2018 Summer: Pond Road Hill

In the summer of 2018, the hill of Pond Road was in trouble.  Water was running down the road instead of the ditches, and puddling so badly at the bottom that the road was softening.  The project took about a monthto complete, but the big picture was this:

* set the tractor blade as described for Baer Hill flat:
http://elgneighborhoodmaintenance.blogspot.com/2018/02/09feb2018-saving-gravel.html

* Push black organic soil out to the side.  On the south side, it went into the ditch, which was too deep anyway.  On the north side, a new ditch-like feature emerged at the road's edge.

* Cut inorganic dirt to the center to reconstruct a crown.

* Get ABC gravel tailgate-spread up the middle to make the crown a little higher.

* Compact.  Because of the steepness of the hill, you have to orbit side to side, and overlap each time, to cover the hill.  The technique is described here:
http://elgneighborhoodmaintenance.blogspot.com/2017/10/14sep2017-gravel-and-compaction-on-baer.html

* At the bottom, dig out all roadside turf so water runs freely off the road into the culvert area.

* About halfway down the north side, move some cut wood back from the road and dig through with the Merry Tiller.  The area had silted up because of the wood sitting there.  That was one of the worst places kicking water into the roadbed.

This is how it looked at the end:

ELG List Posts:

30Jun2018 ROADS: Pond Hill Day needed

Neighbors -

This morning I propped my tractor up well enough to move some dirt around on Pond Hill.  The hill needs more work and some gravel, but the real problem is drains:

* The ditch flattens out on the north side (Art/Marion/Gail/Trace) about halfway down near a cut up tree that is rotting in a picturesque manner.  Because the ditch is clogged there, water kicks into the road.  This blockage is the root cause of the worst of the erosion on lower Pond Hill.  The tree needs to be thrown further back and the ditch redug for those 20 or so feet.  My Merry Tiller may help here.

* The low roadside ridges of dirt from today's grading need to be raked/hoed into the road center.

* The dirt I couldn't get to with the tractor, mainly mud and leaves, between the road and the ditch, needs to be dug out and removed so we can have one slope from the road center to each ditch.  That's a shovel job

* Leaves and muck need to come out of the ditch, entire hill, both sides.  I think the leaves are mixed with dirt and too heavy for a leaf blower.

* The new pile of mulch at the top of the hill on the north side needs to be removed before it washes back down.  It's up for grabs.

Once that's all done, and my tractor is fixed for-real, I can grade some more.  Then we can put some gravel up the middle and compact the whole shebang.

I'm flying next Sunday and really don't want to commit to road work the day before.  Coming back the following Saturday.  Who can come out on Saturday 21July?

If anyone wants to organize something sooner than that, you will not hurt my feelings.

Thanks,
Larry

30Jul2018 ROADS: Volunteers needed for Pond Hill compaction on Saturday morning

Hi folks,

I put a few more hours into Pond Hill on Saturday, and just arranged for a load of ABC gravel from Ben Ferguson.

Now I have a couple of requests for you-all:

1.  Could a few people come out Saturday morning to help compact the new gravel and the dirt that I have cut in from the roadsides?  It should be 3 or 4 person-hours so the more the easier.

2.  Could people take it easy driving on Pond Hill until Saturday, so not too much gravel gets kicked out?

This link shows what I want to do on Saturday:

http://elgneighborhoodmaintenance.blogspot.com/2017/10/14sep2017-gravel-and-compaction-on-baer.html

That job, on Baer Hill last September, washboarded.  But Baer Hill always does that anyway.  Pond Hill does not usually washboard, so I am hoping that compaction will allow the road to keep its new shape for a while.

I'm going to start around 9.  Feel free to come late and relieve me. Pond Hill is pretty steep, and you get tired fast.

If enough people come out, we might form a separate bucket crew for potholes.  It worked real well about 6 months ago to have people drop gravel off the back of a truck.  Potholes are like cavities in the road.  They reform in the same places until you fix the road.  But while we are getting around to the real fixes, we can fill the holes from buckets for less than $500/year.

Thanks,
Larry

There was a rain delay, but eventually this was posted on 18Aug2018
Re: [ELG] ROADS: Pond Hill work tomorrow morning:

I want to thank Joe, Senga and Rusty for coming out this morning.  Pond Road should be ok for a while now.  We improved drainage, raked some washout gravel back up, smoothed and compacted everything in less than 3 hours.

Thanks also whoever mowed the flat part of Baer Hill Road including behind the mailboxes.  It's been a couple of weeks now and I've been meaning to say something.  You're a great neighbor, whoever you are.

See y'all,
Larry

The mystery mower turned out to be Dick Snow.