Archive through January 28, 2014

[digger]

45 minutes ago it was 0,

 

[dfrisk]

CHRIS E. - For the first time in 12+ yrs, the county didn't put up snow fence across the road from our house. With the snow last weekend, and wind Sunday night & Monday early AM, Our Mailbox "Disappeared" in 5-6 feet of snow, the typical plow trucks just bury it deeper, even the CAT grader with the wing can't dig it out. The "Right tool for the job" is their 544H endloader.

I called the County Highway Superintendent Friday @ 10:05 AM, by 10:45 the truck showed up, by 11:05 the endloader was there, about 11:15 I saw my mailbox for the first time all week. They both stayed till Noon. The end loader pushed the snow back onto the end rows of the corn field on top of the 6 ft tall bank for about 500 feet.

I could have dug my mailbox out with a switch from the blade to the bucket with my #1 snow mover, done that years ago a couple times, but it's hard to beat a machine with 4 times the HP, 4WD, and 20 times the break-out lifting force! of my loader & tractor. I can't pile snow in the cornfield... I've tried.

They tried to use the angled blade several years ago on the frt of the grader to push back snow around my mailbox. Think it was a Volvo grader then, all four rear drive tires got on snow & ice, the blade got hooked on a drift and the grader sat there for almost an hour waiting for a truck to come and pull him out. No way could anything I have move a 40,000+# grader on snow or ice.

We're supposed to get another small snow Tuesday, 2-4 inches, then Friday night & Saturday a "BIG ONE" may hit us or just miss us, South of the IL/WI border, TOM's area, was in the 18-24 inch zone according to the NWS yesterday afternoon, we were in the 12 to 18 inch zone. Think I'll buy some more snow moving gas this afternoon before the game.

 

[cengelking]

Denny, I don't think a lot of county's had time to put snowfence up this year. The weather just got too bad too early. We have none up down here either. On your mailbox, aleast you still have it. It's not out in a field somewhere cause it was hit. We run 4 loaders with plow, 13 tandems, 5 1tons, and 16 pick-ups. Most of the fleet is Fords with fisher plows on them. The tandems are being relaced with Internationals. This is our fleet.

 

[elincoln]

Anybody ice fishing in Minnesota? So how thick is the ice. My uncle said he has augered thru 44 inches on lake Mil Laces.

 

[proessler]

Denny . You got good service. I always told the public , calls/ complaints would get response faster if they'd call in than I 'd get going through the lower channel s of red tape. Was your contact Shawn O. ? We'd take that Volvo with one way or Vplow & cut path out in the field to make a Snow fence about 20 steps from R/W. These type of storms will show where snow fence should be up! !
ON our road , we've had a Blade winging back .The best job of winging
this year , since I left.

 

[dfrisk]

PAUL - Think his name was Dean or Don Olson that I talked to. He said, "No Promises, may be tomorrow, maybe Monday before we can get to you." I was shocked when the first truck was here in 45 minutes.

I was very happy, and so was the mail man. We were getting a pretty good pile of mail he would have to bring back every day.

Would have taken me probably two hours just to dig the mailbox out.

In years past, the County would put up snow fence whether the corn ground was chisel plowed or not, just as long as it was combined. This year the neighbor chisel plowed from about 6 AM till long after Midnight, even before the neighbor on MY side of the road started combining corn. The corn across the road was planted 3-4 weeks earlier than anything else around. But I suspect that when they put snow fence up, drag the fence & steel posts out, get the trucks & end loader out to drive the posts, they want to put it ALL up at one time.

The short stretch of Cty T we live on west of Cty N drifts really bad too, up to the little farm w/white house & red barns. Even drifts north on N sometimes too.

And I also agree, the cty seems to be winging the snow back farther this year than any other year I remember. With all the little snows, cold weather, and wind, hasn't been an easy year on drivers or equipment by any means.

CHRIS - I have had to retrieve the mailbox out of the corn field before, get the magazines & bills out of it, then lugger the mangled mess of what's left of the mailbox. If the arm the box sits on is O-K, I'll get a new mailbox and install it. If the post in the ground is cracked or split, I'll "SPLINT" it if I can, otherwise Paul's former co-workers will set me a new post. In my opinion that great service. And I'd sure never call and complain about my mailbox getting hit. Though I did a couple years ago when the school bus tried to turn around in my driveway and knocked the mailbox over backing out into the road. I called the bus company, seems it was the owner or manager I was talking to who was driving the bus. He sent a mechanic to straighten my mailbox. I asked the manager, "How long have you been driving anyhow? Why didn't you BACK in my drive and pull out so you could see traffic coming!". I don't think he liked my suggestion! It was just my 40+ yrs experience of driving trucks 40 to 70 feet long that was curious.

 

[digger]

Edward L.
If your uncle got 44", he did it real close to the shoreline.
Mille Lacs rarely goes over 2ft. to 3ft. thick.
Right now it's less than 17" overall.

 

[elincoln]

My uncle was born in 1927 and worked at Honeywell gold plating electrical parts. 2 of my uncles had cabins up at Bowstring lake for many years.

 

[digger]

You know it's freakin bad when we're colder than International falls!!!!!

 

[jbaker]

Almost makes my 4 degrees feel warm