Show your Plow Shop
- Thread starter Scott B.
- Start date
I'm with you Seth. We took our kids to Florida many moons ago. In January, or maybe it was February, the year disney land opened in Orlando, they had a heatwave. Very uncomfortable. On way to Dis land, our car overheated while sitting in the hundred mile long parking lot from Daytona to Orlando. we got tired of pulling off the road to wait for engine to cool down. we've been back there a couple of times since, but not so very much impressed with high temps in mid winter. now, if we could just grow grapefruits in out back yard here in CT, that would be impressive.
Back in 1964, i had bought a brand new motorcycle in early February. It was a trade from a 750 cc Triumph TR 6 to a Zundapp 250cc single cylinder, 2 cycle. It was in the middle of a cold snap here in CT. I was working on a fireplace and with nite time temps hitting around -20F and daytime getting no higher than barely clearing -oº, I decided it was vacation time. we were spending most of our days thawing materials. Then an hour or two working at the paying part and then the rest of the day covering up our work and resetting the heaters to keep the work from freezing. I called my contractor and asked about his scheduling for the job. how soon did he want me to be finished in the living room of the house? i explained my problems with the cold and we decided I had about 3 or 4 weeks to finish. He was as concerned about the cold and its effect on the masonry as I. I told him i thought it would be a good time for me to take a couple of weeks vacation and give my new bike a workout.
He thought it was a great idea. "Where are you going, Florida?"
"I am going to Maine."
My contractor, who I had been doing all of his masonry for several years made some remarks concerning my sanity and above all, my intelligence, that I need not go into here. He wished me luck and asked if I had any places to stay. I did have some good friends in Vermont where I stayed the first nite. I left there in early morning, just after milking time. Being an old S--t kicker, I always spent time helping in the barn with my friend (actually my brother's inlaws). By time i got to Rutland, the rain started. Actually, it was sleet. That stuff really stings when riding with no windshield on the front. But i was dressed pretty warm. I never was very fashionable while riding, but very practically dressed. that is if you consider riding a bike in a sleet storm with temps dropping as having anything to do with practicality. By time i got to the ski area on top of mountain between Rutland and White River junction, the sleet had changed back to snow. After some minor side adventures during the day, i rolled into the yard of an old friend from CT who had moved to Augusta, Me. He had told me he would keep the stove (wood stove) going for me and i could roll out my sleeping bag on the floor. It was near -20º when i arrived. The next morning, it was a bit lower than that when i left for Calais. I stopped in Calais for a few hours to visit with the object of my foolishness and found out she had just gotten engaged. By time I got back to Augusta, a day on the bike covering just over 600 miles, including a stop at Colby College to visit another girl friend, (she was a next door neighbor, so was not surprised to see me roll in to visit at 9pm with temp around -20) it was even colder than the nite before. After spending another nite in augusta beside the stove, i rode another few hundred miles in a zigzag journey to Webster Mass. i found a spot along a woodsy road to roll out my sleeping bag and a couple of tarps and spent the nite in my nice comfortable cuccon. I called a friend and asked if they would like to meet me for breakfast Somewhere. Of course the place they chose was "home". Now, how could i refuse?
The thermometer on the cool side of their house indicated -24º. From there, i rode around in the Berkshires of northern Mass for a couple of days and then over into NY state and the Adirondacs, getting over into Seth's area and finally headed back towards CT. By the time i got home, the temps were getting quite warm during the days. all the way up to just under freezing. I sorted out a few things around home as the temps started rising and got back to my masonry biz in time to finish my job on schedule.
That was my idea of a winter vacation. The next winter, I met this cute little German lady and my biking days came to a screeching halt. i had to decide between biking and domestic tranquility. Oh well. as Dudley Moore said as "Arthur", "I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid."
Er, Is that a debatable issue?
Tinker
Back in 1964, i had bought a brand new motorcycle in early February. It was a trade from a 750 cc Triumph TR 6 to a Zundapp 250cc single cylinder, 2 cycle. It was in the middle of a cold snap here in CT. I was working on a fireplace and with nite time temps hitting around -20F and daytime getting no higher than barely clearing -oº, I decided it was vacation time. we were spending most of our days thawing materials. Then an hour or two working at the paying part and then the rest of the day covering up our work and resetting the heaters to keep the work from freezing. I called my contractor and asked about his scheduling for the job. how soon did he want me to be finished in the living room of the house? i explained my problems with the cold and we decided I had about 3 or 4 weeks to finish. He was as concerned about the cold and its effect on the masonry as I. I told him i thought it would be a good time for me to take a couple of weeks vacation and give my new bike a workout.
