Winter Snow and Storm Pics

[Klapatta]

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[Tom Scott]

[dag1450]

Wow! I think I would have a panic attack at those temps! I start get nervous in the single digits....I close window blinds .. double check doors are pushed tight. Around zero I start worrying...and opening vanity cabinets, not turning heat back.... pacing around. At -20 ish, I would need a Valium...and a box of Oreos!
Good luck ken!!

[Klapatta]

Not the left coast but this is being a pretty good one. Supposed to taper off in about four hours.

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Too much for a blade really the thrower is the way to go. I'm sure the blade will come in handy later for mop up work.

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Our parking is somewhat narrow and removal can become an issue because of it.

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I need to clear here because the area will become a turning around point later on.

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And now time for pancakes and maple syrup more later I'd guess.

[Klapatta]

With how things are now it's hard to believe there's a Nor'Easter heading our way.
But it will give me the chance to put my recent repairs to the test.

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The maple sap began running a week or so earlier this year but then cut off when the cold snap returned.

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Waiting for the snow

[JMotuzick]

Someone is still using galvanized buckets! It seams most here are using lines back to a larger barrel. If it’s a single remote tree, then new TSC food grade buckets seam to be the norm.

[Klapatta]

We were off the grid for five days and four nights.
While we had about two feet of heavy wet snow many surrounding areas reported as much as three and a half feet.
Power companies from many areas were called in to assist with repair operations.
The only real damage that we directly sustained was that I lost my short wave radio antenna.

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I do not like pushing snow directly against the house however at the time there were no other options.

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That machine was running great and I think my issue with it is resolved, I'll detail that on another thread later.
On the third day my neighbors stopped over. They asked me to take a walk up to their stretch of the drive.
When I saw this I was pretty much dumbstruck, I had no idea this had happened. They were trapped up there with their eleven month old baby for five days.

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After seeing this it became perfectly obvious that the calvelry was not about to come around the corner at the last moment. My deep freezer in the basement stocked to the top was approaching 28 degrees. Something had to be done fast. My Wife sent for my Son who in turn showed up with his smaller generator. I was running low on gasoline so I ran that thing at one hour on two hour off cycles. It saved the day bringing down both units to acceptable temps.

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On the fifth day a damage control scout showed up. He asked me if theirs was a Summer vacation home. When I told him no, there's a family with a baby stranded up there well priorities shifted quickly then and repair crews were dispatched on hand within the hour. The drive had been plowed only up to the downed tree and a single boom truck could not make the reach. That pulled away to allow for a double tandem to move in.

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As I watched that thing spinning sideways trying to back up our narrow drive that was a little scary but those men got the job done.
My hat's off to them!

[Tom Scott]

Ken - Wow, and we thought winter was about over and you'd escaped a saga this year!  Not to be!  I'm glad you and the neighbors survived relatively unscathed in the end.  But, while you're going through it, you don't know for sure the power will be back in time.  Glad it worked out.

[Klapatta]

Happy 2024 and here we go again!
This is our first real storm of the Winter, we did have a good snow just prior to Thanksgiving but it really did not stick around for long with rising temperatures shortly thereafter. This one will be sticking around.
The weather forecast called for light powder but this is way heavier than that.
I was almost unable to uncover the 126, the cover had frozen to the ground. I had been unaware that after that first melt water had built up along the bottom of the cover. After gentle coaching I was able to pry it back far enough to drive the tractor out. Then it was easier to pry away from the ground.
I brought the thing into the Kitchen just to get it to thaw out. That made for a real mess.
So anyway, first snow pics for the new year, yippie!

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[Tom Scott]

Ah, I was waiting for our annual "Ken's driveway saga"!  This our forum's winter Super Bowl! 

[Klapatta]

Tom, much of that saga is over. After fifteen years of fighting back against the excess water run off and with the neighbor saying oh there's a pipe there to take of that, someone bothered checking to see if it was actually doing anything. Well guess what.

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I don't know what I'm going to do with myself with not having to trench and patch the driveway every time it rains anymore

[dag1450]

Happy New year guys! Thrower looks like it's working good Ken! Those pictures look like the powdery kind of snow. We had about 2" of wet sludge. Did you get any Tom?
It's still early but calling for 3-5 here on Tuesday. I guess I will put some driveway markers in before the ground freezes soild. Frozen soil is something else. There's no getting through it. I do kinda wish it was frozen.....came home Sunday around 9;00 pm to an Amazon extended van buried off my driveway. Good times. Lol

[Tom Scott]

Ken, I'm glad the grading disaster was rectified.  It certainly changes your perspective!

