Tractor's Out in the Cold Tonight

Turbys_1700 · Dec 11, 2018

I got the tractor out yesterday and worked on our measly 5-6" of snow and ice. Used the bucket and blade on my gravel drive. Got along fine. Made several passes and finished up backing the blade to smooth out the driveway. Unfortunately on the last pass I caught the cutting edge of the blade on the edge of my newly poured concrete pad. Needless to say the misses is not real happy about replacing a broken cutting edge. It was well worn and needed replacing but I didn't expect to shear it off. Popped off at the last pin on the blade. This old Super Rhino of dad's was made back in the 60's. I pulled up the specs on it and it weighs 760# with a 3" kingpin. It's a good blade. Well, it was until I popped the cutting edge. LOL

mpham · Dec 11, 2018

Wow Turbys! 60 years on a cutting-edge is pretty good I think. Nice pics TeeryR.

TerryR · Dec 11, 2018

I got out this morning and cleared the middle section of our driveway in an hour and a half. Not quite so nice as yesterday afternoon... up to 38 when I came in and and unpleasant little breeze too.

This was the section I was most concerned about. It's only 300' but it's steep and has little room on the sides to push the snow. My trusty iPhone says this section is 10 degrees, which translates to 17.6%. What I did yesterday is 14%, so this is a little worse. I was afraid I'd not have traction to back up after pushing a load to the side, but the little Deere did fine.

Here's the section after clearing with the bucket, using it really as a blade:

Here it is after a couple of passes on each side with the rear blade:

I'm calling that good. I think my wife's Forester won't have any problems with that.

All that's left is about 600' out to the road. It should be much easier, if longer. It's much less steep and wider, with a big ditch on one side to drop the snow into.

ruffdog · Dec 11, 2018

That's your driveway? You need to be riding a horse, not a car. All I see is a bunch of chainsaw work, grapple work, and a nice gravel base. Could an ambulance get to the house? There is still time to put some of these items on the Christmas list....

TerryR · Dec 11, 2018

ruffdog said:
That's your driveway? You need to be riding a horse, not a car. All I see is a bunch of chainsaw work, grapple work, and a nice gravel base.

Chainsaw? Grapple? What would I do with those?

Could an ambulance get to the house?

Standard ambulance? I'm not sure right now. But I'm sure there's one here that could.

Actually, according to the UPS and FedEx drivers, who deliver all over the county, mine is one of the better ones around here. Here's what this section looks like without the snow:

I finished the bottom section this afternoon. About two hours, including cleaning up the snow I pushed out onto the pavement. Here's what it looked like when I started, from the top:

Here's what it looked like when I was done, from near the bottom:

jbrumberg · Dec 11, 2018

Terry- Nice job moving snow. Nice driveway. Thanks for sharing.

Fuddy1952 · Dec 11, 2018

Beautiful place!

TerryR · Dec 11, 2018

Thanks j and Fuddy,

Yes, it's a beautiful place. Well worth spending a couple of days clearing snow every 10 years or so.

As we are realizing our encroaching aging we have looked some for a place with less demanding maintenance. Each such effort reminds us to try harder to find people to do the tasks we are finding more difficult with time.

jbrumberg · Dec 12, 2018

".... As we are realizing our encroaching aging we have looked some for a place with less demanding maintenance. Each such effort reminds us to try harder to find people to do the tasks we are finding more difficult with time."- Terry

I/We agree. It's a process. We too are starting to plan for our future.