Mud

Last weekend was a learning experience. As you may recall we attempted a trip to the land the last weekend in March, it was a bust, too much snow. We figured that enough time had past and that all the snow would be gone so we drove down last weekend May 1. We were right! All the snow was gone, but where did all that water from the melting snow go? Into the top soil. It was a nasty mess, mud, mud, mud. This mud is insane. You step in it once and it is firm, step on it twice and you are 6 inches in. I liken it to cornstarch mixed with water. Firm under pressure then turning to liquid, nasty stuff.

We invited some people to come down if they wanted to help, Joe & Carlee and Jerry & Kathy Dowling took us up on the offer and met us on Brown's Lake Rd. Jerry was the first to arrive and informed us that he couldn't make it down our road, too muddy and they were in their RV. We got there and tried to drive down the road, got 20 feet and stopped, stuck. Pat pushed us out back to BLR, no further attempts were made. The mud was so soft that any attempts to drive further would probably destroy the road for the rest of the year. The Dowling's decided to go rent a movie and crank up the generator in a campground, but Joe, Carlee, Pat and myself decided to walk in and see what we could do.

We picked up broken glass, chopped a few trees down (chopped because our brand new chainsaw would not start) and got a few boards off the basement before it started sleeting. Movie sleet. Heavy rain/snow mix that soaked us. Time to go home.


What we learned:
Don't invite people when you don't know what you are getting yourself into.
Don't expect anything.
Put up some sort of shelter, no matter how primitive, as soon as we arrive.
Don't load the truck to the brim with "land stuff" if you aren't sure that you will be able to get said items TO the land.
Cheeseburger Doritos are gross.