He thought it was a great idea. "Where are you going, Florida?"
"I am going to Maine."
My contractor, who I had been doing all of his masonry for several years made some remarks concerning my sanity and above all, my intelligence, that I need not go into here. He wished me luck and asked if I had any places to stay. I did have some good friends in Vermont where I stayed the first nite. I left there in early morning, just after milking time. Being an old S--t kicker, I always spent time helping in the barn with my friend (actually my brother's inlaws). By time i got to Rutland, the rain started. Actually, it was sleet. That stuff really stings when riding with no windshield on the front. But i was dressed pretty warm. I never was very fashionable while riding, but very practically dressed. that is if you consider riding a bike in a sleet storm with temps dropping as having anything to do with practicality. By time i got to the ski area on top of mountain between Rutland and White River junction, the sleet had changed back to snow. After some minor side adventures during the day, i rolled into the yard of an old friend from CT who had moved to Augusta, Me. He had told me he would keep the stove (wood stove) going for me and i could roll out my sleeping bag on the floor. It was near -20º when i arrived. The next morning, it was a bit lower than that when i left for Calais. I stopped in Calais for a few hours to visit with the object of my foolishness and found out she had just gotten engaged. By time I got back to Augusta, a day on the bike covering just over 600 miles, including a stop at Colby College to visit another girl friend, (she was a next door neighbor, so was not surprised to see me roll in to visit at 9pm with temp around -20) it was even colder than the nite before. After spending another nite in augusta beside the stove, i rode another few hundred miles in a zigzag journey to Webster Mass. i found a spot along a woodsy road to roll out my sleeping bag and a couple of tarps and spent the nite in my nice comfortable cuccon. I called a friend and asked if they would like to meet me for breakfast Somewhere. Of course the place they chose was "home". Now, how could i refuse?
The thermometer on the cool side of their house indicated -24º. From there, i rode around in the Berkshires of northern Mass for a couple of days and then over into NY state and the Adirondacs, getting over into Seth's area and finally headed back towards CT. By the time i got home, the temps were getting quite warm during the days. all the way up to just under freezing. I sorted out a few things around home as the temps started rising and got back to my masonry biz in time to finish my job on schedule.
That was my idea of a winter vacation. The next winter, I met this cute little German lady and my biking days came to a screeching halt. i had to decide between biking and domestic tranquility. Oh well. as Dudley Moore said as "Arthur", "I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid."
Er, Is that a debatable issue?
Tinker
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2011
- Messages
- 2,004
Well I was teaching down to Boston this week, and I can report that all we have been hearing about the snow down there is true. Amazing quantities of snow, with no place to put it. And traffic...holy traffic. Every time I go there, it reminds me why I only go there every so often.
Snow quantities are holding steady here in Vt, but its (finally) supposed to warm up on wednesday.
And rain.
[sad]
Snow quantities are holding steady here in Vt, but its (finally) supposed to warm up on wednesday.
And rain.
[sad]
Gary in Texas
Member
- Joined
- May 16, 2014
- Messages
- 613
It reached the 80's in Houston this afternoon. By 7AM tomorrow, our temps will have dropped over 50 degrees, down to 30 and a little snow. Thankfully, our "artic blast" can be counted in minutes, and not days or weeks. I've lived in those cold climates, and enjoy cold weather of 50 F now......
Yesterday, most of my time wa spent driving my armstrong powered excavator digging paths thru 24" to 30" deep snow s my roof guy could tote hi ladder around houses so he could get up onto roofs to shovel snow that was 18" deep. He then attacked he ice dams with hammer to give water from melting snow a place to go besides into the insides of house. today spent about 6 hours playing in soggy sno with my red snow eating toy. tomorrow morning, it looks like more of the same. My neck and shoulder are killing me so i had to wear neck brace today. Probable will be worse tomorrow.
The GOOD NEWS!!! Tomorrow's snow looks like the last hurrah for this winter. I have been checking Accuweather all winter and they tell me that after tomorrow morning, the rest of March will have only a couple of very short periods of brief flurries. I will have maybe some time to play with my WW'ing toys again for a while.
Tinker
The GOOD NEWS!!! Tomorrow's snow looks like the last hurrah for this winter. I have been checking Accuweather all winter and they tell me that after tomorrow morning, the rest of March will have only a couple of very short periods of brief flurries. I will have maybe some time to play with my WW'ing toys again for a while.
