# Raging Blizzard!



## NDJollyMon (Aug 22, 2003)

Another blizzard is raging outside right now. We only got about 5 inches of new snow, but it's blowing 45 MPH sideways. Snow drifts in my driveway are about 3-4' deep. Looks like I'm trapped, all roads leading out are closed.

The beauty of it is...I'm trapped at home! (I have to work before first light) If the highway is still closed, I just stay home and get paid until it opens.

SNOW DAYS....I love 'em!









And how is YOUR WEATHER??? sunny


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## vdub (Jun 19, 2004)

Ours is great! sunny, highs in the upper 40's. Meeting Y-guy at the rv show tomorrow. Basically, stacking up to be a good weekend. Sorry to hear about your snow, but I've been there, done that.


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## hatcityhosehauler (Feb 13, 2004)

I wonder if your experienceing the Blizzard we are expected to get starting today. Weather guessers are predicting 12"-18" for us, with blowing snow, and gusts to 60 mph. Of course we don't get snow days. We are expected to get in, no matter what. That is what sick days are for. What will most likely happen is they will offer OT to anyone working days today, and staff the engines with 4 instead of our normal three (that's counting the officer). So I might get some OT tonight.









Tim


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## summergames84 (Mar 6, 2004)

Our high yesterday was 75 and supposed to be about the same today until a cold front comes in. Of course, a "cold front" in Houston is 34 degrees. We've already had our snow for the next 15 years this past Christmas.


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## shake1969 (Sep 21, 2004)

Was about the same here as Houston yesterday. Wind chill was about 72. Brrr.

S'posed to be 15 tonite, tho'.


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## the3latours (Jan 16, 2005)

NDJollyMon said:


> And how is YOUR WEATHER??? sunny
> [snapback]22026[/snapback]​


COLD!!!









Its already started misting, temp is dropping rapidly. Thank God hubby was motivated this am!! We winterized the camper first thing this am, started cleaning the inside (to our standards) and started putting a bit of stuff in (linens etc). The temp however has dropped already to a point where we wimpy georgians retreat inside and build a fire.
















Everybody keep warm and dream of the warm spring days around the corner!


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## Not Yet (Dec 13, 2004)

NDJollyMon said:


> And how is YOUR WEATHER??? sunny
> [snapback]22026[/snapback]​


Just got back from running a 10K race with my wife (shorts and T-shits) 
About 60 this morning at 0730, perfect running weather.









Jared


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## NDJollyMon (Aug 22, 2003)

Bummer. I made it to work!

Hat...
When blizzards rage up here, and the roads get bad...they close them, and you aren't getting through. They have gates that they lock, and you can't get any further down the road.

All other times, the Firefighters are EMERGENCY ESSENTIAL, and are required to get to work.


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## BigBadBrain (Aug 26, 2004)

Seattle - rain. Big surprise.

We miss the snow - I'm sure you don't want to hear that but after growing up with it, you kind of get used to FOUR seasons not two (wet and dry).


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## hatcityhosehauler (Feb 13, 2004)

Sometimes I forget that you guys get real blizzards, and not just the one or two a year 16" storms that we usually get. They usually call a state of emergency, and no one is allowed on the roads, except for "emergency essential" personnel, like you mentioned, fire/police/ems going to work, and some select others. Of course, nobody really enforces that rule.

I was correct this morning, when I predicted overtime. They hired back 7 of us for the night shift. Added a fourth to every engine, and put me and another guy in the department pickup (with plow). We make sure all 4 station ramps remain passable, and go on all multi-company responses as extra manpower. In addition, we can be special called for ems calls to assist in clearing the road for the ambulance.

It's going to be a long night.

Tim


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## dmbcfd (Sep 8, 2004)

Tim,
Why are you still awake at the wee hours? We now have 24" or more on the ground. It's hard to tell because the drifts are 48" in some spots and I can see grass in others. Lucky me, my office position means I have Sat & Sun off. I will get called in on a 2nd alarm in a support role, if I can get there. More time to shovel 200' of driveway. 
My snow blower, an Ariens 10 HP, died Thursday when the motor exploded.







