The Farm Lane

A few years ago, the volunteer fire department went through the township and marked houses that sat at least 1,000 feet from the road. In rural areas, getting water isn't as simple as hooking a hose to a fire hydrant. Water must be hauled in with a tanker truck and is usually dumped into a portable holding tank. If measurements are marked, then firefighters know where to put holding tanks. A green sign with the numbers 1,300 shows that our house sits 1,300 feet – more than a quarter-mile from the road. Another sign marks the 1,000-foot mark. After they did this, I – and probably countless others – noted the length of people’s lanes. Ours, my husband and I noted, was not the longest. Our neighbor’s is 2,300 feet. Another is 2,600 feet. I'm sure that delivery drivers and mail carriers also noted the signs. Adding another half-mile to a delivery can throw off one's delivery time. Because most of our packages arrive by UPS, the delivery driver knows my husband and I and knows what types of cars we drive. If we spot each other on the country road, he's been known to stop and make the delivery roadside -- or at the end of the driveway. Because of the length of our lane, delivery drivers can't see if there is a turnaround near the house. I've had one driver, unfamiliar with the farm, call from the road and ask if there was room for a semi to turn around. I assured him he could. Another driver, unsure of a turnaround, backed all of the way back the driveway. Yesterday’s driver, though, wins the award for tenacity. He had, as per company policy, parked his semi-truck at the end of the lane, put the freight on a dolly, and pulled the 250-pound box through slush and gravel all 1,300 feet back our lane.