A Stake in the Ground

A Stake in the Ground

Here in New England, if you own property and you want the keep your lawn intact you have to mark the line where the lawn meets the street.  This is so that tired plow drivers don’t take the shortest path between two points and plow straight across your lawn.  Having both property and a lawn that curves outward towards the street, my yard is a natural for plow drivers wishing to unearth dormant worms.

The only defense from the snow plow is the stake.  Mark thy property or forever regret the loss of turf.  And so I hammer stakes into the ground in hopes that the plow guys (or ladies?) follow the clearly marked path.  Alas, inevitably at least one plow will choose to ignore the stakes and opt for the straight path.  But you have to try, and in November and early December it’s time to pound the stakes.

2018 brought early snow, much sooner than I was able to mark the lawn with stakes.  Being in Key West at the time, I had to hope for a plower who knew the curves on our street.  For the most part that bore out, but I knew I was operating on borrowed time and drove in a pair of stakes as soon as I got back.  And just to be sure, I’ve added four more to clearly mark the curve.

Will it help?  I’m not optimistic, but I can’t give up either.  Such is the dance in the snow belt.  We do what we can with what we have, and hope that the plows are kind.