The Stovebolt Site Forums The Side Lot Great Lakes Bolters How y'all handling the snow / cold?

Nothing yet (snow). This is one time I hope they are right. What they promised early on has changed to rain and cold.

Got 8 inches, more on the way. Birds are happy and well fed.

We got a little bit of snow last night, but nothing like you Guitplayer.
I'm already looking forward to Spring!

--Tom

Rain and cold and to get colder.

Naw, it was only -16F this morning. Could have been -35F like in a normal year LOL.

That is just plain PAINFUL.

I can't handle it Peggy, it is cold and wet. It is 37F and will not be any warmer the rest of the week, and there is rain.

El Nino certainly gave us a mixed bag this year. No snow in December and warm, below zero 2nd week of January, now the 6 - 8 inches of snow are melting due to warm rain, we will see 40 degrees here this week. We might be ice fishing in June!

Now that's funny!

At our "UP NORTH" cottage near Alpena, Michigan, 20 years ago I removed the old fuel oil furnace in preparation for installing a new unit. It was the 4th of July weekend, typically one of the busy warm "lake" holidays. It was so cold that weekend we had to have a fire going in the fireplace to stay warm. We aren't in control of the weather, I'm glad for that 'cuz we would make a mess of it.

The big concern now here is flooding. 27 inches of snow and now easing up the 40 degrees
and above freezing at night. With no end in sight.
Ive pushed up the snow to get vehicles in/out. That acts like a dam now.
Its odd , even for around here. Doubt there will much ice for fishing.(not that I would). Green Lake did not freeze at all
last year and won`t this year.

I don't know how people stand the weather up north. Over the years I only had one outside job and that was selling new cars at a Dodge dealer. And only one time that the weather almost and I say almost shut us down. We did have two guys come in from 20 miles away and I asked how can I help you, and the answer was we were looking around.

Anyone suffering from the winter blues come north to southern Ontario, I had 1 light snow fall that I cleared with a leaf blower.
I was wondering where all the snow went to, I guess you all got it.
Thanks

John

We sure didn't get much here, west-northwest of Detroit. I haven't checked but total so far this winter we probably didn't get 12 inches. I like winter, I like the seasons, I think I would get kinda' bored in Florida or southern California. As a kid, we were outside all year long, bicycles in the snow ,etc. I had to resort to riding my motorcycle one winter in high school, and another winter in Denver after my new 1974 GMC went over the side of a mountain. Heck, I even had the Harley out a couple of time in December.

No snow makes for not so good water table level come thaw.
We noted today that the ground has not completely frozen .
So the melt is not running off .
I am a Pioneer Floridian. Dont ask me why I am here(Wi) ,other than the deer hunting.
I did get tired of sweating my you know what off down there.

You can come over to our neck of the woods, southern Michigan has a deer problem, over-population. I can set my watch by the small herd that uses our property as a safe haven, morning and evening they cross our back pasture. This past spring a fawn of maybe two weeks age came up to me, sniffed me, once it figured out I wasn't mom, he shot back into the tree line.

Is it getting better? Came across a few more "snow pix" from days gone by. These we used these (and many others) over the years when we updated the Home page on a regular basis (several times in a month). You "Legacy Bolters" may recognize some. Figured you may enjoy them either way.

Had 7-8 inches on the ground a week ago, all gone now, apparently we aren't going to have a real winter this year. My wife is happy though, she can let the chickens free range.

I appreciate the good that snow does but there are a lot of people that either can't or won't adjust to the weather. The worst storm we had here was in 1978 and I was driving a 1970 Chevy half-ton with a full set of the Sears Michelin radials. I worked at Sears at the time and since I made it to work they had me go back out and pick up essential personnel. When I got back to the store they had gotten a call from Chicago to close up and go home. To show how ridiculous people can be, over the police radio we could hear a lady insisting that the police go get her son and bring him home. I got a call in appliance from a lady to bring her a clothes washer because hers had broken. Of course, I said no because the drifts in her out-of-town location were six feet high.

7:30 am here in Michigan, same in Indiana, looks like you're getting the same snow we are right now. Only calling for a couple of inches. I had snowplows on three of my Gm trucks starting in 1974, still have one in the barn that I'm considering mounting on the '57 LCF, wouldn't be very good for parking lots and small areas but for my 350-foot driveway it would be just fine. I don't want to try to modify it to fit my 2011 2500HD

78, one of our great snow memories (and we've had many), was when we were at the farm and our Mennonite neighbors hitched up their Blonde Belgians to a v-shape plow and cleared the heavy stuff from our dirt roads. The horses looked beautiful and seemed to be happy. When we turned our team out from the barn, they went galloping thru the fields rollicking in the snow, carefree and in high-spirits.

Sorry no pix readily available. I think most of them our in our "picture trunk." But here at least is a picture of our lane.

I miss our horses also, we only had 2 at a time but several pairs. Not draft horses though. GOD made them to survive the weather, ours were free to roam our property and could decide when they wanted the protection of the run-ins, they preferred to be out in the pastures even if they couldn't graze, covered with snow and their winter long coats.

