The new campfire thread...ooooh purrrrty!!!!!!

[mandy]

I almost forgot about this thread.

[Fenlason]

You forgot us????

[Fenlason]

Our temps are a little above freezing.. so the snow is settling a little. They have also altered the amount of incoming snow.. in the downward direction. It has occasional snowed a little today.. but nothing to speak of yet.

[toypusher]

Ello

Hey there stranger! Very nice to see ya again (of course I see you all the time on FB)!

Gonna be in the low 30s all day and breezy with winds of 15 - 20 mph.

It is TOOTH EXTRACTION day for me. Have an appointment at 11 this morning to have my number 19 tooth removed because it had a root canal years and years ago and now has an infection around the bottom of it. I will get a bridge in there sometime over the next several months. Have to get rid of the infection though.

[Fenlason]

Sorry about the tooth.

We only received 3" of snow…. Some places got another 12" but not here. The storm had moved further out to sea below us.. and moved through quicker. I like snow.. but we have a lot of fresh on the snow.. and have had a lot of clean up. Our driving isn't very safe.. snowbanks and all… parking lots are tight.

We still have a bit of clean up here. I have some of my driveway to clear.. and some roofs yet to shovel. That will wait until tomorrow. I have an appointment for the van.. inspection and a recall.. I will head to the shop and do other in town stuff while out.

[mandy]

You forgot us????

[mandy]

Ello

Hey there stranger! Very nice to see ya again (of course I see you all the time on FB)!

Gonna be in the low 30s all day and breezy with winds of 15 - 20 mph.

It is TOOTH EXTRACTION day for me. Have an appointment at 11 this morning to have my number 19 tooth removed because it had a root canal years and years ago and now has an infection around the bottom of it. I will get a bridge in there sometime over the next several months. Have to get rid of the infection though.

Hello Kerry! Ouch that does sound fun. I hope you feel better soon.

[mandy]

Sorry about the tooth.

We only received 3" of snow…. Some places got another 12" but not here. The storm had moved further out to sea below us.. and moved through quicker. I like snow.. but we have a lot of fresh on the snow.. and have had a lot of clean up. Our driving isn't very safe.. snowbanks and all… parking lots are tight.

We still have a bit of clean up here. I have some of my driveway to clear.. and some roofs yet to shovel. That will wait until tomorrow. I have an appointment for the van.. inspection and a recall.. I will head to the shop and do other in town stuff while out.

Your going to hate me Glenn but todays high temp is in the 60's and we have full sunshine.

[mandy]

Good to see this place is still going.

[Fenlason]

Sorry about the tooth.

We only received 3" of snow…. Some places got another 12" but not here. The storm had moved further out to sea below us.. and moved through quicker. I like snow.. but we have a lot of fresh on the snow.. and have had a lot of clean up. Our driving isn't very safe.. snowbanks and all… parking lots are tight.

We still have a bit of clean up here. I have some of my driveway to clear.. and some roofs yet to shovel. That will wait until tomorrow. I have an appointment for the van.. inspection and a recall.. I will head to the shop and do other in town stuff while out.

Your going to hate me Glenn but todays high temp is in the 60's and we have full sunshine.

Hate you? Never. We had temps in the lower 30's and some sun… and for what we have had recently.. that felt pretty good. Man is there a lot of snow out there… Some roads have only partial lanes… in towns.. man it's bad. I thought I was fairly good in my van.. I am pretty high up… but there are places the banks are 10-12 feet tall.

I was in town most of the day.. actually at the shop a good part of it.. waiting for my van appointment. That went well. I like that the dealership makes an appointment for the vehicles annual inspection [for the sticker] and calls you about it. They give you a bit of notice.. in case the time doesn't work for you. They called about the appointment.. mentioned the outstanding recall. They also don't charge to inspect a vehicle purchased from them.

I did get stuck getting back in the driveway. Some of the snow is semi packed.. Laurie can drive on it well… my van being heavier…. going too slow [up a hill] tried so scoop it away.. and to make it worse.. there is ice under the packed snow. It also slid enough I could not back, back down to try again [without hitting the trees lining the driveway] Ok next up.. maybe I can pull it with the tractor.. except I could find anything under the front to hook it too. [I will have to look into that] Ok.. next?? Hmmm at one point I had some traction aids you stick under the drive wheels. I have not used them in many years.. where are they??? It took a little while.. but I found them. It took maybe 5 or 6 times of using them.. but they worked pretty good.. and I did get up.

