This Winter Sucks!

[airedale]

A good old fashioned winter, incessant snow and cold every day it seems, a lot of shoveling, blowing and plowing, I am getting worn out!

Al

[wolc123]

I’d like it a lot better if my Farmall Cub plow tractor hadn’t broken down on the last snowstorm.   That thing is a real joy to plow snow with, and it’s so small, that I can really “stretch” the fun time with it.  
 

This has been a real old fashioned winter, like we haven’t seen in these parts (north western NY), since the early 1980’s.  Unfortunately, that Farmall Cub breaking down has also shut down what I was hoping would be a little winter firewood processing.  
 

My splitter shed was open and ready for business, but I had to push the dead Farmall into that space, with my larger 4wd John Deere turbocharged diesel loader tractor.  Thankfully, the plow was up on the Cub, when it quit running due to an unknown electrical issue.  

Now, I don’t have any inside space available to haul wood into for splitting.  Frozen ground time of winter, had been my favorite time to make firewood, back in the good old “pre global warming” days.  

I was going to take the rear snowplow off of the John Deere, put the forks on the bucket, and start hauling up logs from the woods and hedgerows.  Now, with the busted Farmall Cub and Ford 8n (also has an unknown “no spark electrical issue), there will be no time for that until summer, as has been the case most of the last 40 years.  
 

Mt “lowest ground in the area”  is usually way to muddy to drag and move logs on, outside of mid to late summer.  
 

The very best thing about owning a Farmall and a Ford Tractor, is the appreciation that they give me for having a few John Deere’s around, to get the actual work done.  They also provide good entertainment in the shop, trying to keep them running.  
 

I cleared our two driveways  and my aunts next door, with my John Deere this morning, before church.  It cleared up pretty good for that, but now snow is coming down good again with low visibility. 
 

If it clears up before dark, I’ll head over to my parents, about 29 miles away, and clear there driveways with one of dad’s John Deere’s (a compact “Yanmar powered” version).  That had an issue with a chain rubbing on the rear fender, but I added some wheel spacers and got it working wonderfully, a couple weeks ago. 

It’s about the same size as my Farnall Cub but no where near as fun to plow snow with (I get a bit of a stiff neck with the rear plow compared to the front one on my Farmall), and the operators platform is sized more for smaller Asian folks.  

That little Yanmar diesel sure does run like a watch though. They have a gas well on the property over there, so they've always got free natural gas and dad keeps the tractors in a shop heated to 60 degrees all winter.  That makes for real easy starting in the winter.  
 

At home, I keep my John Deere diesel plugged into an electric block heater and run that at least a half hour prior to any cold starts.   

I’m holed up in the house now, enjoying a good book in front of the wood stove, where it’s 75 degrees and very pleasant:

I’ll warm up some leftover chicken pot pie for lunch shortly, and maybe head over to ma and pa’s for some more snow plowing, if it clears up before dark.  
 

My wife made the pot pie for dinner last night, and she headed down to her brothers place in VA for the week, before church this morning.  She left plenty of leftovers for me and our daughter, but we’ll be making something on our own, by weeks end, I would guess.   
 

 

 

[landtracdeerhunter]

I know last winter really spoiled me with it being so mild. 

 

[greg54]

I hate it

[Daveboone]

We moved from town of Constantia to Cortland last spring...smaller, easier to maintain house, better weather. Same commute to work, but boy what a change for weather. No snow that wasnt easily removed with a shovel, and this week end /past couple weeks really shows all that we are not missing. We sure know it is winter still, but we dont worry about it.

[airedale]

21 minutes ago, Daveboone said:

We moved from town of Constantia to Cortland last spring...smaller, easier to maintain house, better weather. Same commute to work, but boy what a change for weather. No snow that wasnt easily removed with a shovel,

You got out of Dodge just in time.

I can take cold weather but this constant snow makes for a lot of extra work, it also screwed up my mid winter small game hunting, I am too whipped form clearing snow to even think about hunting.

Al

[Tughill Tamer]

I'm with you. Coming into winter I was talking to my neighbor telling him I really don't mind the snow as long as it comes in inches and not feet. I would like to retract that statement. I don't mind snow in inches as long as it's not every day!

Sent from my moto g power (2022) using Tapatalk

[wolc123]

I’d rather be getting it in feet now that my Farmall Cub is broke down, but we’re still getting it in inches, here in northern WNY.  Lake Erie is frozen solid now, so no more lake effect for us. 