The Belgins were actually in a run-in shed. They shared a field with the Mennonite drafts. Their drafts went in the barn at night. We *invited* all the drafts to our backfield on a regular basis since we had lot of grass to share. Less for us to mow. We started our draft experience when John and our daughter went to a class at the Kentucky Horse Park in Kentucky (Farming with Drafts). We had had saddle horses up to this point. From the cold cold in IN and KY, we got stationed in Hawaii. There were drafts there, too. But no snow. haha

I have a draft horse story. I worked for a friend of the family for several years starting in high school in the early '70's. He was a hard worker and decided to treat himself to a hobby, he bought a team of Belgians and started gathering stuff to go to local parades, trailer for a show wagon, show harness, etc. This was back in the early 80's and he already had a 70's IH straight truck that he would haul cattle from local livestock auctions. He would load the horses in the cattle truck and trailer the show wagon behind. Anyway, he eventually had 8 Belgians and 2 show wagons, and an early rubber-tired horse drawn manure spreader that he used to give the teams a good workout. He typically would hitch 4 horses for the parades. I had already started working for the local Budweiser distributor by the time he was heavy into the shows. The Budweiser Clydesdales were in town at the University of Michigan for promotional propaganda and as an employee for the distributor I had a little extra leeway for getting into events. My ex-boss was a dyed in the wool Budweiser guy and along with the draft horse interest he was able to strike up a friendship with the team drivers. While they were in town they offered to let him drive the Budweiser Hitch, he declined but never forgot the huge opportunity. I did a lot of odd jobs for him through the years, restored the manure spreader, did some paint work on the IH truck, etc. He and my dad were high school friends and after both of them came home from the NAVY they stayed friends to the end, my mom and his wife were the best of friends, like a second set of parents to me when I was young. I learned a lot from all of them, be honest, dependable, work hard. They were THE GREATEST GENERATION!

We've set a new record for seasonal snowfall here in the Anchorage area (over 100 inches for the season so far,) and I'm getting pretty tired of clearing the driveway. The piles on each side are tall enough that the snowblower won't throw it over the pile. That means I have to manually shovel the snow after getting it close to the sides. I'm thinking of getting my snowshoes on and climbing up on top to tamp down the piles, or at least shovel the tops off.
We got just over a foot Sunday night, followed by a couple more inches on Monday night.

I just gotta SEE that much snow. And you in it! Please.

It over 40 degrees here!!! With no cold in sight.
I feel like rolling out the 59.
I did wake up the 58.

Just for you Peggy. I'm 6'-3" for comparison.
Current temp is minus 10F, so I didn't spend a lot of time out there.
In the last pic, that's my '51 chassis in front of the F250, which I haven't cleared off since the last storm.

Wow. That is GREAT fort material. Never ever saw that much snow. Barry Weeks use to talk (and send pix) of plowing 40" .. Those temps are sad. The comparison shot helps a lot. Man, Kevin - you are tall!

FWIW... Peggy mentioned our boys in the snow. During inclement weather (snow or freezing rain), I would *usually* leave the gate to the run in shed open so they could decide for themselves where they wanted to be. I remember trying to round them up for dinner in a raging blizzard -- I found them standing together,seemingly content. Their butts were to the wind, however. Anyway, they usually preferred being out in it. We had one nasty bit of weather that I cooped them up in the run in shed, though.

Our boys were our second (and last) team of Belgians. Jerry was right at 20 hands and about 2,700 lbs. Dom was two inches shorter and about 100 lbs less. I got them from the Kentucky Horse Park when they were retired. When I worked at the park, I had been Jerry's groom in the "5-Breed" show and demonstration hitch. We had 3 on the wheel and two leaders. The wheelers were the big guys -- Jerry (Belgian), a Shire and a Percheron. The two smaller guys were the lead team -- the Clydesdale and a Suffolk Punch. Jerry was the largest horse at the Kentucky Horse Park so it was always fun to take him to the daily "Parade of Breeds" and we'd show him standing next to a miniature horse. I was in a LOT of pictures. I also worked the Park's Show Hitch -- a 6-horse Percheron team. We had a Budweiser hitch and the Southern States hitch visit the park from time to time and it was always fun to work with those guys.

While we've been here in Maryland, I have friends for a long time with the gent who owns the Clydesdale Team representing Budweiser in the greater Washington, D.C. area. I helped train one of his earlier teams when he was just starting out and helped train his son (who does most of the hitch driving). It was fun taking him from 2 to 4 horses.

Driving big teams is exhausting so I've always just preferred to drive a pair. My Mennonite neighbors put me on a 6-abreast team once. They were pulling a modern 6-row seeder on a power cart (PTO and hydraulics). THAT was a handful -- I had to drive the team AND run the power cart AND control the seeder ... It took about a full acre to turn. And on that team, I was only controlling the two center horses ... In a turn, one end of the team was almost walking backwards while the other end was at a trot. It was fun ... for about 15 minutes.

Here's Dom and Jerry. They've gone on to the big pasture in the sky.

Good looking old nags!