One of the major selling points when we initially considered buying this land and moving up here on the mountain was the driveway… for me at least. I know that a long, gravel driveway up a mountain would be a big turn off to some, but to me, it was perfect.
I’ve always loved the driveway a couple from our church has. It too is up a mountain, and it’s so peaceful and beautiful as you slowly travel up it. Not only do you notice the plants growing around you, but you can feel the air get cooler the higher you go. And it simply transports you from the busyness of town to the stillness of life in the mountains. I just love it, and the same is true for this place. Driving up our long driveway feels me with a sense of expectancy.
Now, although I love the driveway in the spring, summer, and fall, the winter is a totally different thing. Sure, I love the look of it as it’s covered in snow, but I don’t care for the drive up or down it when it’s in that condition.
As you can imagine, if there’s snow on the ground here in East Tennessee, I stay home… snug and cozy in my little house on the mountain. My man makes sure we have plenty of wood for the woodstove, and he picks up anything we need on his way home from work. And when I do come off the mountain in the snow, you can be sure it’s because he’s driving me! I can not drive in the snow. I will surely wreck. It’s just not good. If anything ever happens to Dean, the only way I’ll be coming off this mountain when snow is on the ground is if someone comes to get me or if I walk off. Period.
Anyway, I’m way off track here. As much as I love living way up here, the driveway has given us some problems, particualarly when we have a heavy rain.
Every time we have a heavy rain, the driveway washes out and gets big ruts in it, and Dean has to fire the tractor up and drag the driveway to get it all smoothed out again. It’s happened about four times already this spring, and he’s about had it. That means that our focus on finishing our big landscaping project will need to be set aside a bit so we can work on figuring out what to do to fix our driveway.
Our plan is to have a neighbor friend come up and look into what it will take to do some excavating work. We’ll need to put in some drainage pipes across the driveway, have the ditch that runs down the driveway re-dug and cleaned out, and get a few loads of gravel put down as much of it has washed off.
Although the driveway wasn’t something we planned on addressing (or budgeted for) this year, it’s taken priority. And really, I’m okay with that… even if it means putting the landscaping off (again) until next year. I mean, if we do sell this place at some point, having a stable driveway is going to be a higher selling point than having a pretty yard!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little sneak peek at our home here on the mountain. If you’d like to see more about how we fixed up our house (and are continuing to do so), you can follow my House to Home posts here.
xo, Meagan
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