Bannedjoe
Well-known member
Hi gang!
I'm almost completely off the internet. I only use it to order stuff, research how to's, and email.
Now and then I drop by here, but anything I have to say anymore would take pages to write, and I just can't bring myself to spend that much time composing and writing, but this one I will because I need some solid advice, if it's here. I thank you!
I'm going to make this as short as possible, but detail will be needed, so here goes.
I live at the end of a 2 mile dirt road. The road crosses a number of owned, but uninhabited properties.
It is not county.
The road was cut with the intention of being able to bring potential buyers to each property in order to show them.
The road is also easement protected so no one can close off their property to travel for others to get in and out.
People have come and gone in my 25 years here.
Most come in with their big plans and ideas, only to rip up their properties, bring in their junk and campers etc. then bail out when they realize living in the desert takes much more work, stamina, skills, money and knowledge than they possess.
Some have even split when they realized no one was coming to provide electricity and water.🙄
In the beginning, we had nothing, and the road was just short of a 4 wheel drive jeep trail. My wife and I had a pick, a few shovels and a wheelbarrow.
We spent many hundreds of back breaking hours trying to make it possible to travel on without being tossed around the car like a ragdoll in a dryer.
We built drags, and again, many hours were spent just driving around trying to smooth the road, at the same time prying up boulders, and tossing endless rocks from the size of baseballs and grapefruits to bowling balls and toaster ovens.
After a very long time, the god's smiled on us, and we ended up with an old 2 wheel drive case skiploader with a gannon, but no brakes.
But, who the hell needs brakes when you have a gannon right?
Again, zillions of hours were spent learning how to use the machine, moving many tons of earth from one place to another covering rocks lying beneath the road that were the size of houses.
I spent a great deal of time trying to reform all the corners and turns with the proper (camber?) (tilt?) whatever it's called like the turns on a race track.
I then traded off the first tractor for a much newer one with 4 wheel drive, and brakes!
There is so much rock, DG, and sand, but not a whole lot of packable material, but over the years I have rolled in enough to make it easily groomable.
As a matter of fact, I pretty much removed all the loose rock from the top foot or so, allowing me to use just the back edge of the gannon to smooth the road like frosting on a cake.
As of a few weeks ago, If I had the money, I would say it could easily be paved with very little prep work.
Then (a few weeks ago) three guys (brothers) come down my drive and stop at the gate. They introduce themselves as my new neighbors.
Their big plan is to build each one a home for themselves and their wives.
I offered lots of advice of things to do and not do having 25 years of experience living off grid in the middle of nowhere.
Although they asked for it, they heeded none.
The first thing they decided was that the road wasn't wide enough, so they sent some guy in with a bulldozer who completely destroyed my 25 years of work.
It was as if I had done nothing over that time by the time this guy was done.
The new neighbor wasn't even present to oversee this guy's work.
When I came across the dozer operator, I asked him what contingencies he had for finishing the road.
He had none.
Needless to say, the man writing this had gone from a rather peaceful happy man, to just short of a raving lunatic.
I got the new owners number from the dozer operator, and as graceful and as tactfully as I could (which I couldn't) I asked the guy how he planned on making the road travelable again.
He had made no plans for a grader or anything, and wasn't planning to come back out here from Washington for quite a few months.
Somehow the idiot thought you send in a dozer, and your road is done.
Much like someone thinking they can order a cement truck, have it poured out, and tada, you have a perfect floor or slab.
I explained to the guy that the road can't be traveled, and if he tried bringing in his fifth wheel camper, all the cabinets would be on the floor, the tires destroyed, and maybe even a broken axle by the time he got to his property.
He didn't apologize or anything, except to say that he didn't want to start things out by pissing me off, or starting a war, which in my eyes is pretty much what he did.
He came into my world, said hello, knocked over my 10,000 house of cards, took a shit on the coffee table and left.
I explained that the road would need a hell of a lot of work to be driveable again, or have it anywhere close to what is was when he first drove in.
He asked what should be done.
I told him it would cost at least as much as the dozer and operator to being in a road grader or anything else to repair the mess and finish the road properly, and rework all the drainage I had built.
He knew I had a machine before he sent in the dozer. I guess it didn't even cross his mind to inform me about the dozer, otherwise I could have worked with the guy and shown him the trouble spots, and where not to cut.
But alas, that wasn't the case.
I told him I was going to have to repair the road just so my wife and I could safely and easily get in and out, never mind his family and their campers and whatever they planned to bring in.
He asked what I would charge.
I told him $75/hr, which was a pretty good deal being as I was already here, and he wouldn't have to pay for transport.
He asked how long it would take.
I said I haven't a clue, but it's going to take a lot of work.
At this point, the dozer was still parked on his property while the operator scheduled and waited for transport.
He suggested I get with the dozer guy, and see what he could do on the way out, which I did, but mostly all I could do was to try and get him to move material so I would have something to work with.
I sent the man a text that I was going to be working with the dozer guy on the way out.
No response.
I've spent many days now reworking the road, putting earth back where it needed to be, filling the big chunks where the dozer blade dove way too deep, again prying up boulders by hand, and even hiring a few people to walk along picking and kicking virtual dump trucks of rock out of the way.
I'm guessing myself, I've probably gotten on and off tractor 1000 times in the last week just to pick rock myself.
My wife tried to help, and damn near killed herself.
I sent him a text last night telling him the condition of the road was almost good again, and now, only time, a little rain, and my general usual maintenance was going to be needed before it will even be close to what it was.
I told him I have 50 hours into the project.
No response.
Without saying anything, I know what I want to do, and the things I want to do that I shouldn't do, but what I'd really like to hear is,
WHAT WOULD YOU DO AT THIS POINT?