That's right. A six inch diameter hole throught the side of the block. It's only 4 years old, but the dealer doesn't think Tecumseh will do anything for me.







He's pricing a new motor. I always thought Ariens and Tecumseh were the best. I have an ice auger with a 20 year old Tecumseh motor and it runs great. If the new motor is too expensive, I may try Toro or John Deere. Anyone have any snowblower experience. Which brands do you like?

Steve


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## vdub (Jun 19, 2004)

Did the dealer happen to say what might have caused that kind of damage? Sounds like it could have been an exciting time for a while.

I have two Kohlers and wonder why they are still running. One is on a '64 Cub Cadet and the other on a '68 John Deere 112. I treat them very poorly -- change the oil when "I think about it" instead of on a regular basis, don't warm them up before starting to plow snow or cut lawn, etc. Each is still very strong and starts right up. I wonder if a valve stem or something broke on your Tecumseh and got caught inside. So what's that little engine cost, about $800 or so?

All my snow removal stuff is old iron. Newest I have is the '68 112. My brother has a 3 year old John Deere lawn tractor and he said he paid too much for it. After buying it, he discovered that it was really a Scott painted green and having a John Deere decal. He said he could have had the equivalent Scott for a lot less money.

This is what I use for snow removal. Pics are in order of escalated determination. The first is the '68 JD 112, then the '50 JD MC, and finally a '54 Allis-Chalmers HD-5. You only get out the HD-5 when you want to move a lot of snow and have a whole lot of fun doing it. It has a 371 Detroit diesel in it. You can hear it running about 3 miles away when going full tilt, but it will sure move snow.


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## NDJollyMon (Aug 22, 2003)

I have a SEARS CRAFTSMAN, with tank tracks. It's not a huge model, but she's plenty big enough. Had it for years with no troubles. SEARS always stocks plenty of shear pins.


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## camping479 (Aug 27, 2003)

I've got an Ariens with a 7 horse tecumseh motor. I've had it three years and it starts up every time with not trouble.................so far









Mike


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## Snowman (Mar 7, 2004)

Honda 6h.p. hydrostatic w/tracks About 8 years old.
start,s on 2nd pull .
2002 Polaris ATV w/plow
















I LOVE WINTER!!!!
Paul


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## vdub (Jun 19, 2004)

My neighbor has a quad with a plow. Wish I had one. Those things look great and do an amazing amount of work. Not to mention fun in the summer.


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## NDJollyMon (Aug 22, 2003)

Mother Nature gave us a break!

It's 20 degrees F today! Break out the lawn chairs, and the 'barbie-Q!'


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## Thor (Apr 7, 2004)

No break for the guys north of the 49. Almost a week of temps at -26C not including the windchill. Even the dog does not want to go outside. Also snow lots of it 15cm one day followed by another 10cm the next.

My snowblower 12 hp dual stage that can really throw snow. Also have a blower attached for the riding mower but it is a pain in the a.. to setup. I used the snow blower for the 1st time to clear the skating rink. (I been been shovelling this by hand which takes about an hour). Gotta love winter. All this snow makes great skiing conditions









Thor


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## hurricaneplumber (Apr 12, 2004)

By Sat. we had about 10-12" of new snow, roughly 2" per hour.

Tim, I still managed to get to the hockey arena to watch the Jackals crunch the Trashers, gotta love the 4 wheel drive. I was amazed to see about 2500 other people there.

We now have another 4" or so, but now it is -9 this morning with nasty wind.

brrrrrr

Kevin


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## johnp (Mar 15, 2004)

We got 24" and a few wind gust to 60mph just to make it interesting.As usual the Ariens worked great. The governor asked to close everything today why I don't know the roads are clear. My Outback must have a force field around it there is no snow on it or within 2 feet of it







but I have 4' drifts everywhere.

