8-21-09 Let there be DRIVEWAYS

Driveway starting to take shape!

Alright, where were we? Oh yeah… we had to bring in a driveway or really it was more about legitimizing the dirt track – fire trail that was already mostly in from 100 years ago. See most people have a mental picture that comes to mind when they here, Seattle. “RAIN”, well its true – for the most part anyway! It rains quite a bit in the Western Washington area but only for about 9 months out of the year… Unless its an unusually wet year and then its 11 months but that only happens every other year, so its not so bad! Although, on the East side of the Cascade Mountains its much less rainy but we get alot of snow and colder weather in general through the winter months. This brings us back to the needed driveway… You have to have an improved driveway if you want to get into most properties in any other way than on foot during the Fall and again in the Spring. When the ground is frozen during the winter months it pretty stable and access would be good except when you have feet of snow to contend with. Spring and Fall are S-L-I-P-P-E-R-Y… There are alot of areas that have volcanic soil and it’s a fine dust that blows extensively in the summer and gets oil slick in the wet seasons. So we had to bring in many loads of base rock to stabilize the driveway. Base rock is less expensive than the regular gravel that we are all used to seeing on the average driveway, 3/4 minus I believe its called. This base rock is like 2-3 inch size rocks and compacts down to make for a good “Road Base”… As you can see in the pictures we have a beautiful driveway into the land! I’m bias though as this IS my dream place. Anyway, looking good or not it wasn’t going to work to have to haul ourselves and supplies in on foot through the mud and snow all winter, so “Driveways” another luxury… I know what your thinking, Prepper and his luxuries… Yes, I am very blessed but I doubt I have added anymore luxuries than the other folks that like to drive right up to their house and have indoor plumbing, etc… Mrs. Prepper, an outstanding woman, is much happier with the whole indoor plumbing thing – actually I’m much happier with the whole indoor plumbing thing. Now I’m not old but flush toilets and weekly showers, need em or not, are much preferred to the sponge bath and outhouse I have dealt with in the early years. I guess that this will probably suffice for the information on putting in the driveways, not exactly rocket science but still a giant step forward for prepper kind. Yes, I know you saw my 4 legged friend, so I might as well make the introduction a little earlier than I was planning. Meet “BOD” short for Bug Out Dog! No, I didn’t do that to the poor animal, her name isn’t really BOD but as far as the blog was concerned I was going to just refer to her as “bug out dog”. Well, this leaves us at the end of the first week. Yes, I realize it has only been 4 posts this week but it is still Friday and I am heading for the hills ASAP, that means right after work! I haven’t been to the BOL in 2 weeks and I can’t wait to get there. I have projects and will be taking pictures, still haven’t decided on which video camera yet but there will be additional still pictures coming and I will give you 5 posts next week. So with this, I’m outa here!

Prepper