Here at Coteau Valley Farm and Nursery in Sisseton, South Dakota, the driveway is in need of a manicure. At the beginning of the week, we ordered the "polish" required for the job to get done. Today, a large diesel with 26 wheels and a huge trailer, that was double-boxed, (I’ll show a picture) dropped 18 tons of crushed gravel in the yard. It was an amazing sight to see such a large truck come to the farm. The driver did a really good job dumping the gravel and turning the huge white truck around in the yard. Granted, we do have a big yard but still, it takes skill to drive such a large vehicle and turn it around so easily. It seemed like the front end of the truck could literally turn so sharp that it could hit the trailer it was pulling and still keep going without jackknifing. The gravel will be spread out on the driveway and flattened, using a lawn roller. It will have a much smoother look and be nicer to drive on and the road will have less erosion. I would imagine it has not been maintained in some time, perhaps even ten years. It’s just a guess, maybe I am wrong and it was maintained earlier than this estimate. Either way, it was cool to see the gigantic diesel bring the dirt gravel in and turn around so easily in the yard. Our road has a lot of bigger holes and tire tread marks in it from the past winter. We plan to use our smaller John Deer tractor to spread the gravel/dirt. It does well for smaller jobs like this. I know it could not keep up with some of these huge farm tractors that I’ve seen rolling past on the highway, but it does a pretty good job. Accomplishing work like this is fun because the final product is always instant gratification and makes you feel like you made a difference. It’s probably not a big stand-out job unless you were in the business of noticing, but we will notice the work is done and it looks nice. I suppose not a lot of people drive into a place and admire with awe the road. I know that does not happen, usually. However, I have visited some places and silently thought that "Man this is a nice driveway and it looks well-maintained." I hope that people will like the driveway, I do. What is your impression of roads? Ha! I bet that is not a question you hear often, unless the road is blatantly an old cow trail.
Coteau des Prairies
South Dakota Hobby Farm
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