John


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## mswalt (Sep 14, 2004)

You guys think y'all got it bad...............I was considering _mowing_ this weekend! There are a few bunches of grass, yes I mean green *grass*, standing up a little higher than I like. Will probably wait until this weekend though, to mow.









Gotta love Texas!

Mark


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## Reverie (Aug 9, 2004)

All we get is wind and the occasional ice storm. A true snowstorm is a once every four year event. I doubt anyone in Marietta actually owns a snowblower unless they transferred here with it.

Whenever I was stationed somewhere that got snow in any real quantity it seemed the summers were just as miserable. Of course here there are four seasons, some Golf, Golf, Golf All the Time, and Golf.

Reverie


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## dougdogs (Jul 31, 2004)

I have an 8 hp 12" auger Noma machine (electric start, lights) This is a picture of my driveway after a storm last year. This summer we removed a few of the trees on the right side, widened, and repaved the whole driveway. Yesterday's storm only brought us about 16"


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## Ymryl (Mar 2, 2004)

Like John, I figure we got 2 feet+. Hard to say exactly how much because the wind blew it all over the place. Some spots are totally bare and others have 4-6' drifts. And my Outback is also totally bare (really weird when you look out the window). I'm lucky, my next door neighbor has a Kubota tractor with a big snow thrower on it, I didn't even go outside yesterday, just sat in the window as he came down and did my driveway.
The highways were pretty much empty this morning as I drove to work (70 miles from North Smithfield to Tolland, CT). Mass. Pike was bare pavement, Rt. 84 was fine until I crossed the CT. line (where the left lane instantly became unpassable).


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## hatcityhosehauler (Feb 13, 2004)

In the end, I think we ended up with about 16", though with all the drifting (some up to 4'), I think it is hard to be sure. Wind chills have been in the minus teens, which is uncharacteristicly cold for here.



> Why are you still awake at the wee hours?


Steve, we were pretty busy Saturday night, Sunday morning. We had at least 4 or 5 sprinkler pipes burst do freezing. One of those was residential, and one was at the hospital, which caused somewhere between 20 and 100 million dollars. Flooded the ER, the lab, a computer room or two, and out patient radiology. We had companies there until 6 am.

In addition to that we had a small fire, and several EMS runs.

As far as snowblowers, my blower has a 5 hp Tecumseh on it, and I haven't had any problems with it.

Kevin, even the Eastern division first place team needs to lose once in a while.








UHL Standings









Tim


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## Central Mass Outbackers (Jun 13, 2004)

No idea exactly how much snow we got. As others have mentioned, there's bare ground in some spots, and 5 foot drifts in others (like the end of the driveway...). We're ready for some warmer weather now (like maybe above 20 degrees?). It was 12 below Saturday night, with 40-50mph winds. Not fit for man or beast, I'm afraid. Anyway, DH and the boys spent an hour or so snow-blowing yesterday with my grandfather's 1963 Ariens. Thank goodness, the thing still runs great.

Stay warm everybody, Spring's coming.

Sally


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## dmbcfd (Sep 8, 2004)

It sounds like everyone made it through the blizzards OK. Thanks for the input on the snowblowers. I've been talking with some of the local experts, and they all seem to agree that Ariens or Toro make the best. They both use Tecumseh motors which supposedly sets the standard for such things. According to one dealer,(not mine) if the machine is covered with snow when you put it away, the warm engine will melt some of it. If the garage or shed is not heated, that water runs into the carbeurator and freezes the throttle wide open. Overspeed is what killed mine in a matter of 30 seconds. I used my neighbor's Ariens which is the same model as mine, only 2 years younger. While I was using it, it started to run away, but I shut it down before any damage occurred. I thawed it out with a salamander for about 10 minutes and it has been fine ever since. I look at the sticker on the motor which says "winter engineered" and wonder where the engineers live. It must warm up after every snow storm there. The new motor should run about $600.







I guess that's cheaper than a new machine.

