Driveway and road maintenance and Martha Stewart,

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ll start a new thread instead of posting in Becks “Silence” thread so road maintenance can have it’s own thread. I have known about the finest example of road maintenance for some time. Martha Stewart owns Edsel Ford’s old estate called Skylands. The long winding driveway is paved with crushed pink granite she selected. But the gravel would get dispersed during snow removal. So every fall the workers remove the gravel and stockpile it. Every spring they wash it and put it back in place. I love that woman.

Here is a glimpse of the gravel:

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/martha-stewart-skylands-maine-homes-article

On another note not related to gravel, when she commissioned her yacht she searched through the eggs her hens laid and found the perfect shade of, well, eggshell ivory. She took it to the builder and had them color the boat that exact shade of eggshell. She was beaming when she compared the hull to an egg when it was done.

2

That’s because the workers revolted at having to crush new pink granite every spring.

3

I have the same issue with my road base/crushed rock driveway. I add more every couple of years.

Course I don’t have anything that could be called a yard/lawn. Just more rocks and dirt interspersed with whatever tries to grow.

4

She must be a fan of Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House:

“Now, the dining room. I’d like yellow. Not just yellow; a very gay yellow. Something bright and sunshine-y. I tell you, Mr. PeDelford, if you’ll send one of your men to the grocer for a pound of their best butter, and match that exactly, you can’t go wrong!”

David Carradine took his car to George Barris’ shop with a peach, and wanted the car the color of the peach. And not this part of the peach, or this part, but this part.

5

This story kinda makes me hate her.

6

God, it must be fun to be a gazillionaire.

“Don’t you dare muss my pink granite, you low life. Who DO you think writes the check?”

Under her breath to the nearest boss-man on a horse and wearing mirror shades: “Dismiss that neanderthal, immediately, if not sooner!”

7

My driveway is gravel and very well packed from years of use. I can’t just add more gravel as it does not work into the present gravel. I have one thing I am going to try when the stepson (a contractor) has enough time do do a freebie for dad. You can use a rotary rock rake on a skid steer to churn up the gravel, then we can spread it out evenly. What I would really like to do during the process is screen the dirt out of the gravel, like Ms Stewart. But I have enough experience with screening machines to know how expensive, time consuming and dusty that would be.

8

Yeah, I have a box scrapper on the back of my tractor that has teeth on it. Same idea.

9

I use a Ratchet Rake on the loader of my tractor. Doesn’t dig as deep as a box blade with the rippers down, but does all I need on my gravel drive.

10

That’s a cool invention.

I have to wait to plow. We drive over the snow as much as possible to get it packed down. I do have feet on my plow blade, but having a good packed in base helps me not plow gravel.

Marsha is WAY over the top in doing this IMHO.