On 1/28/2015 2:02 PM, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 1/28/15 9:43 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/28/2015 7:40 AM, Poquito Loco wrote:
On Tue, 27 Jan 2015 19:45:10 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 1/27/2015 6:55 PM, Wayne.B wrote:

On Tue, 27 Jan 2015 17:53:35 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:


The Nor'easter that hit the east coast is finally starting to wind
down
here in MA. We officially received 24 inches of snow in our area
near Plymouth although I don't know how they could possibly
measure it
and it's still snowing although not as heavily.


===

Glad to hear you're OK there. I understand from the news that
Nantucket got hammered pretty badly.



It was quite a storm, one that we'll be talking about for a few years.
It was bad here but there are others who got it a lot worse. Nantucket
is pretty much without power and the winds are still near or at
hurricane strength so the power companies can't do much. Temps out
there are supposed to go to single digits tonight.

My only problem was a sheet of ice on parts of the driveway. We had a
smaller storm a few days ago that put about 4" of snow down before
changing to rain, saturating the snow. Then the temps dropped well
below freezing and it all froze solid. As a result I could plow the
half of the driveway that is pretty much a straight shot to the road
because I could get up some speed and push the 4' drifts. But up by
the house where I had to start and stop the truck just didn't have
enough traction due to the base ice layer. Got stuck in snow drifts
twice. Finally gave up with the truck and used the tractor to scoop
and dump. It was still snowing heavy so I was soaked and frozen.

Lots of cleanup plowing, shoveling and tractoring to do tomorrow.
Right now I feel like this:

http://tinyurl.com/nzwrdc9


That's gotta be a bitch. Damn, your driveway's damn near as long as
Harry's!

Good luck with it.



As of last evening we had a total snowfall of 24" but it kept snowing
until about 2am adding another 4". Too much for the truck to handle,
despite it's best efforts. Just came in to warm up. Been out since 6am
with the tractor, picking and dumping. Almost done but still have
another section to clear. I have no idea how long Harry's driveway is.
Ours is a total of just over 1,000 feet. At 16 feet wide, that's 16,000
square feet of 24" snow that has to be moved.


Scituate (where I originally kept the boats) and Marshfield got
clobbered with flooding. The sea walls caved and four feet of sea water
with gigantic waves made their way into people's houses and businesses.


Arrgh. That's a lotta snow.

When we first moved here, ours was for several winter months the only
house on our private road. So, it was 120' approximately from our garage
door to the private road, 200' along the private road to a circular area
whose ownership was still hazy, and another 100 feet or so to the county
road.

So, that first winter I had to pay twice, I think, for a plow guy to do
our driveway, the private road from our driveway to the traffic circle,
through the traffic circle and then, finally, to the county road, which
the county plowed. We had, in effect, a 400-500' driveway that had to be
plowed. $200 a pop back then.

What a pain in the ass that all was.


One of the reasons I bought a plow for my truck was that I figured I
could save on the cost of having the driveway plowed and I could do
it when I wanted it to be done and not at the schedule of the
contractor. They plowed whenever it snowed ... even if it was only 3
inches ... and charged the same.

Ok. I'll be honest. I also figured it would be fun. That was several
years ago. Not so much fun anymore.

I originally wanted to get a small, lightweight plow but was advised
to get something heavier duty. I was going to get the smaller "Snow
Dog" stainless plow but Snow Dog would not give a warranty because
my truck is a F-250 Super Duty. They go by the weight of the truck
versus the weight of the plow and said the truck was too much for the
smaller plow. So, I ended up with their big, commercial duty model.
Never had any problems with it.

Overall it has worked out but this storm dumped more
snow that a pickup truck can easily handle. If I had plowed every
2 hours it might have been ok but I waited too long between the first
plowing and the second. It also gets to a point where there's no place
for the snow to go with your plow angled. You are trying to push it into
a 4' pile of previously plowed snow. Finally had to resort to the John
Deere tractor. I have piles of snow that are 8-9 feet high on the sides
of the driveway where we park.

