Something Happening Here: Head for the Hills, Mountains, and Other Remote Areas!

Something Happening Here image of mountain

July 16, 2007 Newsletter

Dirt and Gravel Driveway Maintenance When Rain Washes Them Out

First of all, buy yourself a pick, shovel, 5-gallon bucket, and hand-held hoe (or a long-handled one, but the hand held kind is better because you have more control over what you want to do).

When rains or flood-like conditions wipe out part or all of your dirt-gravel driveway--especially if the driveway goes up or down a hill or side of mountain--you might think there is no way you can fix it, and you need to call in the bulldozer and backhoe to re-do the driveway. Or you might think the heck with it...we'll park the truck "down below" or "up above" and walk to the house--which is not practical if you have several loads of groceries, heavy articles to bring up or down, or building materials! There is a SIMPLE, BUT NOT EASY, way you can maintain your driveway whenever it is necessary, or even (under optimal conditions) fix your driveway so that you (hardly ever) have to fix it again! It is simple because you can do it yourself. It is not easy because some heavy physical labor is involved...but it isn't that heavy (I know because I've done quite a bit of it and I am 54-years-old!)

Maintenance: Determine, from your first heavy rain washout, how the flow of rain water encroaches on your driveway as with the contour of the land. When you find out how the rain washes it out, plan to create "water diversion channels" to prevent future water washouts from doing the most damage to the driveway. when you know where you want to put the water diversion channels, get out your pick and make "slices" into the WET dirt (it won't be very effective in dry dirt, and it'll be a whole lot harder to do)...you can even do this in light to moderate rains so you can see how effective it is, but it needs to be done before heavy rains occur...and, with your hand-held hoe, pull the dirt toward you and build it up so that you are "damming" the way to prevent water from further encroachment downhill to the bottom of the drive or your house or front yard. Remember that you are not trying to completely stop driveway erosion (you can't...that's part of the battle between man and nature, where water ALWAYS WINS!), but you are trying to stop your driveway from washing out to where you can't drive up it. Put in as many diversion channels as you need. There is no rule of thumb on the number.

Fixing a Washed-out Driveway: When the driveway washes out, it will wash out on the down-slope side because water always takes the path of least resistance, and, since no driveway is completely flat, there is always a downslope side. Well, anyway, you will find an erosion gulley on one side or cut across the middle! If the gulley is not very deep, fill it with dirt mixed with stones or gravel. If the gulley is deep, so deep that it would be dangerous to drive up or down the driveway otherwise, or if you live on rocky land, the first thing to do is to haul in enough medium and small rocks to fill in the gulley. The rocks are used to help keep the dirt in place to make it more difficult for the dirt to wash away. Then, you haul in dirt-gravel! This is where the bucket and shovel comes in. Assuming you live on dirt roads or near dirt roads, there is probably some sort of road maintenance outfit that fixes the common roads. Usually, when this outfit maintains roads, a "road maintaning" piece of heavy equipment is used, usually made by the Catepiller Corporation. It is a long piece of equipment with a "blade" on it to move dirt from one place to another, usually side to side. Anyway, very often they leave excess dirt/gravel along sides of roads. If it is possible and by this I MEAN LEGAL, you can get some of this dirt, shovel it into your bucket, then toss the dirt from the bucket into your pick-up truck, or even your car or SUV (as long as you have a tarp between the dirt and the carpeting or base of the trunk of the car or back of the SUV), and repeat, getting as much dirt as you want per trip to the "dirt pile." DO NOT DO THIS IS IT IS ILLEGAL! In that case, you will have to buy your own dirt-gravel or find a place where you can do it legally. OR you can find where your dirt is washing into, then RECLAIM IT! Once you have the dirt back on your driveway, that is the time to create your diversion channels. Hint: If your driveway is along an embankment where one side goes uphill and one side goes downhill, create a downhill water diversion ditch along the uphill side by using your pick to carve out one long ditch alongside the uphill, and buttress this ditch with rocks between the uphill and the driveway, and don't forget to clean it out every year before the heavy rains come. Another hint: since you will be driving up and down your driveway often, don't forget that when it rains heavy enough to maintain your diversion ditches, do so.

And, speaking of rain, do you have a way to collect it so you can use it on your organic garden, or to manually flush your toilet, or to use it to mix cement, or whatever? If not, buy some 55-gallon barrels, some 5 gallon buckets, or a horse-trough or two. Put these water collection devices right under the eaves of your house, or wherever water drips from your roof or from your gutters. If a gutter system is used, 55 gallon drums work best to collect the water thatcomes out of the gutter spouts. Horse troughs are also great.

Have a mouse problem? There are two ways to go. First, get some FEMALE CATS (males, I find, are virtually useless!), KEEP THEM OUTSIDE (or build a barn or structure for them to use if you live in a cold winter climate), and let them catch all the mice they want outside. Sure, with females you have the possibility of being over run with kittens. However, if you really do live in a rural area the problem should take care of itself. Cats have a tendency to move on if the homestead gets overpopulated, and, there should be enough predators around to take care of the excess. (It is hard losing a trusted pet to a predator such as a mountain lion, fox, wolf, bear, or even a neighbor's dog, but this, like grasshoppers and leaf-eating bugs, is a fact of life in the rural remote. Besides, you're just as likely to lose a pet cat from feline distemper or running off as anything.) The other way to go is to buy a couple of good mouse traps in case the critters get inside your house. Use peanut butter as bait, not cheese, because peanut butter sticks to the bait holder better than cheese does (and I've seen mice take the cheese out BEFORE the trap became sprung!). Though the hardest to set, good wooden spring-loaded traps work best.

Like what you read? Then subscribe to the Something Happening Here Newsletter! I do not have a set time for it to come out, but I try to make a newsletter once a week or as much as possible with hints and tips on how to live better and more naturally on your rural remote land. From handling garden insects to collecting valuable resources like water and firewood to raising your children to dealing with neighbors, I believe my 25 years experience living on the land can help you make the most of your rural remote life.

Home | About | Why Move? | FAQs | Contact