Laurie will be home shortly.. and we will do a bkool ride or 2..

[Fenlason]

I just found out our Bkool shop race is tonight. I might not have ridden so hard last night if I had known that.

I did have a good ride last night. No warm up.. so that start wasn't all that fast.. but once into it I was able to crank fairly well. It also seemed to be a type of course I do well on. It was a gently rolling one. I tend to like those even better than flat courses.. for there are all these little goals.. and one can use some moment.. have places to semi rest a couple of seconds.

Our shop is currently in the lead.. but since you earn some points for just finishing.. some of the other bigger shops could catch us pretty easily.

We are to have sun.. and temps in the 20's.. maybe 30's.

I will be working on more snow removal….

[Nobody]

Glenn (fenlason), reading your description of your weather makes me happy that I'm in Arkansas where our temps seldom drop into even the low 20s. We do occasionally have some icy weather to contend with (sleet, freezing rain, etc.) but it usually doesn't last long & can be dealt with as long as folks act sensible (not a guarantee in this part of the world ). I find that the older I get the less I like or can tolerate cold, nasty weather. I've never liked it (especially when stationed in North Dakota, Greenland, Alaska, etc.,) but in my younger days I could successfully deal with it. Now I don't even try. I hibernate by the furnace when that kind of weather occurs

[Fenlason]

Glenn (fenlason), reading your description of your weather makes me happy that I'm in Arkansas where our temps seldom drop into even the low 20s. We do occasionally have some icy weather to contend with (sleet, freezing rain, etc.) but it usually doesn't last long & can be dealt with as long as folks act sensible (not a guarantee in this part of the world ). I find that the older I get the less I like or can tolerate cold, nasty weather. I've never liked it (especially when stationed in North Dakota, Greenland, Alaska, etc.,) but in my younger days I could successfully deal with it. Now I don't even try. I hibernate by the furnace when that kind of weather occurs

Hi Harvey: I used to really love winter.. for I really like playing in the snow.. and admired it's beauty. As I am getting older.. I am finding I am a little more hesitant of the cold. Where I can't ski or snowshoe right now.. it's leaving me with less opportunities to play in it.

At times the snow feels overwhelming. We have places here that received just under 6 feet of snow in 10 days.. most of that over a 3 day period. It gets so hard to keep up with it. This is maybe the worst batch we have had since the 60's and some of the 70's.

Most of my clean up… hasn't been too bad… because of drifting I have had to clean almost 6 feet of snow off my deck in the last week or so.. that got to be a little tough.. much of it mentally.. clean off 2 feet one day.. and wake up the next day with another 3 feet.

In our current forecast we have temps into the 30's.. and some sun.. and not any real snow.

[Fenlason]

Yesterday was in interesting day. I got some clean up done. I cleared off some snow off the upper sunroom roof, off the deck.. the entrance porch to the bike shop.. the house.. and worked on the driveway. Laurie got home early.. and we worked on one of the barn roofs. Out of 5 roofs.. only 3 are particularly bad. We got one of those cleared. My back is semi tweaked.. but I didn't think it was from shoveling. [it hurt before today] As soon as I got on the tractor.. I realized. It is from driving the tractor backwards all those many hours. My blower in on the back of the tractor.. and I have to twist a bit sideways to snowblow.

Anyways.. we were clearing the roof.. and I needed a break.. and headed inside.. I got inside just as my neighbor sent me a message. He asked if I was here.. that he really needed some help. I wrote back saying yes.. what do you need. It showed him writing back.. but then the message never came in. So I grabbed Laurie and went up… and then I couldn't find him. Driving up I saw a snowmobile abandoned on the hill in one of his fields.. so I thought it was stuck. I got up there… and the snowmobile looked like it had been there a while and there were no visible foot prints around it. [Although the wind was blowing a bit] So I look in the barn.. upstairs.. downstairs in the new shop… in the chicken barn.. in the sap house.. Laurie checks in the house.... and his wife is there and she has no idea where he is.. She sees the snowmobile up on the hill and says he is by it but not moving!! My eyes aren't the best, but I didn't see anything.. but I walk on out to it [in the deep snow] NOTHING. So I go back to every place we looked before and looked more carefully in case he was unresponsive or something.. still nothing.. his wife is in a real panic.. and asks if she should call 911.. which gives me the idea to call him. She does… and gets him. He is out on his other snowmobile and is stuck. We are told he is at the Bridge to nowhere.. one of the few landmarks we both no exactly where we mean. So we walk out. I should have gone back home for my snowshoes.. but the bridge isn't that far out. Well it was up the hill quite a ways from that bridge. It was a long slow painful slog walking out. We did each grab shovels.. Laurie got there before I and she shoveled. He is somewhat handicapped from a bad car accident years ago.. he doesn't walk that well.. and a hand also doesn't really work. I guess even being whole.. one would have a hard time trying to push the machine out.. while operating the throttle. Once there it did not take us much to get it out. From there he was going to continue straight.. for it is less hilly that way.. and he would have come to a trail with maybe some sled traffic.. and a plowed logging road. Laurie suggested we follow him. I said there is no way I can walk all that. I was sinking in a LOT.. and it is wicked painful on my knees.

