Filed under: June 2015 | Tags: big boy toy, clean water, wetland, woodland stewardship
Main road culvert finally in place
June 19, 2015
I have crossed this small stream for over twenty years. In summer it’s no big deal, because the water level is usually very low. The rest of the time, this area is a mess that I avoid. I tried to place rocks in the streambed where the wheels would go. It was a very short term fix, that didn’t work. I mowed the grass to help the area dry out. This too helped some, but was not a real solution.
I next tried installing a culvert. I messed that job up too. I used a culvert that was too small for the job. I didn’t bury it deep enough. We got a very big rain. The culvert, along with all my hard work, was washed out in an instant. I was not happy, but I did realize that this was a bigger job than I gave it credit. I was in almost over my head, literally as I stood knee deep in mud waving bye to my culvert.
Finally, I enlisted the help of a man who installs culverts and other excavation work, for a living. He did, what took me an entire day, in the space of several minutes. He made it look easy. It is a much better job than I could ever do, but he did have an awesome “big boy” toy. I will put some stone in a place where the water seeps. I will cover the bare dirt with bark mulch and eventually grass, on top of mulch hay left from an old round bale.
I can’t believe how simple this solution really was in the end. It wasn’t expensive and it is doing a great job. The water runs through clean and clear. I can chalk this up as another great project in our quest to be good stewards of our farm and wetland. Seems almost funny that this solution was so simple, cost effective and easily done. I just had to ask the right guy, and like the culvert…he had me covered 😮
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