Tinker
Dochawthorne
Member
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2012
- Messages
- 27
>>> quote from jnug in another thread Off topic but I don't know where there are spots left for you plow guys to put snow. Here in NH, it is still piled over ten feet tall on street corners. Some reduction finally the last couple of days. I have a snowthrower. Have no idea where a plow would have put the snow off my driveway.
Well, the good news is that Accueweather has suggested that the next snow storm around these parts will be sometime after September. I would think more like sometime after October, except a few years ago, we had the very most devastating snow storm on 29 of October. It is not likely to happen again for a few centuries. the last storm with that much snow that early was over 200 years ago.
The bad news for me is that my sno plow office will be going into Rehab on Monday for some very minor surgery and recovery care. I suppose that is really good news. Sometimes, the ravages of a hard winter can require major surgery and expensive medical care during recovery.
On Friday, I got a call from one of my very favorite customers asking if I could do anything about clearing some of the snow piles from her driveway. It is our helper who plows her driveway. I have not even had time to investigate his work so far his winter; but having done that job myself in other winters, i could just imagine how high and space consuming the piles might be. I told her I would take a look, but did not think we could do anything without my son's heavy equipment. I suggested that would cost too much since there were no more storms in sight for the foreseeable future until next fall.
The lady agreed. She told me she had company (her daughters and families) coming for the weekend to go to wake and funeral and she needed more space for moving cars around. She had room to park all, but no room to move. The two of us kicked the problem around for a little while (i wanted to go to same series of events. the person of interest had been a distant friend of mine and i am good friends with several of his relatives). Later in the day, i did investigate and was amazed that our man had been able to dispose of the snow as expertly as he had done. the piles of snow were in some places over six feet high. With now space to get straight pushes with the truck, i knew that to have been quite amazing. One more snow storm, and we would certainly need my son's loader to even clear a trail, let alone move any of the piles. All of our driveways are in about the same condition.
I called he lady back with the news that I could do no more than put down a little sand for traction. She is a very understanding person and can be a lot of fun with her sense of humor. She agreed that he request had been somewhat impossible to take action on. she told me it was ok. All of the people who were coming were coming from Boston; so they had become accustomed to such problems.
My reply to that was, "Oh, why didn't you tell me that in the first place. All you have to tell them is 'We just had an overnite flurry and we could not attend to it right away.'"
She laughed. (To any of you out at the eastern end of CT, MA and Most of RI, you do have my sympathies. I have seen pics of your cars buried, people climbing out of second floor windows, roads buried to point of no clue where they are, and all sorts of good things like that. I think we are all glad to see sunshine lowering the piles for now)
Tinker
The bad news for me is that my sno plow office will be going into Rehab on Monday for some very minor surgery and recovery care. I suppose that is really good news. Sometimes, the ravages of a hard winter can require major surgery and expensive medical care during recovery.
On Friday, I got a call from one of my very favorite customers asking if I could do anything about clearing some of the snow piles from her driveway. It is our helper who plows her driveway. I have not even had time to investigate his work so far his winter; but having done that job myself in other winters, i could just imagine how high and space consuming the piles might be. I told her I would take a look, but did not think we could do anything without my son's heavy equipment. I suggested that would cost too much since there were no more storms in sight for the foreseeable future until next fall.
The lady agreed. She told me she had company (her daughters and families) coming for the weekend to go to wake and funeral and she needed more space for moving cars around. She had room to park all, but no room to move. The two of us kicked the problem around for a little while (i wanted to go to same series of events. the person of interest had been a distant friend of mine and i am good friends with several of his relatives). Later in the day, i did investigate and was amazed that our man had been able to dispose of the snow as expertly as he had done. the piles of snow were in some places over six feet high. With now space to get straight pushes with the truck, i knew that to have been quite amazing. One more snow storm, and we would certainly need my son's loader to even clear a trail, let alone move any of the piles. All of our driveways are in about the same condition.
I called he lady back with the news that I could do no more than put down a little sand for traction. She is a very understanding person and can be a lot of fun with her sense of humor. She agreed that he request had been somewhat impossible to take action on. she told me it was ok. All of the people who were coming were coming from Boston; so they had become accustomed to such problems.
My reply to that was, "Oh, why didn't you tell me that in the first place. All you have to tell them is 'We just had an overnite flurry and we could not attend to it right away.'"
