We finished the initial phase of
moving the dirt this week and now we have an immense dirt pile covering a wide area with trees on both sides. Now the question we need to answer is, what exactly are we going to do with all that dirt?
I decided my first task was to forge some kind of road or track over the top of the pile so I could get the tractor to the far side which had now become inaccessible. Fortunately the dirt has been placed into a low lying area of land, so the nearside of the pile is almost level with the existing ground. This meant I was able to reverse the tractor onto the pile without too much difficulty. In this position I was able to use the back-hoe to move rocks and somewhat level the dirt behind the tractor. After one small section was clear, I slowly reversed the tractor further onto the pile began working on the next area to extend my track one section at a time.
After a while I was nearing the far side of the pile where the dirt sloped down towards the ground. By this time I just wanted to make it to the other side, so I probably didn't spend as much time leveling the dirt as I could have, and instead I rolled the tractor down the sloping edge of the pile and declared success.
In my new position I was able to look back at and admire the track across the pile that I'd just created. It looked good, except for one thing. The slope that I'd just come down looked rather steep and muddy from this angle.
The tractor and I were stranded. After an attempt to drive back up onto the pile from the far side, my suspicion was confirmed. The slope that the tractor had so easily rolled down was far too steep, loose, wet, slippery, and muddy to drive back up. The tractor and I were officially stranded on the wrong side of a massive dirt pile with no escape route.
Some deep tire ruts had now developed in the slope from my failed attempts to get back onto the dirt pile. In an effort to improve a worsening situation, I spent some time moving more dirt onto the slippery slope, to fill in the ruts and reduce the steepness. This achieved limited success as the dirt was so wet and muddy it was turning into a swamp around me.
Eventually I decided that rocks where the answer to my problem. So next I spent some time placing rocks into the muddy tire ruts on the slope. This was to provide something more solid and less slippery for the tires to grip onto. My first attempt at driving on the rock tracks had limited success, but it was an improvement on my prior attempts, so I continued adding more, bigger, rocks.
Finally, with all four wheels spinning and the engine at full throttle I was able to use the now embedded rocks to slip-slide my way up the slope and back onto the pile, phew! With the tractor now back on the pile, I began to find myself wondering if I'd be able to do that again... but I quickly dismissed that idea and decided that I should call it a day.
I drove across the mud-road, off the pile, and headed towards the house.
Tire Ruts on the Mud Road.
Erin and I recently enjoyed a fabulous week of whitewater kayaking in the Great Smoky Mountains. Each day we spent six or more hours on the water, and needless to say, it was another physically demanding trip. Over the week we received instruction on whitewater skills and techniques. We used lake sessions to work on Eskimo rolls and rescue skills, before running rivers and putting those skills into practice.
Now we can't wait for our next whitewater adventure.
