September 2, 2023

Saturday

Today could have been a frightful day!

It started out bright and sunny so I decided to attack the weeds that have sprung up in the Holowai driveway while there was shade over parts of it. These are the weeds that produce those pesky little furry seeds that cling to cloth surfaces that comes near to them. Once they get attached, they are a real bother to get off. I cleared the sloping part of the driveway and had quite a pile. I also had a pile of small pieces of broken wood and short ends from dismantling the pallets. I loaded these weeds and odds-n-ends broken pieces of wood into the car to take over to Ahi and dump at the bottom of the driveway.

At the Ahi lot, I backed down the driveway to the flat level area at the bottom. Then I opened the back and dumped out the weeds and boards. I got back into the car and backed over the pile I had just dumped there to crush it. Then I drove forward moving over a foot or so. Then back, then forward, then back, each time moving sideways a little bit. Well, one time as I was backing up, I went a little too far to the right and slid off the driveway into the soft, loose gravel on the side. By the time I stopped, I had backed up against two small trees about 2 inches in diameter, and maybe ten feet tall. I tried to go forward, but my tires just dug into the loose gravel and proceeded to dig four holes. I backed up again, this time pushing back these trees. My tires came out of the holes a few inches. I filled in the holes my tires had dug the best I could and tried to go forward. But I could not get enough momentum to get the tires up over the front edge of where these holes were. I was stuck!

So, I got the handsaw and cut down the trees as close to the ground as possible. Then I was able to back up another 5 or 6 feet. This gave me enough room to gather enough momentum to get up and into the center of the driveway onto some more compacted and solid material. Then I was able to continue on up to the top of the driveway. I was so intent on getting unstuck, that I did not take any pictures!

I need more fill material to raise the bottom portion of the driveway and reduce the angle of slope. This will also reduce the possibility of getting stuck again!

TTFN