Another foot of snow today

[Dyer retired]

John,

I only use the front blade for clean up or pushing straight ahead into a pile.

I have quite a bit of driveway between my place, out to the mill and up to my parents. on a one lane driveway I can use the wing and the rear blade angled the other way to clear a 12 ft path in one go, and then I will ussually wing back the other way and push the snow over the top.

I welded wheels on the rear blade so that I can lenghten/shorten the top link to raise and lower the blade to control it's bite. It is nice when the ground isn't frozen yet but you still have 6 inches of snow to deal with and you dont want to tear up the yard. I also grade my driveway with it in the summer. With it running the opposite way of the wing and having the straight ahead blade on the bucket, I have all my angles covered.

I have been really happy with the wing and I cant reccomend it enough. If you use your tractor for snow removal, you really need to consider one. It works really well at pushing snow banks back. It can push me sidways, but I just rasie it untill it stops and come back for another pass if necesary. I raise mine by rolling the front bucket, and it works so well that I wouldnt bother with putting hydraulics on it even if someone gave them to me. It is also nice to be able to see exactly what you are plowing, because you are sitting right up on it.

Using a truck plow isnt as ideal as a gimballed wing setup like a highway plow truck, and I did have some issues, but it was pretty easy (and extremely cheap) and lends itself well to tractor use as there arent as many fixed points on a tractor.

Shinnlinger,

Your set up sure looks like it has all the bases covered for you. The 12 foot path in one pass makes for quick cleanup, although you didn't say how much road you have to clear....it sounds like a substantial bit of clearing. My tractor does everything I need it to and I have an awful lot of fun with it. It was nice and warm here today, so I cracked the garage door and worked on the tractor most of the day. I had an auger problem that I posted as a question on TBN and Kevinj gave me the solution yesterday to it, so that was my project today. Then it was just maintenance after that for the fun of it. Looks like we have some mixture of snow, sleet, rain, freezing rain, coming tomorrow night and into Saturday, so I guess I'm ready for whatever it ends up being. I am still recuperating from a recent surgery, but can now ride the tractor around a little without any problems. My neighbor is getting depressed because he's been coming over and using the rig (BX1800) to help me out and I think that he has too much fun doing it, so he sees that coming to an end.

Hope you don't have to use that wing too many more times for this year. Take care. John

 

[Bird]

Bird,

How often does this kind of snow happen for you in the course of a year? That really is coming down, but the important question is: What is your wife doing out in it? John

Not how many times in a year, but how many times in a lifetime. According to one newspaper story this morning, the Ft. Worth area had that much snow on March 6 in 1924 and again in 1947, and smaller amounts in 1931 and 1967. Of course, that's just for the date of March 6. However, when any and all dates are considered, I can't recall seeing this much snow in more than 25 years. I think we usually see snow in the air 3 or 4 times a year, and have enough to build a snowman once every 2 or 3 years.

As for my wife, she was just being silly and playing. She and her Chihuahua are in the habit of going for a walk down the street 2 or 3 times a day. That Chihuahua always gets excited and anxious to go, so Margaret decided to see what would happen yesterday and that little dog went out the door, took one look at that snow and beat a hasty retreat back inside. But Margaret decided she'd go on anyway to play in the snow and see how many of our neighbors were out playing in it. I told her that her dog has more sense than she does.

 

[Dyer retired]

Bird,

I thought that snow was pretty rare in your area, but thought I'd better ask because it's not unusual to see Arizona (North Rim, can't think of the city name) often times listed as the coldest spot in the Nation and that always struck me as contrary to intuition?

The temptation to play in the snow is pretty great and it looks like she had plenty of temptation the other day! The deer have been yarded up now for a couple of months to cope with the deep snow, so a Chihuahua probably would have a hard time in lesser snow. The deer population is healthy, but this kind of light crust in the woods makes it easier for the coyotes to pack up on the old, slow, weak, or just young deer. I think a large portion of what is here now will be melted away over the next 4 weeks and we will have nearly forgotten how busy a snow removal year it's been.

Not quite 30 degrees here yet, but headed to mid-40's this afternoon. They are now predicting a half to a full inch of rain for my area, which is expected to mean a half to a full inch of ice on the ground by morning, so it will be a little treacherous on the roads. I feel o.k. in the truck, but always worry about the high school kid on the cell phone, adjusting thier hair in the rearview, while driving just about 40 mph over their capabilities. Stay warm. Dyer, retired

 

[Dyer retired]

Bird,

I've got to proofread these things before I send them, ha! The last post has words like "if" where it should have been "is," sentences missing words, etc. Bad habit, but I type faster than I can proofread.