She laughed. (To any of you out at the eastern end of CT, MA and Most of RI, you do have my sympathies. I have seen pics of your cars buried, people climbing out of second floor windows, roads buried to point of no clue where they are, and all sorts of good things like that. I think we are all glad to see sunshine lowering the piles for now)
Tinker
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2013
- Messages
- 3,575
...while here in Minnesnowta this is going to go down as "the winter that never was." All of our snow is gone - although that wasn't much of a feat as we never had more than a couple of inches accumulated at one time.
I'm sure Mother Nature will get even with us next year...
I'm sure Mother Nature will get even with us next year...
When i was growing up on my uncle's farm, my cousin's grandfather, who ws a grandfather to me as well, even tho not related, had many down to earth sayings that will stick with my til I am gone.
We had draught one year and the following year we had two floods during growing season that ruined our crops as most of our crop land was along the river bank. nobody in the family cried about the misfortune. I think that was when i learned to take what God gives us, roll up our sleves and pitch in to do the best we can. we planted our corn three times that second year, twice in mud. The cows got hat that winter that was as much mud dust as it was good fodder. My dear mentor just said, as he had said thru so many of life's hardships, "Mother Nature will out." He just meant that Mother Nature, his word for the deity inof his world had a way of evening everything out.
Wow, we have had two tough winters in a row here in Connecticut. I already have sympathy for what is certainly ahead for you. Of course, the good news for you is that even the mosquitoes will probably freeze up when the loss of snow catches up whenever the snow comes back your way. [scared]
Tinker
We had draught one year and the following year we had two floods during growing season that ruined our crops as most of our crop land was along the river bank. nobody in the family cried about the misfortune. I think that was when i learned to take what God gives us, roll up our sleves and pitch in to do the best we can. we planted our corn three times that second year, twice in mud. The cows got hat that winter that was as much mud dust as it was good fodder. My dear mentor just said, as he had said thru so many of life's hardships, "Mother Nature will out." He just meant that Mother Nature, his word for the deity inof his world had a way of evening everything out.
Wow, we have had two tough winters in a row here in Connecticut. I already have sympathy for what is certainly ahead for you. Of course, the good news for you is that even the mosquitoes will probably freeze up when the loss of snow catches up whenever the snow comes back your way. [scared]
Tinker
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2011
- Messages
- 2,004
Tinker said:
Well, spring is in the air, Tinker. I dropped the blade yesterday for what I expect to be the last time this year, mostly just to push the few inches of fresh snow away before the big melt, which has started. Roads were posted today, through May 1.
I thought of you early this morning. I was out in the shop and observed a fully mature fisher cat run 20' right up a big old cherry tree going after a chipmunk. The chipmunk lept over to a birch, leaving the cat high and dry. She then came about 10' down the tree and jumped the rest of the way, and bounded away.
Don't see that just every morning, even around here.
Scott,
For the past few years, we have had a fox visit our yard. We have an "L" shaped lot that is mostly hillside and across the road is about 2000 acres of swamp, wetlands and town forest (Ridgefield, Danbury and CT. State Forest. I tell people i am paying taxes on 1/2acre but have a 2000 acre front yard. We have coyotes in the woods that often serenade me abbot the time i am arising around 3am.
I am sure it is year round, but i only notice the fox's visits in the winter time and only when the snow is on the ground. I see his tracks about every week and a half to two weeks and those tracks always take the nearly exact same route, almost within inches with practically no variation. I have never actually seen the fox, but whenever the snow has arrived, I look for the tracks.
A few years after we were married, we started having visits from other animals, most notable raccoons. Our garbage was being stored on steel cans which I ould put a heavy stone on the cover to keep them out. I had a vegetable garden in those days and as others, I always knew when my corn was ready for picking. Those raccoons would start raiding. It was always a challenge to waitunil the very last minute to pick. I knew when it was best time to pick for best flavor. trouble was, those raccoons knew as well. Quite accidentally, I discovered that they also loved watermelon rinds. Not only as well as corn, but even better. As long as I had the veggy garden, from that point on, we ate lots of watermelon in the late summer, starting just before the corn was ready for picking.
One evening, as we were just sitting down for evening dinner, there was a knock on our back door that was right next to the kitchen table. I reached for the door handle and opened. Our next door neighbor walked into the room and suggested we keep ut dog inside for a couple of days. It seemed he was tired of the raccoons' raids and was putting poison around his area. We were all flabbergasted and speechless as he turned and walked out immediately. My wife and looked at each other, still unable to come up with words to express our horror. Our children were both upset as they were, by that time, as much dog and wild life friendlyas there parents.
