More snow!

I get the hillside shoveled and by the time I'm ready to leave it covered again. Good Lord! I'm ready for summer.

I know it's nothing compared to what you all put up with, but this morning we had ice and frost! Just about slipped and smashed something important while climbing a fence.

For a fat dude I have great balance. It didn't help me a second ago while shoveling the drive for the 3rd time today. My feet came right out from under me on the hillside. I'm getting too old for this falling on blacktop crap. We didn't get that much snow but it come every 3 or 4 hours enough to coat everything. I can't get off the hill when it's like that.

Hey steve for a fat dude you can really get downnnnnn!!!!!!!      Were you singing also do a little dance make a little love get down tonight!!!    

The thought passed my mind that it's not that slick but before that thought could pass I was break dancing and down I go hard.

Well, brace yourself... looks like next Monday through Thursday or so it is going to be below zero nights for us again. Don't know what you will end up with down there. After our bout of -20, with the wind and all, this one looks like a walk in the park.... Yesterday and today were 30+ and partly sunny- I darn near got a sunburn today walking around in my t-shirt. ( yeah, you go to hell for lyin', just as quick as you do for stealin'.)

 

I guess I wouldn't be anywhere near as rough on winter if I had a nice warm garage to go work in. Hopefully some day....

My 60 degree garage goes a long way to keep my winter attitude in check. Get lots of things done for spring, cars are usually all ready by April.

Guess you don't want to hear about the more coming today and maybe more on Sunday. My son had our drive cleaned last night so when I got home, loaded up tractor and hauled to my mom's. She has a steep gravel drive, if I don't keep it cleaned, snow gets compacted them turns to ice....not good. While I like the seat time on the tractor, I'm so done with the snow and ready for spring!

Weekend I don't mind it as much. We can get snowed in. Amy doesn't have to work and plenty of food in stock.

Reb Stew wrote:Weekend I don't mind it as much. We can get snowed in. Amy doesn't have to work and plenty of food in stock.

Plenty of food in stock is the key... we need some new appliances, and we are shopping our tails off looking for those that we can use or hook up "off the grid." Not that we are preppers, we aren't, but given the last few times we have lost power, and the length of time that went by without, it is tempting to have those appliances that don't have to have house voltage to operate. Now if I can figger out how to pump water with wind or solar and keep it from freezing, I'll be all set. Got lots of wind, and once in a while the sun shines a little. Went up near Lake Ontario today and got a weiand 3x2 flathead manifold, and along the way were 2 private windmills, approx 4' diameter, with a volute or "funnel" around to enhance a venturi effect. I'm gonna look into some of those.

I'm not a prepper either but I think I'm going to be more active with that next year. Chickens and rabbits. Solar and as you were talking wind. Where I sit on this hill I get wind all year round. I think the wind mills would work great up here. I also want to build an addition for a bigger pantry. I'm not worried about a nuke attack or anything but some times it's nice to not have to worry if the electric goes out for a day or two.

We've had ice here with a 9 day loss of power.... once in my 50 years. Not bad averages. But since our utility has been sold to an offshore, our outages are more frequent, and longer, and there is no right-of-way clearing being done. In fact, 2 poles a mile from here have trees leaning against them. I have called them and let them know, no activity on this. Also, they replaced our transformer on the pole from a 15 KVA to a 10KVA, and now when a motor kicks on, lights dim, and my wife's quilting machine shuts itself down from low voltage. Getting frustrating. European companies apparently don't like to maintain facilities and utilities, they like to maintain profits instead. Previous company was right on top of things.

Ironically, all the same people and trucks and equipment are doing the work, just the policies have changed.

Sorry to hear this. Sounds like it's time to get off the grid or close to it up there.

How about converting a car alternator to use on a wind turbine? Been looking into this.

I worked with a guy 25 years ago that used one of those big honkin Mopar alternators on a 40' lattice tower, powered by a big a$$ propeller. His installation was DC and ran off batteries. He had DC appliances, and banks of batteries he could switch back and forth to, and those items that had differing voltages he switched voltage manually to accomodate what he was running and using at different times. He had batteries that were decades old, some 6 V, some 12V, he had some I got for him form my grandfather who worked for ATT in Batavia- he got them out of a switching office, they were about 2 feet tall and a foot by a foot and a half rectangular. They were 2.3 V batteries and he got about 10 from me. Of course every cell in a car battery is 2.3 volts.

Anyway, this is an alternator system he used back then with great success, but it did involve a degree of skill and planning to run each appliance and whatnot. His wife couldn't run it, she had to wait to do certain things around the house till after he came home. He made it work for years, but as his age crept up, and the demands of managing his battery situation got beyond his abilities, he switched to 100% solar. I think a combination of wind and solar is the answer. Just need to get hold of an engineer cheap, and figger out what to do first without having to do anything over.

We called him "the Old Hippie."

A decent starter solar system begins at 10,000 dollars. I have been checking into it. I about choked when I found that out.

It aint cheep..... you really need to step up, make up your mind, and be ready for the commitment. That's why I'm still "non-amish" (sorry, couldn't help myself) We all are pretty spoiled when you come right down to it. Just seems there are so many things we would rather spend the money on. (or save it for) Speaking of saving, just got our interest statement for 2013 savings account. No reason to leave it in the bank knowing what we get for our dedication.

They are calling for 2 to 4 more inches tonight.

It must be dumping all the snow out down your way, when it gets here it's all snowed out. We get a dusting to a half inch, then the sun comes out and melts most of it away. We are supposed to get accumulating snow on Saturday. 3-6 inches I believe. But for the remainder of the week we are going to have below zero overnight, breezy with -15 to -25 windchill, and daily highs of 0 to 10. If it has to be that cold, I would rather there be snow covering the ground- at least the ground would be insulated from the extreme cold, and underground water lines wouldn't freeze. Plus it gives us something to shovel against the side of the buildings to keep the wind from blowing under them and freezing the water. Back in the 70's when it got really cold, I used to go out with my father on water thawing jobs- using the lincoln pipeliner on the back of his truck as the thawing machine. Sometimes you'd be hooked on ten minutes, sometimes you'd be hooked on for days. Never had one he couldn't thaw. Experiencing that process is much like watching paint dry.

I hope they are wrong as I am tired of winter now and ready for it to get warm but at least 2 more months to go.

I want a heated garage! I'm going stir crazy!

Ground Hog's Day is in another couple of weeks. You just have to keep the faith. LOL

That varmint better not see his shadow, or I'm gonna hunt him down and plug him full of lead! Punxsutawney ain't that far from me!