 

[Four Seasons]

36 minutes ago, Tughill Tamer said:

I'm with you. Coming into winter I was talking to my neighbor telling him I really don't mind the snow as long as it comes in inches and not feet. I would like to retract that statement. I don't mind snow in inches as long as it's not every day!

Sent from my moto g power (2022) using Tapatalk
 

 I can’t imagine dealing with what you guys are this winter.  North of Watertown is even way above what we have seen the last few years. lol.  And here we are again today getting another 8-10 inches. Were shouting for freezing rain but looks like it will stay cold enough to keep it white. 

[Doc]

Well I have a problem that I have never experienced before in the 49 years that I have lived here. The snow has come in such small but frequent amounts that I just kept driving over it. No need to plow out an inch or two. Well, what happens when you do that week after week, and the temperatures stay cold is that there gets to be a build-up of ice. I would say that there is about 4 or 5 inches of nice shiny ice. Unfortunately the driveway is about 1000' long so the amount of salt required to melt that much ice is way out of my budget. And you cant plow ice. I'm hoping for more snow on top of the ice so I can drive in and out. It's an interesting problem with no significant melting in sight.

[New York Hillbilly]

Well, after repairing my plow twice today, got soak and wet plowing, got wet feeding chickens and roosters, got wet checking on my bee hives, I finally came in and got dry. Went to settle in with the wife to watch Daytona 500 and chow down on ribs I had slow cooking all morning. Just as they started around the track being led by the Beast, our power went out! Flickered three or four times as a tease, and then off completely. I HATE this Winter! 

[First-light]

31 minutes ago, Doc said:

Well I have a problem that I have never experienced before in the 49 years that I have lived here. The snow has come in such small but frequent amounts that I just kept driving over it. No need to plow out an inch or two. Well, what happens when you do that week after week, and the temperatures stay cold is that there gets to be a build-up of ice. I would say that there is about 4 or 5 inches of nice shiny ice. Unfortunately the driveway is about 1000' long so the amount of salt required to melt that much ice is way out of my budget. And you cant plow ice. I'm hoping for more snow on top of the ice so I can drive in and out. It's an interesting problem with no significant melting in sight.

Same here Doc. I have a big problem with ice and I'm looking out there now with this light melt and the temps dropping tonight, we are screwed! 

[greg54]

I had the scanner on the other day and there was several calls to area Vol Fire Co for elderly that fell in their driveways and sidewalks. Broken hips and wrists were among them in Niagara County. Be Careful out there!

[wolc123]

25 minutes ago, Doc said:

Well I have a problem that I have never experienced before in the 49 years that I have lived here. The snow has come in such small but frequent amounts that I just kept driving over it. No need to plow out an inch or two. Well, what happens when you do that week after week, and the temperatures stay cold is that there gets to be a build-up of ice. I would say that there is about 4 or 5 inches of nice shiny ice. Unfortunately the driveway is about 1000' long so the amount of salt required to melt that much ice is way out of my budget. And you cant plow ice. I'm hoping for more snow on top of the ice so I can drive in and out. It's an interesting problem with no significant melting in sight.

I had a similar situation going on, but only with a few inches.  All level ground here, which makes things much easier.  I was wishing that I had plowed last weekend at home, but I skipped it.  I wouldn’t have, if my Farmall Cub was still running.  
 

It was cold all week and finally got up to 33 yesterday evening.  It snowed about 4” overnight.  The 2 “slightly thawed” inches below and fresh fluffy 4” on top all peeled off pretty easy with the plow on back of my bigger tractor this morning.    
 

We’ve got a couple more inches of fluffy stuff in the driveways now and it’s still falling very lightly.  I’m going to plow it again at around 4:00, then drive over to my parents and take care of theirs with dad’s cut.  

It’s still fun plowing snow with the two John Deere tractors that I have at my disposal.  Especially in the daylight on the weekend.  

[Doc]

5 minutes ago, wolc123 said:

I had a similar situation going on, but only with a few inches.  All level ground here, which makes things much easier.  I was wishing that I had plowed last weekend at home, but I skipped it.  I wouldn’t have, if my Farmall Cub was still running.  
 

It was cold all week and finally got up to 33 yesterday evening.  It snowed about 4” overnight.  The 2 “slightly thawed” inches below and fresh fluffy 4” on top all peeled off pretty easy with the plow on back of my bigger tractor this morning.    
 