From that time on, until had built a solid enclosure to store garbage, we placed our table scraps, and especially watermelon rinds, on top of the stonewall I had been building just beyond our kitchen entrance. Every morning, what ever scraps we had put out there were gone with no trace. eventually, we not only had a family of raccoons, but a couple of skunks, possums, probably some rats and some other wild critters visiting. Often, there would be a line up of our visitors waiting for me t place goodies on the wall. They were no afraid, and once used to me, hey were not particularly stand offish either. Our dog, even tho a hunting breed, would not give chase ad it was like we were all one happy family.
Shortly, my wifes nephew and niece came to visit from Germany. On our way home from picking them up at Kennedy Airport, we were telling the two youngsters about our daily evening visitors. The two were very excited about the prospects of seeing us feed our wild friends and hoped they could see them up close. When we got home from the airport, of course just about all the conversation was of the German tongue, with only an occasional interpretation in english as my wife tried to keep our children and me up to date as best she could. There was plenty of talk, >>> but no animals!!! The children from across the pond were disappointed, to say the least. They stayed disappointed for the entire two weeks visit. The day after we took them to the airport for their return to Germany, the entire lineup reappeared.
Eventually, the neighbor who had planned to poison our friendly visitors moved away. They brought different problem in the form of a rather nasty dog. That is another long story. The feeding of our "livestock" soon came to an end, but we enjoyed the trip while it lasted.
Tinker
Tinker
For the past few years, we have had a fox visit our yard. We have an "L" shaped lot that is mostly hillside and across the road is about 2000 acres of swamp, wetlands and town forest (Ridgefield, Danbury and CT. State Forest. I tell people i am paying taxes on 1/2acre but have a 2000 acre front yard. We have coyotes in the woods that often serenade me abbot the time i am arising around 3am.
I am sure it is year round, but i only notice the fox's visits in the winter time and only when the snow is on the ground. I see his tracks about every week and a half to two weeks and those tracks always take the nearly exact same route, almost within inches with practically no variation. I have never actually seen the fox, but whenever the snow has arrived, I look for the tracks.
A few years after we were married, we started having visits from other animals, most notable raccoons. Our garbage was being stored on steel cans which I ould put a heavy stone on the cover to keep them out. I had a vegetable garden in those days and as others, I always knew when my corn was ready for picking. Those raccoons would start raiding. It was always a challenge to waitunil the very last minute to pick. I knew when it was best time to pick for best flavor. trouble was, those raccoons knew as well. Quite accidentally, I discovered that they also loved watermelon rinds. Not only as well as corn, but even better. As long as I had the veggy garden, from that point on, we ate lots of watermelon in the late summer, starting just before the corn was ready for picking.
One evening, as we were just sitting down for evening dinner, there was a knock on our back door that was right next to the kitchen table. I reached for the door handle and opened. Our next door neighbor walked into the room and suggested we keep ut dog inside for a couple of days. It seemed he was tired of the raccoons' raids and was putting poison around his area. We were all flabbergasted and speechless as he turned and walked out immediately. My wife and looked at each other, still unable to come up with words to express our horror. Our children were both upset as they were, by that time, as much dog and wild life friendlyas there parents.
From that time on, until had built a solid enclosure to store garbage, we placed our table scraps, and especially watermelon rinds, on top of the stonewall I had been building just beyond our kitchen entrance. Every morning, what ever scraps we had put out there were gone with no trace. eventually, we not only had a family of raccoons, but a couple of skunks, possums, probably some rats and some other wild critters visiting. Often, there would be a line up of our visitors waiting for me t place goodies on the wall. They were no afraid, and once used to me, hey were not particularly stand offish either. Our dog, even tho a hunting breed, would not give chase ad it was like we were all one happy family.
Shortly, my wifes nephew and niece came to visit from Germany. On our way home from picking them up at Kennedy Airport, we were telling the two youngsters about our daily evening visitors. The two were very excited about the prospects of seeing us feed our wild friends and hoped they could see them up close. When we got home from the airport, of course just about all the conversation was of the German tongue, with only an occasional interpretation in english as my wife tried to keep our children and me up to date as best she could. There was plenty of talk, >>> but no animals!!! The children from across the pond were disappointed, to say the least. They stayed disappointed for the entire two weeks visit. The day after we took them to the airport for their return to Germany, the entire lineup reappeared.
Eventually, the neighbor who had planned to poison our friendly visitors moved away. They brought different problem in the form of a rather nasty dog. That is another long story. The feeding of our "livestock" soon came to an end, but we enjoyed the trip while it lasted.
Tinker
Tinker
