Addicted to Gravel; Miracle Video

As Jason mentioned a few days ago we have had a lot of gravel trucks coming and going lately. I lost count after 20 or so loads. We needed to finish putting gravel on the driveway. We had been driving around our rock for quite awhile. We finally dealt with that and now have 3,500 feet of fully functional driveway. It is nice to not be navigating around the rock every day and not be creating a dust storm or a muddy mess when driving on 2/3 of the driveway.

We also had been dumping load after load of gravel around the gates and run-in sheds. Of course this is all in addition to the numerous other loads of gravel that we had already had delivered over the last year. However we had always had it delivered 3 to 4 loads at a time, not 20+ loads at a time like we have in the last couple of weeks. Yesterday Jason and I were discussing our gravel situation and assessing our gravel needs. We were thinking that we would have another 2 to 4 loads delivered and then be done.

I made the comment during this discussion that we were addicted to gravel. Apparently when your names are Jason and Melissa you cannot have too much gravel. When we were discussing where we would place our last few loads our inner gravel addicts still were not going to be satisfied. However we had lost count of how many loads had been delivered, like I said I lost count at 20.

Today we got the bill for our latest gravel extravaganza. I have previously written about one of my meltdowns when being handed the latest and greatest construction bill that is larger than anticipated. We have a lot of practice with this scenario at this point but we are only human and sometimes it just gets to you. Today it was Jason's turn to have a meltdown. If there had still been a dump truck parked on the farm he probably would have started shoveling some of the gravel back in by hand. Needless to say we will not be having a few more loads delivered and we will have to be happy with the gravel that we have.

However addictions are powerful, and by the end of the day we were back discussing about where we could use more gravel. I was joking with Jason that maybe we should buy our own gravel pit, then we would never have to deny ourselves. If anyone is racking their brain for the perfect Christmas gift for Jason and Melissa, we can give you the number for our gravel delivery guy. Hint hint.

Our poor driveway only had gravel on it for the first 1500 feet

But now our redneck driveway is gone and we actually have a functional driveway

another before . . .

. . . and after

one of our beautiful curves that we almost straightened out over a stupid rock

Thankfully the curve stayed; we started with crush and run as you can see here and then came back and added inch and a quarter gravel on top. Maybe we should have stayed with just the crush and run for now, or maybe we shouldn't have lost count of the number of loads!

Spreading gravel in one of the pastures; as the truck went back and forth with the bed lifting higher and higher they just stood in the shed without so much as a second look. Of course it goes without saying that if anyone had been trying to ride them you would have been bucked off.

A short video of the horses watching the gravel truck (this is Sam, Fuzzy, Dutch, Wiz, Sebastian, Alex, Renny, etc.); by the end the truck is less than a foot from the shed and nobody moves.

Contrast the above video with this video from two years ago. Some of you may remember this video of the Big Boys acting silly spooking at their new gravel pile at the old farm. The Big Boys are an endless source of entertainment and as you can see it is the same cast of characters:

Dutch and Sam finally came over to check out the gravel

A load of gravel being dumped in the not yet finished barn at the end of the driveway. Jason is in his element, feeding his addiction and directing the placement of the gravel.

Jason guiding the gravel truck into the mare/pony pasture

Cinnamon gave the truck a passing glance on her way to the water trough

Norman and Cuffie were hanging out in the shed and uninterested in the gravel truck

Maisie was only mildly interested in the gravel truck. There's Jason directing away. I was looking at all of these pictures and was playing "Where's Waldo" with Jason. Anywhere there was a gravel truck Jason was nearby directing and looking happy. He was looking a lot less happy when he got the bill!

A brief video of Miracle running in the pasture along with Sky, Bonnie, and Sparky the donkey

Stormy and Clayton

Darby

Moe

The Big Boys grazing; they were way out in the back of their pasture when gravel was delivered to their pasture. It would have been fun to see if they reacted as strongly this time around to the gravel delivery!

Kennedy napping

Trigger grazing as the sun was coming up

Chance, Leo and Homer

Clay and Fuzzy

Asterik, Silver and George