Jon Vermilye - Look what you are missing!

[Mary F]

S'pose to be 70F tomorrow in central Texas. No idea where Jon actually is right now, but tomorrow promises to be gorgeous. (Today not so much, but... Tomorrow!)

[Donna D.]

I'm doing fine. The house itself is fine THANK GOODNESS. The fence is still standing and I now have six fewer arborvitae to trim in the Spring. Since I have 104 of those suckers on my property, what's a few less? The carport is on the other side of the house. Whew.

The sun is trying to come out. That means a slow thaw which is MUCH better than rain.

Thanks for everyone's concern. Now bring a chainsaw and help me clean up next week some time.

[thoer]

Donna - I hope that nice slow melt prevents any more damage.

[Loren & Cathy]

Originally Posted by thoer

Donna - I hope that nice slow melt prevents any more damage.

Once it starts to thaw it still can be pretty dangerous. There are some good sized chunks of ice coming off of the trees and power lines.

Looking at the radar, it looks like Iowa Dave is getting a good snow storm. Winter is here. Loren

[Iowa Dave]

When I was City Arborist in Council Bluffs in the 70s, ice storms were second only to tornadoes and straight line winds in damage done. About as helpless a feeling as you can have watching the ice build up, with a forecast of decreasing temps and rising winds. I liked the Texas two step a lot better than the slip and slide Stihl Saw sashay. Time to did out the insurance policy and the fire up the CLEAN coal oil light.
Dave

[Iowa Dave]

Just getting started here. Coming down steady, no wind yet. Was in town about an hour ago, no carts in the grocery store. All I needed was a ham shank for some bean soup so it wasn't bad. Dave

[float5]

Originally Posted by emers382

What you really need Eric is a neighbour like ours, he saw me out shovelling during our big storm this week and asked if I should be shovelling (I was taking it easy) after my heart issues, then basically told me to beat it and go back inside. He kept doing my drive and walk right up to the back door. We got about a foot and terrible winds the grandkids were off school three days and now the bitter cold has settled in.

Now I don't suppose with your 1/4 mile driveway you'd have such a willing neighbour I do feel your pain though, when we lived outside Thunder Bay we had a long uphill driveway and used just a Sears 18hp mower with snowblower attachment. Wasn't much better than a walk behind.

Adrian

Eric doesn't have any neighbors and what are you doing shoveling? Have the grandkids do it, too. They probably want to anyway.

[float5]

Originally Posted by Mary F

S'pose to be 70F tomorrow in central Texas. No idea where Jon actually is right now, but tomorrow promises to be gorgeous. (Today not so much, but... Tomorrow!)

Yeah, it's rough being in southern Arizona or Texas right now. We just returned to Iowa and a few inches of snow, white stuff heading north apparently. It was mostly good weather down south.

[float5]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

OH MY STARS. Two huge limbs just fell from a neighbors tree. Hit my deck, took out 6 of the 8' arborvite and who knows what else. I can't get outside to check it out. That was within a few inches of the corner of my house!

Didn't know you could get that much in Portland but then I guess lots of ice can be anywhere.

We had a power pole go to 45 degrees and had to be replaced. Lost a huge tree limb also. Wind really.

[fudge_brownie]

Eric,
Janet will be in LaCrosse on Wednesday. If you can wait I will send a shovel along with her.

[thoer]

Originally Posted by fudge_brownie

Eric,
Janet will be in LaCrosse on Wednesday. If you can wait I will send a shovel along with her.

Sounds great - as long as you come along with the shovel to wield it!! Great upper body exercise. I'll have the homebrews cold when you make it up here to the top.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by thoer

So I started out just to find out what it would cost me to replace my 2004 Kubota with a newer model that was easier to change between the front bucket and a front mount snowblower and also a drive over belly mower. I quickly found that Kubota diesel tractors keep value far better then cars and trucks - they offered me nearly what I paid for ours in 2004 in trade-in. Even then it was too much to afford this year, but the salesman said - no problem, Kubota will give you a 5 year interest free loan for the remainder.

I was in the John Deere dealership to see the parts department, and I noticed a nice Kubota tractor in the showroom - strange, since it's not a Kubota dealership. The sales guy said that a guy came in with his friend not intending to buy, but liked the features of the new JD (such as the drive-over mower deck) so much that he traded in the Kubota on a whole new JD tractor and accessories - the Kubota was worth a lot in trade, almost what the new JD cost. I wonder in a few years what the JD is going to be worth, since the JD dealer clearly thinks Kubotas are worth more!

[thoer]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

I was in the John Deere dealership to see the parts department, and I noticed a nice Kubota tractor in the showroom - strange, since it's not a Kubota dealership. The sales guy said that a guy came in with his friend not intending to buy, but liked the features of the new JD (such as the drive-over mower deck) so much that he traded in the Kubota on a whole new JD tractor and accessories - the Kubota was worth a lot in trade, almost what the new JD cost. I wonder in a few years what the JD is going to be worth, since the JD dealer clearly thinks Kubotas are worth more!

That green paint is very expensive.... The JD dealer offered me 1/2 of what the Kubota dealer gave me in trade.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by emers382

I do feel your pain though, when we lived outside Thunder Bay we had a long uphill driveway and used just a Sears 18hp mower with snowblower attachment. Wasn't much better than a walk behind.

My parents had a 16 hp Simpsons-Sears (made by Roper) lawn tractor with a single-stage snowthrower. It couldn't throw the snow very far, couldn't get it over much of a bank, had lousy traction, couldn't throw snow at all while climbing our steep driveway (if it could climb at all), and died when the engine snapped the connecting rod. The splash-oiled Briggs & Stratton couldn't handle the slope.

The engine was replaced under warranty and the snowthower was never used again - the tractor just cut grass after that. We got a walk-behind two-stage snowblower which did everything much better, and was far more maneuverable. I can see the difficulty of using a walk-behind for a 1/4 mile of driveway, but I think for most people a walk-behind is definitely the way to go.

[blhvet]

-42 at home last night with the wind chill. I'm quite happy to be in San Diego for a conference until Monday. Going home is going to suck. Perhaps I'll stay and be one of Trump's "illegal immigrants".

[Jim Bennett]

Wind chill only counts if you are willing to be outside in it. I don't mind cold at all, but with no wind, of course.

[reetired]

Gonna miss shoveling by hand (cuz we thought it was fun) and snow raking the roofs...this year. Not going the miss the -28 or the glare ice.

The 3 ferals aren't going to miss ANY of it...they are liking it just fine living inside!

[Vermilye]

I just returned to the land of internet access (well, barely, only WiFi is available here at Davis Mountain SP in Texas, and it is s l o w!)

I don't miss the snow, but it was 26°F at Cottonwood Campground in Big Bend, so I'm still getting the cold. Hope it is warmer in Quartzsite! For those that follow my blog, I'll try to post the last 4 day's worth, but I don't have my hopes up.

[tractors1]

Originally Posted by reetired

Gonna miss shoveling by hand (cuz we thought it was fun) and snow raking the roofs...this year. Not going the miss the -28 or the glare ice.

The 3 ferals aren't going to miss ANY of it...they are liking it just fine living inside!

Grew up in Wisconsin; lived in Hawaii; moved to Oregon decades ago because I found the rain was a lot easier to shovel.........

[escape artist]

Hi: Vermilye... Woke up to a winter wonderland this morn. Just took the battery out of my Kubota so that means the end of grass cutting season!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie