Moving snow.

[npaden]

For most of you this would be no big deal but it was pretty exciting for me.

We got about 3" of snow yesterday and had a good wind blowing so we ended up getting some pretty decent drifts on the crossroads where we turn to go to our house. I BARELY made it home last night in my 2 wheel drive SUV, so it gave me a good excuse to get out the tractor!

It was harder to move around than I expected. Of course living in Texas I don't have any tire chains and the tractor slipped around pretty good even with 4 wheel drive when it was pushing or dragging with the loader jammed down. I should have swapped out the rotary mower that was on the 3 point with my back blade but didn't realize how much more useful it would have been than the loader and this crossroads is a mile from my house so I wasn't going back to swap it out.

I figured while I had the tractor out I would clear the snow from in front of the mailbox to make sure we got mail today. Our post office doesn't believe in the whole, whether snow, sleet, rain, etc. business. They didn't even attempt to deliver mail yesterday to us.

I shouldn't have been so lazy and got out of the car so the shadow of the car wasn't in the pictures, but oh well!

We really didn't get that much snow, but it blew pretty good and made some decent drifts. The mailbox is about 3' off the ground for perspective.

Here's a picture from earlier in the morning when it was still snowing at the house.

I saved the picture as black and white 'cause I think it looks colder that way!

Forecast is for mid 40's today so it will melt off everything but the larger drifts probably. Back to the lower 20's tonight.

 

[Thomas]

Morning npaden.
I'd say we got your weather pattern and you got ours...yikes.

 

[Glowplug]

That looks like fun. Did you use a regular standard loader bucket or have something specialized for pushing snow? What kind of tires do you have on your tractor?

 

[jbrumberg]

npaden: At this point I am looking for some snow ! It apears to me that you could handle NE conditions whenever they appear. Snow is interesting stuff . Right now my tractor is at the dealership for a FOPS addition (I've been looking at a lot of weather charts ) and scheduled maintenance. I am worried that Mother Nature will take advantage ! Jay

 

[npaden]

I just used my regular loader bucket and I have industrial tires on the tractor. I think ag tires would have helped a bit. I got stuck once but just a little pull from the loader got me right out.

I think a back blade would have gotten the job done much quicker than the loader though.

 

[ByronBob]

My driveway is a lot like this. Open. 635 feet of it makes it fun in the winter. The trick for us up north is to push the snow waaaayyyy out into the yard so when it snows again it doesn't drift across the driveway.

Another trick I learned is to move the snow on the leeward side of the driveway so when the snow blows it doesn't bother you.

Another trick I learned the hard way was glowing sticks. The orange reflective type to "find" the driveway in the dark.

Funny what 3 inches is capable of huh?