On 1/28/15 4:32 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/28/2015 2:02 PM, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 1/28/15 9:43 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/28/2015 7:40 AM, Poquito Loco wrote:
On Tue, 27 Jan 2015 19:45:10 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 1/27/2015 6:55 PM, Wayne.B wrote:

On Tue, 27 Jan 2015 17:53:35 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"

wrote:


The Nor'easter that hit the east coast is finally starting to wind
down
here in MA. We officially received 24 inches of snow in our area
near Plymouth although I don't know how they could possibly
measure it
and it's still snowing although not as heavily.


===

Glad to hear you're OK there. I understand from the news that
Nantucket got hammered pretty badly.



It was quite a storm, one that we'll be talking about for a few years.
It was bad here but there are others who got it a lot worse.
Nantucket
is pretty much without power and the winds are still near or at
hurricane strength so the power companies can't do much. Temps out
there are supposed to go to single digits tonight.

My only problem was a sheet of ice on parts of the driveway. We had a
smaller storm a few days ago that put about 4" of snow down before
changing to rain, saturating the snow. Then the temps dropped well
below freezing and it all froze solid. As a result I could plow the
half of the driveway that is pretty much a straight shot to the road
because I could get up some speed and push the 4' drifts. But up by
the house where I had to start and stop the truck just didn't have
enough traction due to the base ice layer. Got stuck in snow drifts
twice. Finally gave up with the truck and used the tractor to scoop
and dump. It was still snowing heavy so I was soaked and frozen.

Lots of cleanup plowing, shoveling and tractoring to do tomorrow.
Right now I feel like this:

http://tinyurl.com/nzwrdc9


That's gotta be a bitch. Damn, your driveway's damn near as long as
Harry's!

Good luck with it.



As of last evening we had a total snowfall of 24" but it kept snowing
until about 2am adding another 4". Too much for the truck to handle,
despite it's best efforts. Just came in to warm up. Been out since 6am
with the tractor, picking and dumping. Almost done but still have
another section to clear. I have no idea how long Harry's driveway is.
Ours is a total of just over 1,000 feet. At 16 feet wide, that's 16,000
square feet of 24" snow that has to be moved.


Scituate (where I originally kept the boats) and Marshfield got
clobbered with flooding. The sea walls caved and four feet of sea water
with gigantic waves made their way into people's houses and businesses.


Arrgh. That's a lotta snow.

When we first moved here, ours was for several winter months the only
house on our private road. So, it was 120' approximately from our garage
door to the private road, 200' along the private road to a circular area
whose ownership was still hazy, and another 100 feet or so to the county
road.

So, that first winter I had to pay twice, I think, for a plow guy to do
our driveway, the private road from our driveway to the traffic circle,
through the traffic circle and then, finally, to the county road, which
the county plowed. We had, in effect, a 400-500' driveway that had to be
plowed. $200 a pop back then.

What a pain in the ass that all was.


One of the reasons I bought a plow for my truck was that I figured I
could save on the cost of having the driveway plowed and I could do
it when I wanted it to be done and not at the schedule of the
contractor. They plowed whenever it snowed ... even if it was only 3
inches ... and charged the same.

Ok. I'll be honest. I also figured it would be fun. That was several
years ago. Not so much fun anymore.

I originally wanted to get a small, lightweight plow but was advised
to get something heavier duty. I was going to get the smaller "Snow
Dog" stainless plow but Snow Dog would not give a warranty because
my truck is a F-250 Super Duty. They go by the weight of the truck
versus the weight of the plow and said the truck was too much for the
smaller plow. So, I ended up with their big, commercial duty model.
Never had any problems with it.

Overall it has worked out but this storm dumped more
snow that a pickup truck can easily handle. If I had plowed every
2 hours it might have been ok but I waited too long between the first
plowing and the second. It also gets to a point where there's no place
for the snow to go with your plow angled. You are trying to push it into
a 4' pile of previously plowed snow. Finally had to resort to the John
Deere tractor. I have piles of snow that are 8-9 feet high on the sides
of the driveway where we park.



