Building a road, sorta

When the sun came up this morning the clouds were so socked in I was certain it would be a snowy day and I was in a rush to get the shit-shoveling out of the way before the sky fell, cold or no cold.  A couple of hours later, when I was ready but not willing to go, there were occasional blue patches.  So naturally I sat back down with my book and waited for it to warm up a bit.

Once the shit-shoveling was out of the way I went down to M's Dome to move some dirt.  All the easy stuff is long since done and I'm working my way - very slowly - around the curve behind the dome.  This is the hard part because here the slope gets too steep for even a crazy man to want to ride it sideways, so you can't just drive up to the hole and dump your load.  Sooner or later that would test your ability to jump off a rolling tractor, and I'm a little old and one-legged for that to sound like fun.  Instead I'm using the dirt I already moved, packed in tight (I hope) between the dome and the side of the trench, as a road I'm building - and did I mention very slowly - ahead of me as I proceed.  Hit a bit of a snag today, since there's a little cul-de-sac in the side of the trench where the propane line goes down and no matter how I approach it the dirt just doesn't seem to want to go there.  But I've got to fill it in, or sooner or later the tractor will - by going where the dirt is too soft and just falling in.

That would be bad.

Also, since I'm not exactly a professional heavy equipment operator, I have the occasional embarrassing moment where I'm glad nobody's there watching me.  Like when I ram the bucket into the dirt pile, scoop up what I think is a good load, struggle up the hill and tip the bucket, and have maybe two shovels-worth come out.  Yeah, that's a good use of time and diesel.  Or when I'm ever-so-cautiously backing down the steep part, my foot slips off one of the brake pedals, and the whole tractor rears up on its hind wheels and starts trying to do the Twist.  That just never gets old.

I just really can't express how slowly this is going.  There's no way in hell I'll get it covered by full winter, or even surrounded.  Last month that really bothered me, but now I've pretty much relaxed to it.  I try to give it at least an hour or two on non-windy days, and sometimes I make perceptible progress and sometimes - the other thing happens.  Today, at least, I can honestly say I advanced the road a few feet.  All I can do is keep chipping away at it, and try not to get killed.