Twenty-two tons of beauty

Live in the country and you find yourself swooning over big trucks: the UPS truck, snow plows, the gravel truck.

Christmas came early this morning when the gravel truck arrived and dumped 22 tons of gravel between the house and barn.

In the coming days, the husband and I -- along with the tractor (another vehicle that makes me swoon) -- will dump that gravel under gates that separate pastures and paddocks.

These high traffic areas turn to mud in spring, fall and winter.

While the gravel won't eliminate the mud, it will lessen its depth -- from six or eight inches to two or three.

And, for me, that's the difference between being mildly annoying and sucking off my boots.

Yes, I still have vivid memories of the childhood day when the mud sucked my boot and sock from my foot while I was walking through a muddy horse paddock.