It is funny, but I don't remember lots of huge snowstorms when I was
growing up in New Haven. We had lots of snowstorms, but usually no more
than 12-15 inches at a time. When I was old enough, I'd take my dad's
jeep with the plow and make some $$$ doing driveways. I think I charged
$25 to $35 for regular-sized driveways.

Do you remember the big hill on Fountain that ran up to Woodbridge? I
was coming down in the jeep once when a car stopped dead halfway down
the hill. I had chains on all four wheels but I couldn't stop the jeep.
I slammed into the back of the car and the plow crushed the car. The
woman driver got out and apologized for stopping short halfway down. She
wanted to know if my plow was damaged. It wasn't.

--
Proud to be a Liberal.

On Wed, 28 Jan 2015 16:32:27 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

It also gets to a point where there's no place
for the snow to go with your plow angled. You are trying to push it into
a 4' pile of previously plowed snow. Finally had to resort to the John
Deere tractor. I have piles of snow that are 8-9 feet high on the sides
of the driveway where we park.

===

I grew up in a lake effect snow belt region of upstate NY and that
sort of thing was common place. My old home town averages over 300
inches of snow per year. By mid winter the city would be using pay
loaders to put the snow in dump trucks so they could haul it away. The
snow banks along the streets were so high that people would put red
flags on their car antennas so that people could see them coming at
intersections.

We had one storm when I was a kid that left a snow drift in the back
yard as high as the garage roof. My brother and I spent the better
part of an afternoon digging a snow cave in the drift since the
schools were closed and there wasn't much else to do. Towards the end
we had a good sized cave and then we ran into something hard in the
snow at the bottom. When we dug further it turned out to be the top
of the picket fence.

On 1/28/2015 4:50 PM, Keyser Söze wrote:

On 1/28/15 4:32 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:


Overall it has worked out but this storm dumped more
snow that a pickup truck can easily handle. If I had plowed every
2 hours it might have been ok but I waited too long between the first
plowing and the second. It also gets to a point where there's no place
for the snow to go with your plow angled. You are trying to push it into
a 4' pile of previously plowed snow. Finally had to resort to the John
Deere tractor. I have piles of snow that are 8-9 feet high on the sides
of the driveway where we park.



It is funny, but I don't remember lots of huge snowstorms when I was
growing up in New Haven. We had lots of snowstorms, but usually no more
than 12-15 inches at a time. When I was old enough, I'd take my dad's
jeep with the plow and make some $$$ doing driveways. I think I charged
$25 to $35 for regular-sized driveways.

Do you remember the big hill on Fountain that ran up to Woodbridge? I
was coming down in the jeep once when a car stopped dead halfway down
the hill. I had chains on all four wheels but I couldn't stop the jeep.
I slammed into the back of the car and the plow crushed the car. The
woman driver got out and apologized for stopping short halfway down. She
wanted to know if my plow was damaged. It wasn't.


I remember that hill.

One thing I am always concerned about is having the airbags go off if
you hit a snow bank too hard. They mention something about it in the
truck's owner's manual but I think the plow package option may prevent
it from happening. I've hit banks pretty hard, mostly at the end of the
driveway where you try to mound up a lot of snow but I always make sure
the plow is in "float" mode. It allows the plow to just rise up on the
snow bank.

On 1/28/2015 5:00 PM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Wed, 28 Jan 2015 16:32:27 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

It also gets to a point where there's no place
for the snow to go with your plow angled. You are trying to push it into
a 4' pile of previously plowed snow. Finally had to resort to the John
Deere tractor. I have piles of snow that are 8-9 feet high on the sides
of the driveway where we park.

===

I grew up in a lake effect snow belt region of upstate NY and that
sort of thing was common place. My old home town averages over 300
inches of snow per year. By mid winter the city would be using pay
loaders to put the snow in dump trucks so they could haul it away. The
snow banks along the streets were so high that people would put red
flags on their car antennas so that people could see them coming at
intersections.

We had one storm when I was a kid that left a snow drift in the back
yard as high as the garage roof. My brother and I spent the better
part of an afternoon digging a snow cave in the drift since the
schools were closed and there wasn't much else to do. Towards the end
we had a good sized cave and then we ran into something hard in the
snow at the bottom. When we dug further it turned out to be the top
of the picket fence.



I once spent a week on a day trip to Rochester, NY. Crazy place for snow.

I guess you know you are getting old when your daughter sends her two,
strapping teenaged boys over to the house to shovel walkways and steps.
They also shoveled paths for the dogs in the back yard. Look like
WWII bunkers. Sam Adams and Fudge are big dogs but look funny as hell
following the paths and all you can see are their tails. Big adventure
for them.

"Mr. Luddite" wrote:
On 1/28/2015 4:50 PM, Keyser Söze wrote:

On 1/28/15 4:32 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:


Overall it has worked out but this storm dumped more
snow that a pickup truck can easily handle. If I had plowed every
2 hours it might have been ok but I waited too long between the first
plowing and the second. It also gets to a point where there's no place
for the snow to go with your plow angled. You are trying to push it into
a 4' pile of previously plowed snow. Finally had to resort to the John
Deere tractor. I have piles of snow that are 8-9 feet high on the sides
of the driveway where we park.



It is funny, but I don't remember lots of huge snowstorms when I was
growing up in New Haven. We had lots of snowstorms, but usually no more
than 12-15 inches at a time. When I was old enough, I'd take my dad's
jeep with the plow and make some $$$ doing driveways. I think I charged
$25 to $35 for regular-sized driveways.

Do you remember the big hill on Fountain that ran up to Woodbridge? I
was coming down in the jeep once when a car stopped dead halfway down
the hill. I had chains on all four wheels but I couldn't stop the jeep.
I slammed into the back of the car and the plow crushed the car. The
woman driver got out and apologized for stopping short halfway down. She
wanted to know if my plow was damaged. It wasn't.


I remember that hill.

One thing I am always concerned about is having the airbags go off if you
hit a snow bank too hard. They mention something about it in the truck's
owner's manual but I think the plow package option may prevent it from
happening. I've hit banks pretty hard, mostly at the end of the driveway
where you try to mound up a lot of snow but I always make sure the plow
is in "float" mode. It allows the plow to just rise up on the snow bank.

Not a worry on our jeep. We didn't even have seat belts. And the heater
sucked. 😀
--
Sent from my iPhone 6+

On Wed, 28 Jan 2015 17:13:41 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 1/28/2015 5:00 PM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Wed, 28 Jan 2015 16:32:27 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

It also gets to a point where there's no place
for the snow to go with your plow angled. You are trying to push it into
a 4' pile of previously plowed snow. Finally had to resort to the John
Deere tractor. I have piles of snow that are 8-9 feet high on the sides
of the driveway where we park.

===

I grew up in a lake effect snow belt region of upstate NY and that
sort of thing was common place. My old home town averages over 300
inches of snow per year. By mid winter the city would be using pay
loaders to put the snow in dump trucks so they could haul it away. The
snow banks along the streets were so high that people would put red
flags on their car antennas so that people could see them coming at
intersections.

We had one storm when I was a kid that left a snow drift in the back
yard as high as the garage roof. My brother and I spent the better
part of an afternoon digging a snow cave in the drift since the
schools were closed and there wasn't much else to do. Towards the end
we had a good sized cave and then we ran into something hard in the
snow at the bottom. When we dug further it turned out to be the top
of the picket fence.



I once spent a week on a day trip to Rochester, NY. Crazy place for snow.

I guess you know you are getting old when your daughter sends her two,
strapping teenaged boys over to the house to shovel walkways and steps.
They also shoveled paths for the dogs in the back yard. Look like
WWII bunkers. Sam Adams and Fudge are big dogs but look funny as hell
following the paths and all you can see are their tails. Big adventure
for them.



===

I was about 50 miles east of Rochester and squarely in the snow belt
region just south of Lake Ontario. The towns right on the lake can
be interesting also. The lake freezes over by mid winter with very
thick ice but as soon as you get a nor'westerly gale the ice gets
pushed ashore into huge mounds which look like you are in the artic
ocean.