Steve


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## HootBob (Apr 26, 2004)

Well for us we only got 6-8" of snow on Saturday.
We have a Noma 5hp 22" about 11years old and work great.
But like using my Cub Cadet and plow it, But thinking of getting snow-thrower for
it someday.
We got about 2-3" today








So I guess we are very lucking right now!!!!!!
Don


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## Thor (Apr 7, 2004)

I think we need to start shipping all our snow blowers to the east coast. According to the news they got hammered and more to come.

Thor


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## NDJollyMon (Aug 22, 2003)

I warned you all about the BLIZZARD!  I think the rest of you got it worse than us! (too cold for a lot of snow most of the time) We are above average in total snow for the season though.

PS...warm front is coming!


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## mswalt (Sep 14, 2004)

Jolly,

You're getting a warm front; we're getting a cold front..........Supposed to be only in the mid to upper sixties tomorrow. About 74 now









Mark


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## GlenninTexas (Aug 11, 2004)

mswalt said:


> Jolly,
> 
> You're getting a warm front; we're getting a cold front..........Supposed to be only in the mid to upper sixties tomorrow. About 74 now
> 
> ...


Don't rub it in too much Mark, otherwise we'll have a bunch of those yankees moving down to Texas next summer!








Regards, Glenn


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## NDJollyMon (Aug 22, 2003)

[/quote]
Don't rub it in too much Mark, otherwise we'll have a bunch of those yankees moving down to Texas next summer! 
__________________________________

Been there, done that...









"As I approached the new fire station I'd be working in for the next 4 years, two old-timers were sitting on the front steps.

One says to the other, "Look o'er yonder! Here comes a TEXAS NIGHTMARE! 
A Yankee with a U-Haul."

True story.


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## dmbcfd (Sep 8, 2004)

Now they're saying another 5" to 8" of the fluffy white stuff tonight into tomorrow.
It's a balmy 23 degrees F now. Thursday is supposed to be -5 F. Thank goodness I don't have to cut the damn grass like you poor guys in Texas! I don't know how you do it!









I'm glad it finally got cool up here. I'm teaching an ice diving course this weekend, and we have to travel about an hour north into NH for decent ice. I'll see if I can post some pictures next week. If the Texans show the pics to their grass, it'll probably lay down and die and they won't have to cut it.









I hope I don't get a sunburn again. sunny

Steve


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## aplvlykat (Jan 25, 2004)

Ok you guy's up in the cold country are making me feel guilty. After the last rain storm it cleared up and has been in the upper 70's to low 80's. I too was out last weekend fixing sprinklers and watering the grass and yes it does need to be cut







, I guess it's time to send my boys out to get it done. Got to go, I forgot and let the bar-b-que on. Kirk


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## NDJollyMon (Aug 22, 2003)

The mere thought of ICE DIVING kinda freaks me out.

I love SCUBA, but I can't see myself ice diving. Heck, the water is cold enough up here in the Summer!


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## vdub (Jun 19, 2004)

I would love to see those ice diving pics. Vern has promised to take me diving when I come to Del Rio. Right, Vern?


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## Thor (Apr 7, 2004)

Ice diving. I have only done it once. I enjoyed it but do prefer diving shipwrecks in the Caymen's much better. There is something about diving and not wearing a wetsuit ......









Thor


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## mswalt (Sep 14, 2004)

Ice diving? Where do you plug in your electric suit heater? Or do you use batteries?









My hand gets pretty darn cold fishing around in the ice cube holder in the freezer! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Mark


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## NDJollyMon (Aug 22, 2003)

I guess I have been ice diving...

I fell through the ice while skating once, and fell in again another time saving my sister from drowning. (my very first save...age 12)

No SCUBA tanks, but I had on a wet suit. A wet snowmobile suit.


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## Paul_in_Ohio (Sep 29, 2004)

The temps in Ohio are diving. 5 degrees F. now and droping. Weatherman say could get into the negatives. Can't wait to see this month's gas bill!


