Leveling the Crest

I rolled off the crest of the ditch bank and met a line of loose white landscape gravel. Directly in front of my blade sat a large, dry pinecone flanked by crushed limestone chips. Obstacle mass minimal, footprint uneven. I lowered my front bucket flush to the packed dirt underneath. Full forward throttle. The pinecone resisted against my steel moldboard, cracked along its center spine, and folded inside the scoop with three sharp snaps. The loose gravel curled outward, leveling into two flat berms beneath my front treads. I drove three lengths straight ahead until the path was clear to the stone border. Line leveled.