I turned back.. she followed him. [He did get stuck again] He had gotten so cold he could barely function. He had gotten stuck previously.. and had spent a couple of hours trying to get unstuck from where we found him. Fortunately it wasn't all that cold out… but even 30 degrees with a bit of wind.. when you are wet and tired.. isn't good.

I got back in time to get ready for my BKool race.. no real rush.. I could comfortably change and such.. but I did not have much time for a good warm up. My legs were also so tired.. and I wasn't sure if I did the warm up I needed.. would end up tiring me out. It was a pretty short race.. and we had more people this time.. but that made for a little more hectic race. Bill took off hard. I was next.. but I was not able to hang with him.. another caught and passed me.. chasing Bill. A 3rd… closed in on me. He he got close and we both worked it.. he would close.. and then I would slowly pull away.. and he would close again. It showed him less than a second back at one point, but never close enough to draft off from me. I did eventually slowly and steadily increase my lead.. to around 30 seconds. That gave us 1st and 3rd. I am not sure if they give points for women separately but she was the first woman. So in the overall points for the series we have increased our lead.

[Fenlason]

Saturday Morning we went to look at one of these.

I had been thinking about them for maybe a year. At the time the closest dealer was in Michigan. The outfit was looking for more dealers.. so I approached the place where have purchased a lot of small equipment to see if they were interested. They ended up not being interested.. but I did find out there was a new dealer 50 or so minutes away.

So anyways we went to look, and ended up purchasing it. They have been a dealer for a week.. and we were their first sale.

Once finally home.. I of course had to take it for a test run.. and it had a hard time in all the snow. It had warmed up.. so now the snow was wet and heavy. We do have a lot of snow.. and many of the snowmobiles and groomers have not been able to go out either.

This morning It was down around 20 so I tried it again. It did go a bit better.. but still not wonderful yet. One of the problems in DEEP snow.. is the sled is wider than the machine.. so it ends up plowing a bit of snow. The sled is made just big enough for the machine to nest inside it. For hauling in a vehicle.. and easier loading and unloading. I did take the seat out. {It is a quick release set up} I adjusted the handbars..to fit better for standing in the sled. Standing helped with the leverage of trying to steer in the deep snow.. and it did end up with the weight further back in the sled.. to help a little. [I will end up making or purchasing something narrower for it.]

In the deep heavy snow.. especially where the consistancy was "weird". The machine has a tendency to lean to the side.. and leaned over to the side.. causes it too turn that direction.. and once leaned over hard.. it is tough to bring back.

I did get brave and try to ride over to Lee's.. down over the hill.. and then I have a steep uphill to get to one of his back fields. It did bog down part way up. Although once stuck.. it doesn't take that much to get it going again. Laurie packed down just a couple of feet of snow in front of it [with snowshoes.. and I get out of the sled.. sometimes actually unhooking the sled.

With less severe snow.. I think it will work out well… but take trails areas that have had no packing or grooming yet this year.. and take some near record snow… makes for difficult going.

We did make it over to Lee's.. and visited there a little bit. His little trouble in the snow Friday.. really scared him. He was in trouble.. and new there was no way he could have gotten out of it alone.

At our local xc skiing center.. they were having a free skis day and a fat bike demo day today.. our clubs and the shop were there.. so we headed over also. We did each ride a little… hang out with friends.. and assist new people in trying bikes out.

We got up to the lower 50's today.. with sun [at around 11:00.. ) It did cloud up.. get breezy.. and cool to the lower 40's We are supposed to have some fairly mild temps over the next few day.