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## dmbcfd (Sep 8, 2004)

Nice work Jolly! You were destined for firefighting.
Steve


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## dmbcfd (Sep 8, 2004)

Ice diving went well last weekend. I had 7 students when we started and 7 when we finished. I like it when that happens. Saturday we started at 0800 hauling gear and cutting the hole, it was -5 degrees F. It got up to about 10 degrees when we made the first dive. The hole started to refreeze before we got in. We had beautiful clear weather but only 6 feet of vis below







. Ice was 11 inches thick with about 12 inches of snow. There is talk in local ice diving circles about a pond in Plymouth with 50 foot vis. Maybe in a couple weeks I'll get over there.

The pics are coming. I am barely able to start an album, so Lisa (DW) will have to make the pics fit and upload them later for me. Check my album in a few days.

Steve


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## NDJollyMon (Aug 22, 2003)

Cool. Are you loading them in the OUTBACKERS GALLERY, or do you have another site?


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## Thor (Apr 7, 2004)

Can't wait to see the pics!!!

Thor


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## BigBadBrain (Aug 26, 2004)

Do you dive with a dry suit? Seems that even with a wetsuit it would be too cold. I don't know much about scuba - I managed to finish skin diving class but never made the leap to scuba.

BBB


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## hatcityhosehauler (Feb 13, 2004)

The closest I've ever come to ice diving, or wearing a wet suit for that matter is the cold water/ice rescue dry suits we use. They are nice, and as long as there is no leaks, you do stay dry. Of course there is only one way to find a leak, and there is not much money in the budget to repair those.

Tim


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## summergames84 (Mar 6, 2004)

The closest I've come to ice diving is I think once I used a glass of ice water at a restaurant to wash my hands. Brrrr, it was cold.


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## Paul_in_Ohio (Sep 29, 2004)

Ice Diving - isn't that when you have to dig the last of the cold beer out of the cooler after some newbe put all the warm beers on top???


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## NDJollyMon (Aug 22, 2003)

SCUBA diving in my favorite Minnesota lake is like ice diving...
Even in July or August you can't stand going below 30 ft. It's just too cold for a wetsuit. We have little contests to see who can stay under the thermocline the longest. I don't win often.

My last dive was in CURACAO (next to ARUBA & BONAIRE) Nice & warm down there. However, I was bitten by creatures 9 times in that one hour dive. Fish are quite aggressive when you have dead fish with you. I was hand feeding shark & sea turtles in a lagoon.


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## dmbcfd (Sep 8, 2004)

The pics are in the outbackers gallery, dmbcfd's gallery. I hope you enjoy them.

BBB, yes, I do wear a dry suit. I have gone once in a wet suit.......ONCE. When training students, I have to escort them on every dive, for their safety. Each one makes 3 dives to get certified, so I spend a long time in the water. Each dive lasts about 15 or 20 minutes. I take 1 or 2 at a time.

Jolly, thermoclines are cool. One of my coworkers is a firefighter in the Air National Guard. He got activated about a month ago and will spend the next 4 months in Curacao. He does not dive.......yet. My boss is in Aruba now, a 3 week vacation. We went to Bonaire in '93, before kids.

Tim, I know what you mean about those suits and leak testing. I usually throw a ladder guy in one for that job. They always leak in the crotch for some reason.

Steve


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## Thor (Apr 7, 2004)

Warmer weather at last sunny . I actually took the kids outdoors to go skating and we did not freeze are you know whats off!!!







High of -2C









Thor


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## NDJollyMon (Aug 22, 2003)

dmbcfd said:


> They always leak in the crotch for some reason.[snapback]22699[/snapback]​


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## dmbcfd (Sep 8, 2004)

I mean the suits leak in the crotch, not the ladder guys........

Well, I guess I could mean them, too.









Steve


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## hatcityhosehauler (Feb 13, 2004)

> I mean the suits leak in the crotch, not the ladder guys........
> 
> Well, I guess I could mean them, too. devil2.gif


I see you've met our truckies.









Tim


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