Oh, no! Say it isn't so!

There are many things that we love about living where we do.  There are quite a few that we don't.  but overall the balance has been tipped in favor of us being really happy where we are at.  This last week the side with the things we don't like got a little added heft.  For the sixteen years that we have been out here our roads have looked like this: 

It has been a joy to live down a dirt road.  There are definitely issues with it, the dust in the house is awful, but again, the good has outweighed the bad.  It really helps to cut down on traffic which is great when you have kids riding horses and quads and even just running back and forth to their other grandma and grandpa's house (they live within really easy walking distance).  Our road is one of the few county maintained roads in the area.  And that has been really nice, too.  The roads do take a beating and this one is one of the busiest.  There are more houses in this particular area than any other in the valley.  But the dirt roads also help slow down some of the crazy drives who forget that this is a rural area where people are just out walking dogs or riding horses and kids are running back and forth to their friends houses.  Our roads are narrow and we have no sidewalks, etc.  Unfortunately, because our roads are not excessively busy and you can travel down them without seeing anyone else, some of the drivers forget that there are other people out there.  With the roads being slippery, bumpy dirt, the speeders have had incentive to slow down a bit.  Then the other day the powers that be decided that it was time for all of that to change.

I came home the other day to find that, without consulting any of the residents out here, the county decided to "fix" our road.  There are many rumors flying about the nature of this paving.  One guy told my mom that they were going way past our house, but he didn't know why or who made the decision, my brother-in-law was told that they were going to completely pave it, this first bit was just to help with erosion, etc.  And then my brother said that they told him that the county had pulled up a road somewhere close by, busted up all of the asphalt and they were just laying that down and compacting it.  That they would only go as far at the material that they had would allow.  Which is great that they are recycling, etc.  But we would rather they "helped" somewhere else. 

There are some residents in the area that will find this a huge improvement and will be very happy that "civilization" is coming to our neck of the woods.  But most of the ones that I have talked to are very, very disappointed.