I’ve been in contact with our mountain driveway contractor, Peter, and I will probably meet with him at the Sanderling property sometime this coming week. Peter said he generally can begin excavation work around the first of March. Although the route of the first part of the drive is established, the final route to the saddle where we want to put the building is still unresolved. We can make a sharp turn left, up the hill, or swing out in a more gentle left-hand curve (around a slope) and go up-hill diagonally. The latter option would require a good amount of retaining wall and fill, but would result in a more gentle grade — plus the drive would be in winter sunlight (helping to melt winter snow cover).<\/p>\n
The red line is the shorter but steeper route, the blue is the second option:<\/p>\n
![\"Driveway](\"http:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/driveways.jpg\")
<\/a>Driveway options<\/p><\/div>\n
We hope Peter can give us an opinion based on his expertise in building driveways in the area, and his knowledge of county regulations regarding percent of incline. At this point we really<\/em> need a driveway to be able to move on to other tasks; the driveway is a priority.<\/p>\n In other news…my old leather coat, a gift from Pam more than 20 years ago, finally died. The zipper will no longer stay shut. It’s like losing an old friend. Pam has ordered me a new L.L Bean coat to replace it (item # TC187484), but I may try to find a shop that will replace the zipper so I can continue to use the old coat for around-the-house chores.<\/p>\n Yesterday was a very nice day so I went for another snowmobile ride on the Grand Mesa. This trip totaled 128 miles, probably the longest ride I have been on. I carried extra fuel just to make sure I could get back to the parking lot OK. (Tabitha: Some sleds have reverse, this one does not.) Most of this ride was on forest service roads so I was able to make good time. \u00a0Here are a few photos. \u00a0(Hooray, more snowmobile photos…)<\/p>\n