We’ve got a couple more inches of fluffy stuff in the driveways now and it’s still falling very lightly.  I’m going to plow it again at around 4:00, then drive over to my parents and take care of theirs with dad’s cut.  

It’s still fun plowing snow with the two John Deere tractors that I have at my disposal.  Especially in the daylight on the weekend.  

I'm wondering if I should plow and uncover that slick ice again. But likely I will have to eventually. It is an interesting predicament. I thought it was kind of neat living that far of the road. It's not all that neat this year.

[wolc123]

We were up to about another 8” today and I just finished plowing our two driveways and my aunts next door (took about 1/2 hour with my bigger tractor).  My mom called when I finished and said visibility is bad over there (about 20 miles to the south east) and she doesn’t want me driving over.  A local guy plows it for them for $30 a shot with his pickup so she’s calling him.  
 

He only does the one little  driveway by their garage.  I’m going over there Tuesday night anyhow, to pick up their suv for inspection at my buddies shop and for dinner, so I’ll clean everything up good with dad’s tractor while I’m over there then.  
 

The 8” of additional snow that we got later today would have been a bit much for my Farmall Cub.  It probably would have taken me a couple hours to have cleaned all that up from the three driveways that I just did.  
 

The low fuel light started flashing on my tractor 2/3 of the way thru.  Fortunately, I had a 5 gallon can of winter mix diesel in a can in my barn.  Several of my buddies with bulk tanks have reported fuel freeze and gel issues this winter.  That’s why I like getting it in 5 gallon cans.  
 

I still add a little power serve, from the white bottles, to each can in the winter. I use the performance mix with injector cleaner in the grey can the rest of the year, and have never had a fuel issue with my diesel tractors.  

[bugsNbows]

I don’t know how you guys put up with that crap. I moved out of NY in 1976… don’t miss it one bit. I lived in Florida for over 40 years and had enough of it too. Now I live in the north GA mountains. We only get a tiny bit of snow here… usually just flurries or a couple of inches at most. Works for me!

[wolc123]

1 hour ago, bugsNbows said:

I don’t know how you guys put up with that crap. I moved out of NY in 1976… don’t miss it one bit. I lived in Florida for over 40 years and had enough of it too. Now I live in the north GA mountains. We only get a tiny bit of snow here… usually just flurries or a couple of inches at most. Works for me!

I enjoy the winter and could never survive south of about Gettysburg PA.  My Aunt, next door, has been spending winters in your area of GA with my cousin, since my uncle passed away, (3) years ago.  He also liked NY winters. 
 

I prefer these real old-fashioned pre global warming winters more than the mostly lame ones that we’ve had since the early 1980’s.  If I knew for sure they were going to continue a while, I’d look into getting another snowmobile.  The last one I bought was a new 1997 Polaris XCF.  After about the 3rd almost snowless year, around 2010, I finally sold that.  
 

Our winters have been so lame the last few years, that I haven’t even owned a registered 4wd vehicle the last (5).  I am thinking of registering my Dodge Durango field car prior to next winter though, especially if it’s looking like it’s going to be another old fashioned snowy cold one, like we’ve had this year.  
 

I took that bastard for a spin out through the frozen snowy fields last week and it really did well in the deep stuff.  It would be nice for running back and forth to work on the snowier days.  

[fasteddie]

I hate the snowy weather . The roads were terrible ON our 3 mile drive to church at 8am . Only about 1/4 of the parishioners That normally attend , were there . Had breakgast when we got home and binge watched Yellowstone .

[fasteddie]

It's 10 degrees here in Ontario with a real feel of minus 4 degrees . You can have this weather !

 

[Four Seasons]

17 minutes ago, fasteddie said:

It's 10 degrees here in Ontario with a real feel of minus 4 degrees . You can have this weather !

 

No doubt. Single digits and winds at 20 to 40 again for the 2nd day in a row. It does look like 30’s maybe 40’s next week. Let’s Hope!!

[bugsNbows]

Winter storm advisory here for tomorrow. Batten down the hatches and bring in the brass monkeys. We may get up to 1” of snow. TFF

[First-light]

I got stuck at the bottom of driveway. Plow mounded up the snow usually I get through not last night. Had to dig it out I froze. I'll knock it down today once it hits 16 degrees! 

[airedale]

At it again today, been getting at least a foot every day for several days in a row, The TYM Tractor is sure earning her keep this winter.

 

Al

[Doc]

It gets real ugly when you get more than 2 feet of snow.