81. No Run of the Mill Heart's Desire

I've had lots of heart's desires over my life time some big, some small, but until now gravel hadn't been one of them.  It turns out that gravel can really be important in one's life.  We have had a dirt driveway most of the time that we have lived in our cottage, mainly because of the cut in the bank across the driveway.  After many years of trying, we finally have it stabilized with plants and more plants and bender board.  It has been a struggle mostly because of a sweet little bird with a long curved bill that methodically digs up anything we plant.  We turn the soil to plant or seed and the bird says "Yippee! Those suckers have set up the buffet!"  An entire flat of carefully planted Red Apple ground cover on the upper meadow was un-planted by the little buggers.  

When we plant the upper meadow,  we water from the driveway and by the time I made the trek up to find out why I couldn't see any evidence of green it was too late.  Each plant had been dug up and cast aside to perish.  Bird screen just gets tangled in the sage and ends up tearing out what it was supposed to protect.  Finally with perseverance and really big daisies and lavender aided by vinca (which I'm not particularly fond of, but we have a big side yard full of the stuff) we have stopped the constant flow of dirt!  

 Pat, our landlord and friend, ordered up a huge truck load of gravel.  Bob and I were so happy that we danced a jig!  There was more that enough to gravel in our new  patio out our bedroom.  The Franklin stove had been sandblasted and repainted, but was a long way from the patio with rain soaked ground in between.  The stove weighs A LOT but with determination, a plywood road, 2 x 4's and a hand truck, "Voila!"  We laughed a lot and remembered Bob's daddy, Cotton.  He and Bob could move 3,000 lbs of dry cleaning equiptment with two pieces of galvanized pipe and a 2 x 4, 4,000 if they  had a skate board!

After the dinner dishes were done, we fixed a  hot cup of Yeagertee, (farmer's tea from Switzerland full of alcohol) bundled up and sat smugly, with Maggie squeezed between us, in front of a roaring fire! We were thoroughly proud of our accomplishments and happy to be proud graduates of the "Cotton Hunt  School" of moving heavy and odd shaped items with a pocket knife and  Q-tip!  It's good to receive your heart's desires even if they aren't run of the mill!