Everybody else:  Snow removal is hard and painful.
Ken:  Moving 2 feet of snow, no big deal, so long as I don't have to regrade the driveway every year!

dag, as of the time of your question, no snow other than a dusting.  But now 4" earlier this week and about 3-1/2" more today.  Some pics of 1872 getting it done today, clearing the drive and doing its part to keep us warm.

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[Klapatta]

I figured that I best get my rear off the couch yesterday and tidy things up before the big freeze rolled in.
I went for a short one mile only walk today because it was not very enjoyable.

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Part of cleaning up meant starting the truck and moving it out of the way. It had not been run in nearly a month, note the ajar hood and the battery charger on the steps. Rather than testing fate I hooked the slow charger up for a couple of hours first as I addressed other areas. Good move because it touched right off. I always take my battery out of the Cubs when not in use during Winter months. It keeps them warm and fresh. Total install time is always less than five minutes so why not.
The spot where the Cub is and the rear wheels of the truck is ice flowed up real good. The water flow patterns around here are always changing and the ice there is six inches thick. I need to make some drainage changes there this Spring.

When my neighbor had her culvert pipe replaced last month the installer messed up big time. Back filling with that left over soggy clay mix killed off all chances for a correct drain down. I watched the whole thing go down and did not say a word, that is not my property.
Well when the system failed worse than ever before he got called back in to do the whole job all over again. He had to trench out all of that quicksand like muck, haul it all off and refill back properly with river egg stone like he was supposed to have done in the first place. Well now it works great. Yay.
You can lead the horse to water but you can't make him drink it- I'd rather see someone that narrow fail in such a miserable fashion anyway. See I told you so never does anything but actually I did nothing, so what could I possibly know about water and snow run off around here anyway?

[SWilliams]

Well I was all set to post pictures of the storms here... BUT at the moment the ground isn't frozen and the only snow we got didn't even need to be shoveled !!!  I feel sorry for the folks who want to ride snowmobiles, you need to go for a long drive to find enough to even unload a machine. 

[davis2]

Well I was all set to post pictures of the storms here... BUT at the moment the ground isn't frozen and the only snow we got didn't even need to be shoveled !!!  I feel sorry for the folks who want to ride snowmobiles, you need to go for a long drive to find enough to even unload a machine. 

I was shocked when my grandson said they couldn't ride yet. He lives in Lee Center. The skiers probably aren't happy either.
 

[Klapatta]

Steve you can have some of ours. Remember to bring a pail.

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[Klapatta]

We had quite quite a mild Winter this year with much of it consisting of warmer than usual temperatures and more rain than normal. While the Northern ski resorts did not have their best of years ever they could have done worse off as well. Plunging temps allowed many to continue running their snow making machines. 
The maple sap turned off more locally here a couple of weeks early and most all of the tree taps have been pulled and plugged. Further North I believe they are doing better.
Expecting a bright and cheery Spring with birds chirping I got outside and moved hard and fast into Spring cleanup.
With my confidence high that most all water drain off finally been redirected properly I decided to have an 18 ton load of 3/4 stone brought in to help replace with much of what has washed down hill after all these years. Stone is fairly priced around here. The whole state is stone. It's the transport fees that tallies up. I am going to spread it out using the blade Cub over a week or so- at least that was the plan. I was on the cusp of pulling the snow tires and chains off, that would have been a huge blunder.

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Over to both sides of the drive there has got to be better than 50 tons of good driveway fill where it does not belong with no way ever to gt it all back where it does belong. It's all right though, when things do finally green up you will never even see it.

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So now it would seem a storm approaches us for Saturday that threatens all my hours of tidy rock raking. Expectations range up to 2 inches an hour with 12 or more total expected, more further North.
So much for thinking that I was all done with snow removal for the year. The stone drop can just sit there for now.
By the way, I've noticed that a general tone of grumpiness has taken over some folks, whatever I wonder is up with that. It's so nice and sunny out there right now.
Oh, one other thing, what was someone saying something about parts washers?

[Klapatta]

Supposedly 12 to 18 coming here. In the meantime we wait and see.

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[Klapatta]

Today.

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No end in sight. Time for Mr. Snowman

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[Klapatta]

If you can no longer see your garden tractor it's probably safe to assume that professional help will be required.

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[Tom Scott]

Ken - I was going to comment that your driveway looked pretty good even before you spread out the stone.  I hope that's still true after you deal with this snow!  

Now an interruption as a moderator... Please note the new donation request at the top of each sub-forum.  If we can't keep Dave C. in the black he can't justify keeping us up and running.  Feel free to discuss in that thread, I don't want to hijack this one any further.

