Vacation plans & a new culvert

With the fruit all picked and the urgency of harvest ended, people often ask about our vacation plans. "When are going on vacation?" "Where are you going on vacation?" ...

We usually respond that we have not given it much thought yet and won't - at least not until market is over (30 days from today - if we were to be counting!).

Now however, our thoughts & dreams of a getaway have been set aside (even dashed perhaps) by our latest expense - a new culvert!!

We feel a bit like government right now. It is much more enjoyable to spend money on something showy & attractive - like a new tractor perhaps, or painting the barn (did that) or ... a vacation. But to spend money on infrastucture, like a culvert?! You can't even see it!

Here's the old culvert that we removed.

That shiny piece near the middle of this last picture is all you can see of the new culvert.

Behind our barn is a drainage ditch. It comes to our farm from under the train tracks and catches the drainage water from probably a hundred acres or more of farmland. It then crosses our farm, the corner of the neighbour's farm and goes under the road. From there it meanders through the school yard and many other farms and eventually empties into Lake Ontario. More than 40 years ago my father put about 120' of culvert in behind the barn so we could drive over the ditch and make better use of this area. They were used culverts that he installed then. Now after all these years they were rusting away and breaking. In recent years there have been many sink holes to repair and we noticed that the culvert was filling up with dirt and debris. The ditch was no longer draining the water as it should. Time for a replacement. Not a big deal really - 2 men, 7 sections of new steel culvert, a large excavator, a few hours and it was completed. One surprise was the discovery of some concrete culvert sections. No one remembered using them. Just to add insult to injury, now we have the extra expense of having this hauled away. The steel parts will go to my scrap guy.

So where are we going on vacation? Probably behind the barn to watch the water flowing through our new culverts and pretending it's the ocean or something.
Anyone want to join us?