How far and high can I throw snow?

[Jims1025R]

Heated driveway would work too.

It's nice when you can do that! In Reykjavik Iceland, most of the city's streets are heated. I have a photo somewhere, but can't find it. There are lots on line showing this. I doubt that they ever clear snow in the city!

 

[oosik]

If you are going to AK to live on the permanent fund - bring lots of $$$$ with you. A family of two can easily spend more than what they will get from this fund in a couple months.

I sometimes used WD-40. But in the final analysis - best to just wait until the temps drop.

And - FWIW - many have some real misconceptions about AK. Not all of AK is like Fairbanks and Nome.

Anchorage is quite similar to Seattle. It is a seaport city but does get as much as a foot of snow. Then you have all of SE AK. Absolutely a maritime climate.

But - I don't want to encourage relocation. Go there and visit - leave your tourist $$$. Everybody will be happy.

 

[sree251]

He gave you three - sree251. I lived in AK for 20+ years. I'll give you a forth - very few Californians and idiots live up there. One winter - they can't take it - they go back south.

I know! I don't mean knowing from personal experience but from what I have been told. "Utter desolation" he declared in a message to me. He wasn't living in Anchorage but in rural Alaska further north. Like me, he was on a spiritual quest.

Why did you live there? Were you born there? And why did you leave?

 

[Doughknob]

I tried a few days ago. I can throw a snowball about 90 feet.

 

[oosik]

I went to Alaska - starting in 1960. Summer work for ADF&G while attending college at Univ of WA. Then in 1964 went and stayed permanent - in Anchorage. Director of Environmental Health - Anchorage, AK. Born in Spokane, WA.

Also lived a year in Glennallen, AK. Very small town - half way between Anchorage & Fairbanks. Glennallen is where the summers are hot and winters - VERY cold.

After sixteen years working for the government - I got fed up with the entire situation. Environmental Health - like Physical Health( DR's & Nurses ) became VERY politically oriented. The "word" was - "We don't really care what you do or what programs you run - just don't do ANYTHING that could embarrass the XXXXX political party". MAN - that's no way to run the ship.

We had this 80 acres down here in Cheney, WA - free and clear. We made an obscene profit from the sale of our house in Anchorage. The time was right - I was 40 years old - the move was the right thing. Moved down - had our mile long driveway built by a local contractor. Spent almost every penny building our new house. Almost every penny - except enough to buy a new tractor.

Life has been really good here ...................

 

[sree251]

Moved down - had our mile long driveway built by a local contractor. Spent almost every penny building our new house. Almost every penny - except enough to buy a new tractor.

Life has been really good here ...................

You are a man of principle, oosik. A rare breed. Life is always good when one steps off the beaten path of the corrupted. Thanks for an account of your life in Alaska. I checked up on the places you mentioned.

How many acres do you have in Cheney? And what are you doing on your land with that Kubota?

 

[oosik]

The Kubota is primarily used on my driveway. Winter snow - if we ever get snow anymore. Then fixing my "mud hole" in the driveway. The mud hole is a 150 foot section that was constructed without knowledge of local drainage patterns. All the land on the north side of the driveway is open range land- same on the south. A large field drains down onto this section of the driveway. It would take major mods to correct. It's just a whole lot easier - cheaper - less irritating to my neighbor on the north -- grade this section smooth with my big 'ol LPGS when things dry out.

Besides - all this mud keeps the tires on the Taco Wagon moist and supple.

The other major project - thinning and chipping my pine stands. Almost every year I go out - select, fell, chip as many as 1200 small pines from my numerous stands. This is a MAJOR project for me. It's a multiple person job but I'm alone out here. So CAREFUL is the word of the day. After thinning a stand - it looks like a giants game of Pick-Up-Sticks. Small pine lying in all direction and all over each other. Dragging all these pines to collective piles is where a person can stumble, fall and get hurt. Chipping is the fun part. I always fall a couple times doing the dragging part but experience has shown me how to fall and not get seriously hurt.

I still hope that one of these years we get snows like we did 20, 30, 40 years ago. However - current conditions would indicate otherwise.

 

[Captain Dirty]

We are far removed from the subject of storing moved snow anyway.

. . . I always fall a couple times doing the dragging part but experience has shown me how to fall and not get seriously hurt.

A trip to the health care provider now includes an interrogation by an assistant that includes "Have you fallen in the past year?"
I usually counter with "Does it count if you take a dive because it would hurt less than trying to arrest the fall?" That usually elicits a dismissive, "Oh, another cranky old man" look.

Last year I answered "Yes, twice. I tried ice skating for the first time in 5 or 10 years." The older woman's response: "You got what you deserved."

 

[oosik]

Again - this year - there is no need to discuss MY storing of snow. First you must HAVE snow. By far - the 3-point blower I had did the best job. It would blow the snow far enough away from the driveway that when it melted - it drained elsewhere.

My particular problem - it took three to four hours to clear the driveway - mailbox area - and yard. That's a whole lot of time looking back over your shoulder. I would get stiff neck and shoulders.

With a descent blower and good crunchy or fluff snow - expect to blow it, at least, 35 to 40 feet. How high depends upon the design of your discharge chute. But I would estimate it could be blown/stacked to a height of fifteen feet. My old blower - the Blue Machine - with the discharge flap wide open could easily hit twelve to fifteen feet high on the pine trees as I passed.

The heavy duty Rhino rear blade on my M6040 rolls any/all snow very easily. But it is only moved about three feet and NOT really stacked to any great height. However - this is all being done while driving forward. No stiff neck or sholders.

 

[RoyJackson]

Do you think the snow is going away on account of change in climate? 40 years is a very short time for Mother Earth to suddenly decide to change her nature.

Not really...
Years ago, there was this big todo about another Ice Age approaching
This whole global warming thing could well be just another cycle...a hundred years hence, people might be freezing...
However, "global warming" scare tactics are making some people very very rich, isn't it?