Thanks, Tom

[Klapatta]

And the grand total is

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This is more than the entire Winter produced.
Funny how it stayed at 11 1/2 yesterday for the longest time while actively snowing, it must have been packing down.
The resort close by us reported 27 inches but they do have quite a bit more elevation going on.

[davis2]

And the grand total is
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This is more than the entire Winter produced.
Funny how it stayed at 11 1/2 yesterday for the longest time while actively snowing, it must have been packing down.
The resort close by us reported 27 inches but they do have quite a bit more elevation going on.

I'm hearing my former neighbors got 12" plus in NY.

[JMotuzick]

Ken
How did you fair in the latest spring storm? Just 2” of slush at my house and it’s mostly gone 24 hours later.

[Klapatta]

Hi Joe, yeah we got about ten inches of that and sure enough 24 hours later half of it was gone.
It was that previous storm on the 23rd that caused me the most trouble.
I had shoveled off the deck at least 7 times. I'd clean and ten minutes later more snow would cascade off the roof. By that time I started getting pretty sick and tired of the whole affair. I walked around for three days feeling short on breath and being stubborn as I am finally had to admit that it was time to head myself over for urgent care.I was informed that there would be no more driving for me and got whisked off to the emergency room via meat wagon. Informed that I had gone into full on afib and was treated to their concoction of special juices. Was in there for about six hours. Feeling pretty good now but most likely I will be on bp and thinner meds from now on.
Was out on the deck a short while ago shoveling gently and this time and spouse unit came out and chewed me out big time.

In other news my child hood home town of Whitehouse, NJ was the center of a magnitude 4.8 earthquake today.
I'm planning on heading 90 miles due North to catch the total eclipse on Monday. There is no way of knowing if 500,000 or five million are going to show up. The National Guard is on standby. There is speculation that I-91 will be looking like the New York state Throughway when Woodstock was going on. What's new with you?

[dag1450]

Never cease to amaze me how long winter hangs on up there. Sorry to hear about your heart issues Ken. Sounds to me your wife has the hard job of keeping you alive. Lol.
That earthquake was fun yesterday. My work is the farthest most eastern point of pa.
I was up on top of a 100 foot long glue coating machine/ oven that is bolted to the factory floor. The machine was off and Fridays are our repair days. I yelled down.... "who's shaking the machine ... what's going on down there!!" Stop"!!. Ten minutes later....we started getting word about what happened. Lol.

[JMotuzick]

Ken
Think of it this way, we could have all gone to your memorial! I recently lost my father this way, do what they say and keep up with the diet and exercise as prescribed.

Best you go north Sunday and find a nice spot to sleep in the car!

I was in SW CT, I didn’t feel a thing and kept
Working until my wife called and asked if I was shaken up!

[Klapatta]

My in laws who are about 15 miles due South of the Whitehouse Station epicenter reported a tissue box falling off a table.
For the eclipse there are many assorted North South routes to travel. The first point to observe will be traffic patterns on the interstate before making the call. Also, it is the height of mud season up that way right now and how many that get stuck can be anyone's guess.

Thanks for your concerns guys. I am feeling very well. Smoking and drinking is 100% off the table for me, not that I did. Have been taking blood pressure readings 3 times daily using my home monitor. With each passing test readings continue to slowly drop and as of today now are well within the perfectly normal base width.The medications are obviously working exactly as expected. I will continue to avoid stress filled tasks. Asked my son to do an oil change on my wife car and he said no problem. Are going to be easing back into taking one mile slow walks. My daily two miles journeys at this point would probably  be somewhat excessive.
Self inflicted. That storm really chapped my ass and my overreaction to it was likely the reason why. Really, the whole thing comes down to nothing more than an electrical misfire. Looking more each day now like a single event acute condition, I sure hope so. Staying on with the drugs is totally a must have thing from here on out I'd suspect
Still, there's a ton of Spring chores here, slow and steady will get it done. But I need to relearn how. I'm not 55 anymore.
The snow tires and wheel weights still have to come off the 102 to be replaced with the ags, there's 18 ton of stone that's got to get spread out. Sure, I could call someone in. Think I'd rather enjoy pushing that stuff around myself.

[Klapatta]

These are some pretty lousy photos I know. They are a fitting closure to this crappy Winter.

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I'm glad that I traveled the 110 miles.
I had pulled of at a park and ride due West of Montpelier along with around a hundred others.
When the eclipse went total it was as though someone turned off the lights- it happens that fast.
A lot of people gasped when it did.
I did the casual oh wow man thing