West Virginia notoriously has really bad roads. Because of the large amount of rainfall and the fact that country roads are most often on the sides of hills, roadways often slip right off and head down the slope. Sometimes “Single Lane Ahead” signs are placed before the slip with times stoplights to give people turns to drive through until the funds are available to fix the problem. We are a poor state, so roadwork is prioritized and these country roads are often way down the list. 

There is one road in particular that we cross to get to the farm. It cuts a lot of time off the trip and it’s a pretty good two-lane blacktop. However, there is an area not far from the intersection that started to slip really bad in the last couple of years. They patched it a couple of times with extra asphalt, but that’s just a temporary fix as the soil beneath the road continues to slough away. Usually, when a big project is going to be carried out that will interrupt traffic flow, there will be some sort of warning released to find an alternative route. My person who usually warns me of such things had surgery this week, so we were clueless when we headed to the farm to mow early yesterday afternoon.

When we got to the road construction, we were diverted down a small country lane alongside the river. Mr. FixIt says we have driven out this road, but with my head injury from the truck accident three years ago, I often don’t remember places we have been together, especially in the year or so following the accident. I was driving like I’d never seen the place so I had no idea what lay ahead. The “road” is seriously one lane of crumbling asphalt. And a narrow lane at that. I have a big F-150 pickup and was pulling the utility trailer with the mowers on it. I assumed, since the road was so narrow, the flaggers would have folks take turns driving either direction. But, nooooooooooo. Every time we passed a car…and there were plenty of cars…we each had to get two wheels off the road in order to pass. 

There was one place, near an intersection halfway through this detour, where there was no place to go on either side. That’s when I met another truck, towing a utility trailer. And a big SUV. And another big truck hauling a bass boat. I just stopped dead in the road. I had about six cars behind me so I couldn’t back up. The truck coming at me started inching backwards…uphill…into a turn. The folks behind him followed suit. Finally, there was just enough room for me to slip by them. I thanked them profusely for helping me out, and in typical country fashion, there was a slight pause as Mr. FixIt and the driver greeted each other and exchanged pleasantries. He knows EVERYONE. lol

We finally made it through and I told my sweetheart, we needed to wait long enough to be sure they were finished working for the day before we returned. Road crews will typically finish up around 4:00 around here…especially on a Friday. It was 4:30 when we came around the bend and there was the flagger, directing us back down the single-track lane. I was not happy about it, but what choice did I have. Fortunately, the traffic was thinned out and it wasn’t quite quitting time so we didn’t have a lot of trouble coming back. 

This is country living. You take things in stride and do the best you can with what you have to work with. I’ve grateful our road made it up the list and is receiving a complete overhaul so the slip with finally be fixed with a long term solution. Fortunately, I think this was the last mowing we’ll have to do this year out at the farm. The grass really hadn’t grown too much, but there was a carpet of fallen leaves that needed mulching up and now it looks ready to put to bed for the winter. Everything else looked great at the farm. We took a break in the mowing and spent some time just enjoying the place. I stretched out on Grandma’s bed and stared out the window at the last of the falling gold drifting past the window on the breeze. Another growing season done. Another goodbye to a year with as much time spent at the farm as was possible. Another Indian Summer complete. Today the weather makes a change and things cool down. Rain will be coming in and soon there will be nothing but bare branches reaching up through a thin blue sky. It’s time to get something else done besides mowing.

❤️

“Everything on earth has its own time and its own season.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1 CEV