May I WHINE?????????

[Chrisnstar]

It's RAINING AGAIN......

It's the last thing we need is more rain! It's so wet and gooshy. The ground is spongey. It can't hold any more water. We have no more back yard. Just from my walking across it to feed the horses, the grass is gone and it's just mud out there. It's gross.

Yesterday in our county, an SUV slid off a muddy country road into a very full creek and the couple in the car had to be rescued by a rescue team.

I can't imagine what the creeks and rivers will be like if it rains three days out of every week all through the spring!

chris

[Mary Ann]

Sure you can whine. Have some cheese, too.

I know how you feel. Tomorrow we get your leftovers. I'm so sick of the sucking, sliding, slippery, sloppy, nasty tracking, squishing gross mud here. I've about had enough.

While I've enjoyed the warm temps, I'd almost rather have it right at freezing. A little nice, clean snow. Yep, that'd do it for me. Then it could thaw all at once, and fill up the creek, and the grass could sprout and suck some of it up.

Even the grass doesn't want anything to do with it now.

[Hasha]

Yes you may! Can I join you? We are going through the same thing here, mushy water logged every thing. I actually got my foot stuck in the mud so bad yesterday that I couldn't pull it free and it was only in 2" of mud! It was like being stuck to a glue mouse trap!
They are supposed to start on my new roof this week too, but I just found out that the contractor didn't order the shingles yet becuase he thought that the lumber yard kept them in stock, so it will be 7 to 10 days before they come in and that will be from monday if he does it then. I'm never going to get this thing done!!!

[bluemouse]

Feel free - I'm right there with ya! We were at the farm today with the newborn calf (with the fractured pelvis ) and it started raining. My dad left, but I was taking so long getting the mama cow hay and water that he came back down and drove me out because he was afraid I wouldn't be able to make it on my own. It gets NASTY out there when it's wet!

I am soooo tired of mud, but I love rain. Go figure! LOL

[tlcbouv]

Have you seen the movie "A River Runs Through IT" thats my front yard. $1000. of gravel put down last summer and it is gone, disappeared, sucked into the mud. On top of that all the trees are still laying in the yard after the ice storm cause they are either frozen to the ground or struck in the mud.
I wonder what we will all whine about in Aug. when it is 105 and no rain for a month and the flies will carry you away. ;D

L

[Trailpal]

<<$1000. of gravel put down last summer and it is gone, disappeared, sucked into the mud.>>

Oh, man, how discouraging - plus your trees! Something I've been reading about (haven't done it yet, too many projects at the moment) is to use "pavement cloth" to keep the gravel from migrating down. Some other horsey email group I'm on had a gal who used it and it's wonderful. Even did her outside pens with it, and in the midst of all the sucking mud, her pens are pretty decent.

Now if I can just remember where I saw it.... It could have been here, but I'm not sure....

Rosalie

[linda]

Ah, and I just might be the geotextile fabric poster. We have fabric under ALL of our gravel--and 10 years later, we still have all of our gravel. We have fabric and gravel in our sheds--they stay dry. We have a large apron in front of one 36' long run-in shed and it stays dry. We have it under our driveway and all of our parking. The cloth is WONDERFUL. Of course, the guys who want to sell you gravel don't want you to know about it...... We spread the cloth across pure clay--then backed the dump trucks up and started dumping gravel.

This stuff is marvelous!
Linda

[Hasha]

Were do you get that stuff and how much does it cost? ;D

[linda]

Go to >www.google.com< and type in >geotextile fabric<. Then all you need to do is find the best price or closest to you. You want the heavy under-road material--it is horseproof. I think we paid about $500 for a roll 12 feet wide and 500 feet long. We are on our second roll. We have it all around our house, under our 20 car parking lot (you can turn a semi around) and under most of the driveway. We also have it in the horse sheds and in the one shed apron. It is easy to cut--a pocket knife works just fine.
Linda

[Frosty M]

I've been fantasizing about something like this for years. Do you think you could lay it down in a ring and then put really smooth pea gravel over it? Or would the stones be too likely to bruise or get caught in a hoof. We have roads on our farm made of common old "road gravel" which is a kind of red dust and rocks that takes about a year to pack down, but makes an awesome bed that stays dry and walkable no matter how much it rains. Rocks are few and far between and small. is there anyway this could be suitable for a ring?

[linda]

You could put regular gravel with fines down first so it would pack, then smaller, rounded gravel. You would have to put a bare minimum of 6 inches on top of it so it wouldn't be slick. If you just had pea gravel on top of the fabric, it could be like ball bearings if a horse would really dig in. You wouldn't want pea gravel only on top of this stuff for a working environment, although it would be fine for a run-in or something.

Although it sounds expensive, I think we both realize that in the long run, it is the cheapest way to go--because the surface is always just the same--no matter how much it has rained. And you only have to buy and spread the gravel once.....

Actually, by the time you did all of this, you would "turnpike" your ring--it would be higher than the surrounding ground--and so the water would have a place to go. You would basically be making a little island.

It should keep everything dry without a doubt, but I wouldn't barrel race on it unless you had the cloth buried so far that there was no way a horse would dig down to it under power. I only have about 4-6 inches of gravel on it in the run-ins, and that is just fine. But I don't barrel race in the run-ins..... I hope this makes sense.
Linda

[DorothyB]

Chris, we aren't near flood stage here, but I sure understand about the mud. My neighbor's well went out over 2 weeks ago and it has been too muddy to get it fixed - so they're using my water. I have mud everywhere!

Linda, any chance of getting a picture of an area covered with the gravel? How do you keep the gravel in on the sides? I need to do something with my driveway - although won't have the money until 2006.

[tlcbouv]

ohioline.osu.edu/aex-fact/0304.html

gives all the scoop on fabric use under gravel for agricultrue

[Mary Ann]

Thanks so much for the link, Linda! I forwarded to hubby for his consideration and input, too.

[linda]

The thanks go to tlbcouv for the link. I read the material on the site and concur completely. The explanations are far more clear than anything I could post.

I could go outside and take pictures, but all you would see is gravel. You don't see the cloth at all. You would never know it is there. We have a 12 foot wide gravel barrier clear around our house--then the grass. It is always dry. We thought we might have to put some sort of divider between the gravel and the lawn, but the 3/4 minus gravel stays put remarkably well. We just grab a lawn rake a couple of times a year and flick any stray gravel back where it belongs. We use Round-up to keep the grass from growing in the rocks and just go down the edge of the lawn with the Round-up to keep a (more or less straight) line between the two.

As for the driveway, it looks like--well, a road.... Again, you don't see anything--except a dry driveway. That is the only thing you see--dry.

Linda