I'm almost completely off the internet. I only use it to order stuff, research how to's, and email.
Now and then I drop by here, but anything I have to say anymore would take pages to write, and I just can't bring myself to spend that much time composing and writing, but this one I will because I need some solid advice, if it's here. I thank you!
I'm going to make this as short as possible, but detail will be needed, so here goes.
I live at the end of a 2 mile dirt road. The road crosses a number of owned, but uninhabited properties.
It is not county.
The road was cut with the intention of being able to bring potential buyers to each property in order to show them.
The road is also easement protected so no one can close off their property to travel for others to get in and out.
People have come and gone in my 25 years here.
Most come in with their big plans and ideas, only to rip up their properties, bring in their junk and campers etc. then bail out when they realize living in the desert takes much more work, stamina, skills, money and knowledge than they possess.
Some have even split when they realized no one was coming to provide electricity and water.🙄
In the beginning, we had nothing, and the road was just short of a 4 wheel drive jeep trail. My wife and I had a pick, a few shovels and a wheelbarrow.
We spent many hundreds of back breaking hours trying to make it possible to travel on without being tossed around the car like a ragdoll in a dryer.
We built drags, and again, many hours were spent just driving around trying to smooth the road, at the same time prying up boulders, and tossing endless rocks from the size of baseballs and grapefruits to bowling balls and toaster ovens.
After a very long time, the god's smiled on us, and we ended up with an old 2 wheel drive case skiploader with a gannon, but no brakes.
But, who the hell needs brakes when you have a gannon right?
Again, zillions of hours were spent learning how to use the machine, moving many tons of earth from one place to another covering rocks lying beneath the road that were the size of houses.
I spent a great deal of time trying to reform all the corners and turns with the proper (camber?) (tilt?) whatever it's called like the turns on a race track.
I then traded off the first tractor for a much newer one with 4 wheel drive, and brakes!
There is so much rock, DG, and sand, but not a whole lot of packable material, but over the years I have rolled in enough to make it easily groomable.
As a matter of fact, I pretty much removed all the loose rock from the top foot or so, allowing me to use just the back edge of the gannon to smooth the road like frosting on a cake.
As of a few weeks ago, If I had the money, I would say it could easily be paved with very little prep work.
Then (a few weeks ago) three guys (brothers) come down my drive and stop at the gate. They introduce themselves as my new neighbors.
Their big plan is to build each one a home for themselves and their wives.
I offered lots of advice of things to do and not do having 25 years of experience living off grid in the middle of nowhere.
Although they asked for it, they heeded none.
The first thing they decided was that the road wasn't wide enough, so they sent some guy in with a bulldozer who completely destroyed my 25 years of work.
It was as if I had done nothing over that time by the time this guy was done.
The new neighbor wasn't even present to oversee this guy's work.
When I came across the dozer operator, I asked him what contingencies he had for finishing the road.
He had none.
Needless to say, the man writing this had gone from a rather peaceful happy man, to just short of a raving lunatic.
I got the new owners number from the dozer operator, and as graceful and as tactfully as I could (which I couldn't) I asked the guy how he planned on making the road travelable again.
He had made no plans for a grader or anything, and wasn't planning to come back out here from Washington for quite a few months.
Somehow the idiot thought you send in a dozer, and your road is done.
Much like someone thinking they can order a cement truck, have it poured out, and tada, you have a perfect floor or slab.
I explained to the guy that the road can't be traveled, and if he tried bringing in his fifth wheel camper, all the cabinets would be on the floor, the tires destroyed, and maybe even a broken axle by the time he got to his property.
He didn't apologize or anything, except to say that he didn't want to start things out by pissing me off, or starting a war, which in my eyes is pretty much what he did.
He came into my world, said hello, knocked over my 10,000 house of cards, took a shit on the coffee table and left.
I explained that the road would need a hell of a lot of work to be driveable again, or have it anywhere close to what is was when he first drove in.
He asked what should be done.
I told him it would cost at least as much as the dozer and operator to being in a road grader or anything else to repair the mess and finish the road properly, and rework all the drainage I had built.
He knew I had a machine before he sent in the dozer. I guess it didn't even cross his mind to inform me about the dozer, otherwise I could have worked with the guy and shown him the trouble spots, and where not to cut.
But alas, that wasn't the case.
I told him I was going to have to repair the road just so my wife and I could safely and easily get in and out, never mind his family and their campers and whatever they planned to bring in.
He asked what I would charge.
I told him $75/hr, which was a pretty good deal being as I was already here, and he wouldn't have to pay for transport.
He asked how long it would take.
I said I haven't a clue, but it's going to take a lot of work.
At this point, the dozer was still parked on his property while the operator scheduled and waited for transport.
He suggested I get with the dozer guy, and see what he could do on the way out, which I did, but mostly all I could do was to try and get him to move material so I would have something to work with.
I sent the man a text that I was going to be working with the dozer guy on the way out.
No response.
I've spent many days now reworking the road, putting earth back where it needed to be, filling the big chunks where the dozer blade dove way too deep, again prying up boulders by hand, and even hiring a few people to walk along picking and kicking virtual dump trucks of rock out of the way.
I'm guessing myself, I've probably gotten on and off tractor 1000 times in the last week just to pick rock myself.
My wife tried to help, and damn near killed herself.
I sent him a text last night telling him the condition of the road was almost good again, and now, only time, a little rain, and my general usual maintenance was going to be needed before it will even be close to what it was.
I told him I have 50 hours into the project.
No response.
Without saying anything, I know what I want to do, and the things I want to do that I shouldn't do, but what I'd really like to hear is,
WHAT WOULD YOU DO AT THIS POINT?