I gave up on the spell check question and don't dare download the "ABC" thing in the upper right corner of these thread boxes. I wonder if anyone knows more about it's usefulness or if, as it appears, you have to download it every time, than we do? It acts like it's doing something when I click "o.k.," but then I see errors in spelling afterwards? I know that won't help grammatical errors, but the thing has me curious now. John

 

[Bird]

I've got to proofread these things before I send them, ha! The last post has words like "if" where it should have been "is," sentences missing words, etc. Bad habit, but I type faster than I can proofread.

Yep, bad habit, and one I've always had myself. When I was gainfully employed, I was considered to be a very good proofreader, but when I wrote something myself, I always wanted someone else to proofread it, because while I always noticed other's mistakes, I'd miss my own.

 

[frank_f15]

Bird,

How often does this kind of snow happen for you in the course of a year? That really is coming down, but the important question is: What is your wife doing out in it? John

i wondered the same thing AND MORE IMPORTANTLY why is Bird in the house taking pictures

 

[Dyer retired]

Yep, bad habit, and one I've always had myself. When I was gainfully employed, I was considered to be a very good proofreader, but when I wrote something myself, I always wanted someone else to proofread it, because while I always noticed other's mistakes, I'd miss my own.

So, I guess I'm not the only one that can't proofread my own stuff. Like you, I'm great with checking other people, just not my own writing. One of our Colonel's was named Mike Sperry and we, at that time, had a secretary that had slipped into the position as his secretary through layoffs and bumping personnel, etc. She would try very hard, but was not a whiz on the computer (State Government...how can you be a secretary and not know how to run a computer) and would run the spell check through every document that he had her type. Well his name, the name of the Lt. Col., and the two Majors names were all part of the Letterhead and when the spell check would hit "Sperry," it would suggest that the word she was looking for was really "Speedy." She would just hit the "accept" button for everything and move on. That poor secretary sent out more correspondence from Colonel Michael Speedy over the course of about a month before someone caught it and showed her that you don't need to accept every suggested change spellcheck offers.

We've moved into the 40 degree range now and it's climbing fast. Dyer, retired

 

[Bird]

We've moved into the 40 degree range now and it's climbing fast.

Well, you're ahead of us; we've only at 39. And I retired before our secretaries had computers. They were still using typewriters, but I had my own computer for word processing at the office. I've never used a spell checker very much, but I've always kept a dictionary handy.

 

[Dyer retired]

Well, you're ahead of us; we've only at 39. And I retired before our secretaries had computers. They were still using typewriters, but I had my own computer for word processing at the office. I've never used a spell checker very much, but I've always kept a dictionary handy.

I have an electronic remote sensor thermometer mounted out back in a spot that the sun never gets to, so I figure that's pretty accurate for outside temperature. The noon news here just said that Belgrade was at 37 degrees, but my thermometer is now showing 42 degrees. I think I'll stick with my reading. It's odd too, in the fall I'd be freezing to death and cursing the cold weather that's coming, but it feels like you want to head to the beach when it's that same temperature this time of year.

In high school, we had manual Underwood typewriters to learn on and the second year I took typing, we got a brand new batch of IBM selectrics....oh baby! I was pretty fast on a typewriter, but am twice as quick on a computer....I think it's the confidence of easily correcting any mistakes that allows me to go faster. When I retired, I'm not sure I could have found a typewriter in the building. Some of the old timers kept them around for typing labels, but even those were disappearing at the end. Hope it warms up for you. John

 

[Bird]

Yep, John, you're a bit younger than I am. We, too, had the old Underwood manual typewriters in high school. But then in the police academy, everyone had to prepare and maintain a typed binder of the class notes they made. Some of the guys had wives who typed theirs; my wife didn't type. Anyway, I bought a new Penncrest electric typewriter at J.C. Penny's (actually just a re-badged Smith Corona) and did my notes. So that was my first experience with an electric typewriter and I loved it. But then after a couple of years, as a young patrolman, I was happily patrolling my beat one day when the dispatcher told me to report to the captain's office. At that time, the captain had both a secretary and a clerk/typist. I think one of them had been promoted and transferred and the other had resigned. So he'd had someone go through personnel files and reached the conclusion that I might be the best typist on the crew. I had graduated #1 of 29 from the police academy and my notebook placed #2. So I had to be the captain's secretary for a month or so until he hired a new one and that was my first experience with an IBM Selectric. Now I'll bet it was a dandy when new, but by the time I got to use it, it was a piece of junk that I hated. They told me they budgeted for a new one 3 years in a row, each year it got cut from the budget, and they spent more on repairs/service each year than a new one would have cost. Are you old enough to remember when everything had to be typed with 3 to 5 "onionskins" because we didn't have copy machines? I was sure happy to get out of there and back on the streets.