Another foot of snow today

[Dyer retired]

Bird,

What do you think? This is my neighbor helping clear the yard a storm or two back...does it look like he's smirking or trying to hide a smile to you? John

 

[Bird]

Bird,

What do you think? This is my neighbor helping clear the yard a storm or two back...does it look like he's smirking or trying to hide a smile to you? John

He's probably having fun playing in the snow. Do you realize that most of us down here, including myself, have never actually seen a snow blower in action; only photos and videos. The Winter we spent in the Chicago area was the only time we've seen the truck mounted snow plows clearing streets. And we enjoyed the snow and subzero weather that Winter because we didn't have to get out in it or work in it. And I didn't worry about our water freezing because we were in an apartment so if it had frozen (it didn't), it would have been someone else's problem; not mine. I like to see a little snow down here occasionally as long as it doesn't get too cold or last too long, but I'm glad we don't have the kind of snows you guys get.

On our last trip to Alaska, the snow was pretty deep on either side of the road and it was -5 degrees when we crossed the border from Canada into Alaska, sure was cold getting out to put gas in the truck, but the roads were clear.

 

[herringchoker]

I just looked up our average annual snowfall....it's 138"! So far this winter (until the end of February) we've got about 133", and now you guys in Maine are sending us another dump. There's about a foot of it down now and it's still falling. Oh well........ more quality seat time.

 

[ragkar]

tessiers,
I got to mentioning your post at the diner this morning. I said that I'd sure like to see a foot snowfall just for the fun of plowing it.
For fifty years I shoveled that **** and this year, with my plow is the first time that I'm enjoying clearing it.
Then one of the guys commented that if you have several snowfalls in a row, where do you put the snow? I never thought of that! I guess that's the difference between buying a plow and buying a snowthrower. I have a walk-behind snowthower, but I haven't even started it this winter.

 

[Dyer retired]

Bird,

We had a pile of kids from my High School graduating class go to Alaska during the intial pipeline build and made a pretty handsome pile of money. Surprisingly, many stayed up there and the areas they were in were not as pleasant as Northern Maine in the winter. I would pictures from them now and again that were taken at Midnight and it looked like noon here. I guess I'm a Maine boy from start to finish and the complaints are really bordering on bragging about all the snow and cold and wrestling bears on the 5 mile walk to school, etc. I could probably learn to like your climate in the winter though. John

 

[Dyer retired]

herringchoker,

We haven't had one of these winters in quite a while, but any snow we get from now forward melts pretty quick and the concerns will then be of flooding, mud season, etc. I don't think I'll unhook the blower or the blade just yet though. John

 

[Kendrick]

Keep that up dyer and ill start making faces from blueberry island this summer

Bird keep it up and youll jinx your next winter... my family in TX was poking me about winter last year next time they called they just had an ice storm and we were still in the 70's

Im trying to make up my mind right now as to whether i want to plow right now or not. just got 4" ish of super fluff...

 

[Bird]

Bird,

We had a pile of kids from my High School graduating class go to Alaska during the intial pipeline build and made a pretty handsome pile of money. Surprisingly, many stayed up there and the areas they were in were not as pleasant as Northern Maine in the winter. I would pictures from them now and again that were taken at Midnight and it looked like noon here. I guess I'm a Maine boy from start to finish and the complaints are really bordering on bragging about all the snow and cold and wrestling bears on the 5 mile walk to school, etc. I could probably learn to like your climate in the winter though. John

John, both of my brothers lived in Anchorage when the pipeline was being built. One of them had a couple of 18-wheelers, did some hauling with his own trucks and also hauled new 4WD pickups on a car carrier to Prudhoe Bay. The other brother moved to Fairbanks temporarily and was an office manager (I guess that's what you'd call it) for the main contractor building the pipeline.

We had to get a special permit to drive the haul road a little before it opened to the public, but the brother who had been a trucker had a new F-Super Duty (ton and a half Ford with a flat bed) and he and I left Anchorage at 3:30 a.m. on July 4, 1991, and drove until 3 a.m. the next morning. It was cloudy and cool most of the day, but after we went through Atigun Pass about 1 a.m., we were driving into a blinding sun.

We stopped for coffee at Coldfoot, the northernmost truck stop and motel in the world, they claim. There were not other public facilities for 120 miles south of Coldfoot or 244 miles north of them. They also had a big sign about the temperature reaching a high of 97 in the summer of 1988, then that same Winter, on January, 1989, it went down to -82. But when we got to Prudhoe Bay on July 5, the temperature got all the way up 38 I think. It was a most interesting, but extremely rough trip.

 

[Dyer retired]

Kendrick,

I was going to ask which Blueberry Island, we have several, but it doesn't matter because they are all great...some are just easier to get to than others. We just finished up the snow removal that gets thrown into the yard by the road plows after the storms have ended, so we're ready for the next round now.

Bird,

The Alaska experience sounds like it was worthwhile, but from what you described and what my friends have always told me, there is no shortcut to anywhere up there. One of the old home town guys that's up there now flies out of Anchorage for the Alaska Fish and Parks (Don't quote me on the actual title) but, he often has to fly State Troopers into remote logging operations to haul off a desperado of some kind and the flight times can be as much as 6 hours. At that time he was flying a 182 on floats, so I would think 130 mph ground speed without too much wind one way or the other would not be unreasonable to think he could go. Must be a pretty hearty lot in those parts, ha! John

 

[Bird]

Bird keep it up and youll jinx your next winter... my family in TX was poking me about winter last year next time they called they just had an ice storm and we were still in the 70's

Yep, we're much more likely to have an ice storm than to have enough snow to amount to anything. And we've had some real dandies at times. I've even had tire chains on my police sedan a few times. One Sunday morning when I was in communications, one of my sergeants (who was supposed to be off on Sunday) woke up early, saw what the weather was like, got to work early, and called to wake me. My car was parked outside, and I had to pour hot water around a door before I could melt enough ice off to jerk the door open. I answered over 300 phone calls at the office that day myself. And while we were lucky in not losing electrical power at my house, my boss (Assistant Chief) was among those who had no electricity for 4 days.

And then there was the night about 2 a.m., when my next door neighbor called and woke me up to tell me he had gone to the bathroom and water was running out of the air-conditioner vent in the bathroom and he wanted to borrow my ladder to look up in his attic to see where the water was coming from. Now he was a good friend, but I was just thinking how glad I was that it was him, instead of me, with that problem, as I walked through the house barefoot in my pajamas without turning on any lights to go open the garage door. And as I walked through the kitchen, much to my shock and dismay, water was running out of a light fixture on my head and I found myself walking in water. That turned out to be my one and only personal experience (fortunately) with ice dams at the eaves.