stubbed toes and mud pies

[flowerbug]

i checked out my small patches of Irish Moss and they are still there. i hope they spread a lot more as i think the combination may be fun to see how they work and if the blooms from the Creeping Thyme are as thick or not.

another project i've needed to do for ages got done yesterday afternoon as an impromptu event. my ISP was on the fritz and i wasn't quite in the mood for reading a book (the old fashioned kind ) so i called our neighbor down the road who does excavation work and asked him if he still had any driveway mix (aka stonecrete). he said he'd come over later. i was hoping i could put some in buckets but he already had it dumped by the time i got out the door to talk to him. i had to move it to fill in the developing pothole at the end of the driveway plus fill in where we've been driving for a while so that there aren't any more puddles forming. i asked him how much he wanted for the materials and transportation and he said he just wanted cookies and that if i needed more to let him know.

i've determined the most damage at the end of the driveway comes from the dump truck drivers who won't stay on the road (i've asked). which means now i put the trash bag and recycling containers right at the edge of the pavement.

there are other holes out there along the road but i don't want to fill them in again because people will still keep driving way off the road and making a mess. that gets too expensive... it's all mud and clay and not a proper road bed and too much work to dig it out and replace it and do it right.

this morning we got a nice rain to test everything out and it looks ok. not too much puddling going on.

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

Oh roads / driveways can be a pain. Our driveway is very long and blacktop. It has started to crack in places , then weeds start to grow pushing the cracks even larger . Winter freeze and rain also cause damage. It’s not that easy to repair. It looks like a lot of green lines icrossing from one side to the other a maze of green lines cris crossing across the driveway. I spray them but then ya gotta pull them all out. I’m past that at this stage. Not good with the hands and knees scrouching down to pull weeds. I can’t get back up unless my big collie is near by. She will dig her feet in and stiffen up her back so I can lean on her to get up. Now how many gardeners has a helper like that in their garden.
“Dogs” , I love them so much.

 

[flowerbug]

Oh roads / driveways can be a pain. Our driveway is very long and blacktop. It has started to crack in places , then weeds start to grow pushing the cracks even larger . Winter freeze and rain also cause damage. It’s not that easy to repair. It looks like a lot of green lines icrossing from one side to the other a maze of green lines cris crossing across the driveway. I spray them but then ya gotta pull them all out. I’m past that at this stage. Not good with the hands and knees scrouching down to pull weeds.

i'm not sure what the pros do for cleaning and removal of weeds before they seal it back up. that's pretty much got to be done every so often for blacktop and a reason why i'm glad we have a concrete drive here (which has cracks and it's own issues).

I can’t get back up unless my big collie is near by. She will dig her feet in and stiffen up her back so I can lean on her to get up. Now how many gardeners has a helper like that in their garden.
“Dogs” , I love them so much.

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

We had a concret drive iat another home , it didn’t work well with freezing thaw cycle then heat rain of summers. It started to chip and top layers popped off.
This home I have had professionals come out to seal the asphalt driveway and it needs to be done again. This will fill in all the cracks for another few years. Most driveways need maintenance to stay in good shape. I would like to get it sealed before winter.

 

[mikethegardener]

Ahaha, I can totally relate to the struggles of driveway maintenance! We've had our fair share of issues with concrete and asphalt driveways too.

 

[flowerbug]

We had a concret drive iat another home , it didn’t work well with freezing thaw cycle then heat rain of summers. It started to chip and top layers popped off.

that was a poor quality concrete mix or an installer who didn't know how to do it right kind of problem IMO. normally concrete should not degrade like that with weathering. we have pretty harsh winters here and it's nearly been 30 years and there's no chipping. it is cracking due to it being too thin for the big trucks that have been coming up it, but that's a cheap ex-step-dad issue more than anything...

This home I have had professionals come out to seal the asphalt driveway and it needs to be done again. This will fill in all the cracks for another few years. Most driveways need maintenance to stay in good shape. I would like to get it sealed before winter.

the only maint i do on ours is to keep the weeds out of the expansion joints and to fill in the bigger cracks so the water doesn't start getting under it and the ants don't start up coming up through them.

 

[flowerbug]

Ahaha, I can totally relate to the struggles of driveway maintenance! We've had our fair share of issues with concrete and asphalt driveways too.

Mom is upset by mud tracking up the driveway from the end which is closer to the road which wasn't cemented. she's wanted to have that done for many years but it's not really workable and i'm glad we didn't do it since we had to have the ditch drain tube replaced a few years ago. of course had there been a slab over it the drain tube could have been almost completely gone for many years before we'd have noticed...

since our primary subsoil here is mostly clay we're pretty much just floating here on a slow moving pile of goo. i'm surprised the foundation has held up as much as it has.

 

[flowerbug]

yesterday Mom was making some spaghetti sauce and meatballs for today's dinner plus for feeding people next week. i had to peel a few bulbs of garlic.

the first bulb was beautiful, not a spot on any of the cloves anywhere, pure clean yellow/white.

the second bulb felt mushy when i took it out of the box top but it didn't smell too funky so i wasn't sure what i was getting into. as it turned out when i pulled it apart the cloves were all mostly ok, but the tunic coverings of each clove were slightly damp and it was almost as if they were digested by a fungus/mushroom. they did not peel off they just sort of crumbled and i had to wipe off some of it. none of it smelled rotten. the cloves were not all formed right and a few had some spots but those could be cut away. what it looked like happened was that there was no stem in the hard neck garlic and any time it rained or got wet the water went right down and into the bulb so the tunics were never developed properly and this strange fungus settled in. it was kinda like the fungus from a brie cheese, clean, white, not smelly.

so chalk that up to learning something new.

today the schedule is making garlic bread, broccoli and cauliflour salad and chocolate pie. i'll be doing the dishes any time Mom needs them done and otherwise taking it easy. it's been raining the past few days so i've not been gardening. yesterday we even went shopping together and had lunch out. i've not been out much the past few months so it was strange but i survived.

 

[flowerbug]

Keto Meatball Breakfast Sandwich

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

Egg sandwich for us this morning.