Fun With Machinery.

I'm going back in time a bit here, but I wanted to show a little about the drive. Also, I noticed on some of the other blogs I visit, the subject has been the occasional trespasser and I have a story about that.
This photo is from the very beginning of the driveway, as you can probably tell. I have to say, I have been extremely blessed with very opportune circumstances regarding this land. Someone must be watching out for me! One instance is with this drive. In the 1950's, about a third of what is now my land, was a man-made lake and then in 1963 (I think) a huge rainstorm came and it rained for days on end and the earth dam that had been built for the lake, broke. It was too much to rebuild so they just left it. When we arrived, there was no other good way to bring a road in except by this old earth dam. (I am land-locked and have a 500' long easement back to my place.) So, by some twist of fate, this old dam provided all the dirt we needed to build this very long driveway back to our home site. There is no way we would have been able to afford to have this much dirt hauled in. Well, it would not have made good financial sense.
Now, we had gotten about half of the drive in and had connected to the main road but it was not really passable but with a machine, when some person decided they wanted to come see what we were doing. They did not ask but just went tooling down the road, on a muddy day no less, and got back up in there and just about got stuck. There was no where to turn around and a creek on one side. I t could have turned into a very bad situation but they managed to get out although they rutted the road up something awlful doing it. Now when I saw this I was furious! It was bad enough they didn't ask but somehow it was made all the worse because they DROVE on my land. I told Allen we were going to go get a gate that day! I knew there were several large gates up at my parents that were not being used anymore so we went up there. Allen said I should just calm down and that they (trespasser) had learned their lesson and probably would not be back but, NO! I was pissed! So, we had to drive into the pasture at Mama's to get the gate I wanted (remember what I said about it being a muddy day) and we noticed right away that maybe this wasn't a good idea. Well, we made it down to the gate and loaded it up but in my infinite wisdom, I told him to take a different route out. We almost made it. We got about 30 yards from the exit and marred up so bad the mud was up to the axle of the truck. We pushed and shoved and crammed everything we could find under the wheels but it wasn't going anywhere. Did I mention it was dark by now and about 38 degrees? This went on about an hour and Allen finally just gave up and said we were going to have to get someone to pull us out. But I said NO! we were construction workers! we've seen worse! we've gotten concrete trucks out of worse mud before! So I told him to get in the truck and just go when I said. He was so exhausted he went along with it. So I worked for another 30 minutes but was really starting to crash; I was exhausted, freezing and muddy from head to toe. In despair I said (outloud), God if you'll just help us get out I'll try to NEVER act so ugly again about something so trivial! And then I threw a couple more rocks under the tires and told Allen to floor it and don't stop. And he did! He drove right out! I couldn't believe it. I was still laughing when I got up to the house and he and Mama asked me what I was laughing at. I told them and they said that's what I get for being so pissy and ungrateful. So we went back home and the next morning Allen went down to install the gate. I told him he should not pull in all the way but he said, oh I won't get stuck! Well, you can guess what happened. Now, down here people will generally stop if they see a motorist who needs help and so this man stops and pulls Allen's truck out with his truck. The clincher is that it was the same man that I was accusing of being the trespasser to begin with! Generally speaking, I am so hard-headed that I have to learn lessons this way. My brother, who is a preacher, thought this was a very good story.