Seasonless and Idle Tractors ...

[Tig]

Looks like winter arrived here today. Sleet and snow, 4" so far with lots of freezing rain to the south. Up till now the ground was too soft to even drive the tractor around the yard much.

 

[OhioGuy]

I am sooooo tired of the rain, I'd love a HUGE snowstorm.

I read today that there is no snow on the ground in Moscow, in January that is really rare. But, for all you global warming disciples, last year was Moscow's coldest on record.

However, it is 65 days till SPRING.

Curt

 

[dbdartman]

Oh boy! I got to run my heap for about a half hour today, digging out 3 or 4 of the augered holes with the back hoe for the pole barn that's finally going up. The holes were drilled 3 weeks ago & we must have had 5" of rain since then, so a few holes were not only wet, but caved in.

As far as winter work, the tractor doesn't do any. Snow removal is accomplished with the DR snow thrower for the most part, & the "little" 5HP snow thrower clears the decks & ramps. They can both sit in the garage until NEXT winter as far as I'm concerned!

 

[escavader]

Alan, its about 1pm on Monday, and finally got a little snow, right now about 3 inches so far ... not much, but I no longer see BROWN!

HI DOUG
I got 7 inchs.It is suppose to go to 10 below tonight,geuss winter is here.
ALAN

 

[Jstpssng]

HI DOUG
I got 7 inchs.It is suppose to go to 10 below tonight,geuss winter is here.
ALAN

We got about 4 inches up here, just enough to start filling in the potholes on the sideroads.

About freaking time it got cold... i wanted to go ice fishing on New Year's Day but didn't get the pontoons on my ice traps in time.

 

[flusher]

For me, and as I suspect, a lot of others, the tractor during winter months becomes a tool to handle seasonal snows and if you own animals, move their food around (regardless of whether it's been 'processed' or not).

Were it not for the latter, I would have considered putting the machine into dry storage.

Since I built a new lean-to for the machine, I have obviously impacted el Nino along with the countless of tractor owners who have spent time and money on protecting their investments from the winter elements. It is clearly our fault.

I do start her up and drive her down to the river occassionally - but other than having the stalls mucked directly into the bucket to break wheelbarrow monotony, and then a 30 foot ride over to the manure pile, she has seen no snow yet (sans an inch that melted in 24 hours).

If it would get cold and stay cold, I could at least go move up and start prepping next years firewood.

Coastal Maine right now, seems to be one giant "stick and mud" month.

No ice or snow here in the North Valley this year. A few record low temps and some rain to soften the ground.

So, time to get the middle buster hitched to the Kubota B7510HST and plow the garden area. Also putting in landscaping with sprinklers this year, so got a chance this week to plow the front, side and rear areas around the house. Need to remove the rocks and then hit the plowed areas with the Yanmar RS-1200 rototiller later this month, weather permitting.

Meanwhile, the winter project, restoring a 1966 MF-135 diesel, continues to make slow progress. Now rewiring the tractor. Sheet metal removed and primed, but too cold and humid to do any more spray painting. If I can't ride a tractor because of the weather, at least I can do some wrenching. That satisfies my tractor fixation.

 

[Botabill]

Up here in Peterborough Ontario Canada we got about 7 inches of snow. Some of the boys have been happily ice fishing out of boats but the weather is pretty cold now so that's going to end.

 

[NHTC30]

Well, we got 5 inches of rain in NE Arkansas this weekend, on ground that was already pretty much saturated. Now it has turned cold, I think it was 18 degrees Tuesday morning ( I know, that's nothing compared to the northern states, but we're not used to under 20 temps.) I've had two calls to spread some dirt on some lawns, but it will probably be at least 2 to 3 weeks before we can get into them to do anything if it doesn't rain another drop. Sadly they are calling for some more precipitation this weekend.

 

[firemanpat2910]

To anyone in the Boston/Danvers area, get ready for snow.Ihave a surefire way to make it happen. I have a business trip there from Jan 23-26. Snows every time Im there.

 

[lawn_king]

Well pat, i look foward to having you in town & wish you would come more often. Snowless here so far!

 

[Duke4AZ]

SNOW??? Not sure what that is. Could someone describe it? Sounds like there has been some opportunity for some of you snow states to get some extra work done before spring. Here, business as usual, although the rain has made it a bit unpleasant for anything but indoor work. Tractor is just waiting for a sunny day to get some dirt work done.

Stay warm and dry.

