful Gal is always telling me that I need professional help, so I hope you folks are just the ones to provide that help. My driveway is a mess. It has been needing something done to it for awhile now, but after the 6" of rain we got a week ago last Friday, it is in far worse shape. I will post some pictures showing you where the worst parts are and see what you folks think. The first set of pictures is near the creek closer to the gate. The first two pictures are looking south, the third is of the same area looking north, and some are close-ups of the bad erosion:



This is the driveway near the house. It slopes down away from the viewer and slightly to the right:
.

These two pictures are of the roadway that goes from south of the shop into the woods:


So what kind of gravel would you folks recommend and why that type versus some other type?

Thanks in advance.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

I have no more practical experience than you do but we've both watched Outdoors With The Morgans and from that I'd say you need a land plane or box scraper and a big load of stone. I'm guessing you might need rippers to break up what is already there if it is as compacted as it seems in the pictures.

As far as what kind of stone maybe check some OTWM videos on driveway repair, I know he's mentioned what type he uses. Another possibility would be the people at the stone place, they might have an idea of what type works best in your area.

Could be there are places you can divert incoming water from a big rain to go under or away from the roads to lessen future damage.

Good Luck!!!!

 

[farmerjan]

You need to have a side ditch on either or both sides so that the water will not run down the middle or across. The driveway needs to be graded so that there is a crown in the center of it ( not real high) but so that all water is diverted from the center to the sides so that it doesn't run down it or across it. For now, you need something that has both a medium size rock combined with smaller particles so that they will pack better. But without the diversion to the sides of the drive, it will continue to wash. My son does alot of that for the state, he has taken all kinds of classes on that stuff so I have been getting a real education on stuff like that. He said this is the worst time of year to do any grading and that they just fill in what they have to when there is washing because if you properly grade it, you disturb it enough that it won't pack and settle like it should. Then it gets plowed up if we get snow. I guess because it is subject to more of the inconsistent rain/snow etc.... They will use a grader to clean the ditches on the sides of the roads, pulling it up into the road, and then actually shoveling it up if there is alot of actual dirt. Otherwise, they then grade the sides up into the center so there is a ridge of gravel/rock/dirt, then take and grade off the center part and then pack it. You want a gradual slope from the middle to each side so no water lays in the actual road. That is what makes holes in dirt roads, and the washboard effect, water laying on the surface.
Basically you are angling the blade of the grader/or the blade on the back of a tractor, so that it is low enough to make a small ditch in the dirt on the side of the driveway, and the part near the center of the driveway is angled up. this will drag any dirt and gravel back up into the driveway and then if needed you can go down the center after you do both sides to level the top of the ridge of dirt/gravel off a little bit.
The grass along the sides is higher than the driveway, so the water is not flowing off the drive into the grass, but is rather being diverted down the driveway.
I am not sure if it is something that you can do yourself, as the shoulders where the grass meets the gravel need to be lower than the driveway. I'm not talking a big drop off, but at least several inches so the water disperses off into the grass without traveling a distance down the driveway which is what causes it to wash . If you put some small ditches along the sides, you can put some rock in it so that it will carry the water without washing out.

 

[Bruce]

Fortunately I don't think STA has to worry much about plowing snow off his driveway.

Otherwise, they then grade the sides up into the center so there is a ridge of gravel/rock/dirt, then take and grade off the center part and then pack it.

How I wish our town road guys understood that! The run the grader down the road, chew stuff up and spread it back out. But no roller, no packing. The potholes show right up again as people whiz down the road spinning stuff out of the depressions. We are at the top of a rise, people seem to speed up as they come over the crest, the pot holes in front of our house always seem to reshow faster than the ones down the hill.

Would your son like a nice few days in warm western Arkansas?

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Thanks, everyone, for your input on the driveway.

Would your son like a nice few days in warm western Arkansas?

I'd love to meet your son, Miss @farmerjan! Somehow I don't thing his idea of a break would be to travel here! And at the moment, it's not all that warm -- it was 26°F this morning with a steady breeze -- brrr!

I am currently building another bridge for a ditch. I started assembling it yesterday but my back got to hurting, so I quit to resume working on it today. I'll take pictures once it all gets completed.

 

[Bruce]

I started assembling it yesterday but my back got to hurting, so I quit to resume working on it today.

Great that you have the luxury of time and the wisdom to use it!

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Yes, it is! I continued working on the bridge but discovered I was about 3 boards shy of having enough to cover the entire bridge. A combination of my Aggie I/Q and Jethro Bodine (*) ciphering is what caused it, I guess. It is bad weather now so I will get the extra boards once it stops sleeting / raining.

Senile Texas Aggie

(*) For those of you too young to know about Jethro Bodine and The Beverly Hillbillies, look for video clips of Jethro doing ciphering.