Thursday, November 1, 2012

Gravel and More Gravel

Remember that post from a week ago about if money were no object?  Jason originally answered my question about the one thing he would have if money were no object by saying he would have an unlimited gravel budget.  Then he thought about it some more and decided forget the gravel, he would just pave everywhere instead.  Unfortunately in the week since I wrote that post Jason's wish to pave all of the graveled areas has not come true, in fact he didn't even get his runner-up wish of an unlimited gravel budget.  

We do love the sight of fresh gravel being delivered


We have a small fortune in gravel but it is one of those things that you get to keep buying over and over again.  We've had several loads of gravel delivered this past week.  A few for certain areas of the driveway where the gravel needed replacing (our driveway is almost a mile long) and a few for the traffic areas in some of the pastures where the gravel also needed some replacing.  We don't really get deep mud here, Jason likes to describe the traffic areas in the pasture as "greasy" in the winter but you are never in danger of having your shoes pulled off.  That being said the last thing I want to be doing is slipping around on a patch of greasy mud when I'm trying to put a blanket on a horse so we are rather fond of gravel.  


Johnny checking out the gravel pile that appeared in his pasture


Elfin wasn't interested in the gravel piles in his pasture

It is mostly a blessing that we have deep top soil on our farm however when it comes to gravel and traffic areas in the pasture it is kind of a curse.  Each year two or three of the pastures needs the "traffic" gravel replenished.  Although I really like our gravel guy I will admit I tire of writing him large checks on an ongoing basis.  We had 10 or 11 loads delivered this time around, I lost track of the load count towards the end and just went with the number I was given when I wrote the check.  If someone wanted to donate another ten loads we sure wouldn't turn it down (early Christmas present anyone??), and in the meantime the Paradigm Farms Gravel Fund needs some time to recover.

gravel pile waiting to be spread

and part of it is spread now
 

there is no shortage of work for Jason at the moment; gravel piles are everywhere

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Johnny being annoying (his status quo but the horses all like him anyway) and biting Oskar on the rump


MyLight, Calimba and Cinnamon


Sam (that is Johnny's nose to his left)


Renny


Dutch and Wiz

Merlin, Fabrizzio and Walden being show-offs


Winston, Faune and Silver


Silky


Alex and Darby


Bergie


Homer, Elfin and Tony


Levendi

1 comment:

EvenSong said...

Have you guys ever considered installing some kind of geotextile fabric under the gravel? It's pricey, I know. But if you did one area at a time maybe you could see some savings in a lessened need to replace gravel that gets trampled into your beautiful top soil...