 

[NewToy]

I'm taking a little vacation here in the Lakeland, FL area and was just telling my wife how I missed fooling around with the tractor. I was reading an article in the Tampa Tribune and they were talking about the unusually warm weather. It has yet to get below 45 F this Winter. This is the first time in 73 years it has been this warm. The mosquito population has been flourishing without having to deal with any cold weather. If I had the tractor I could run all the skeeter's over! I'll have to talk her into bringing it down here next year.
John

 

[Duke4AZ]

Just happened to be checking out some pic from KSN.com, a news network in Kansas where my wife's family is from and found one that may make some of you guys concerned about not having to move any snow to mover around feel just a bit warmerr. Don't know who took it but downloaded it from KSN.com this morning. It was taken around Christmas time when Eastern CO and Western KS got it pretty hard with snow. Makes one feel a little warmer not having to have to deal with that very often.

 

[DannyLobster]

FiremanPat
You got the gift. Checked my local weather (centrl MA) and they are calling for 1 to 3 inches on Monday night.
Don't know if it is going to be enough to try my new tractor moving snow, but hey I have learned not to trust the forcasters. I Hope your trip goes well.
Dan

 

[LBrown59]

I'm hauling a load of firewood into the pass-through from the garage about every 3 days, have cleaned the "used hay" out of the sheep shed twice, and just recently used mine to direct the fall of an ash tree to make room for a coming landscaping project. That was kind of interesting, rigging a chain up the tree, a cable to the chain, a snatch block around another tree, and then the tractor to the end of the cable to do the pulling. The tree missed the mark by about 10 degrees, but it didn't land on the house, which was the main object. Then came cleanup and firewood making, again using the tractor, so mine's been seeing some use despite the lack of snow.

I grubbed 6/10 acres with mine last winter thanks to almost all of Jan and Feb being 50 60 and 70 degree days.
Snow and cold would have shut down that project.

 

[bx23barry]

Out digging holes and planting trees today. t-shirt weather.

 

[KICK]

here in central FLA there aint no putting the tractor away. good thing this time of year is the grass is pretty much dormant but I been using the boom pole on the back of the tractor to pull up some fenceposts.

been busting up some groound for a new garden,,, sod is ten inches thick so I have plowed that area four times now this winter.

been here 10 years and found out our fence is ten to 20 feet on the other guys property, since he was planning on running a new fence, I been pulling out the fenceposts, at least where I can get to them. some of the property is so overgrown it aint EZ to get to em with the tractor.

 

[jbrumberg]

With this very, very boring winter season (5" of snow total) so far I have taken to starting and running the tractor about every two weeks. We have had some sub-zero temperatures recently and today was the first day that went very briefly above freezing. I started the tractor with little difficulty (had to preheat 2X), let it warm up for about 5 minutes, dumped the ice that had accumulated in the front bucket, and drove down the driveway to get the newspaper (That's so sad ). On the way back the tractor started to rough idle, miss, and finally died . I had added Power Service White to my fuel tank as well as my last 5 gallons of diesel. I get my diesel from the same gas station as the local school buses so I believe they seasonally switch diesel fuels. I checked the sediment bowl/fuel filter and discovered that the fuel had gelled. As I had just replaced the filter at 50 hours I was unwilling to pull and clean it. I got out my old trusty heat gun and extension cord long enough to get to the tractor. 10 minutes of warming the sediment bowl and the fuel was liquified. The tractor started back up and ran without problems for the next half hour. I am hoping that the fuel that gelled was residual fuel from the summer. This Mondays' storm will probably track too far east to affect me, but it appears that there will be a coastal storm forming around Groundhog's Day. I have around 200 feet of extension cords available and I will keep any plowing if any to the 200 foot range !

 

[Hooked_on_HP]

I think I have a worse problem. The weather stayed warm so long I got most of my projects for the tractor done . By May the only I will have to do is mow the yard . I told the GF I should buy the property next to me for an investment. She saw right through me. She said that was a lot of money to spend just so I could play with my tractor. Maby if I start to till up the yard again she will change her mind

 

[jbrumberg]

I think I have a worse problem. The weather stayed warm so long I got most of my projects for the tractor done . By May the only I will have to do is mow the yard . I told the GF I should buy the property next to me for an investment. She saw right through me. She said that was a lot of money to spend just so I could play with my tractor. Maby if I start to till up the yard again she will change her mind

You have to finesse "She Who Must Be Obeyed" not so . Jay