Rain

[TWO GUNS]

Finally got a little rain.
Got 8/10 of a inch, within a few hours. Every little bit helps. Been so dern dry.
Ground just took it up quickly.

Last year, this time, it was so wet, swamps were aready had as much water in them as it did after a full winter. It's either feast or famine down here.

Gators are still sunning good in the swamps.

 

[EastTexFrank]

Cool picture.

8/10ths wouldn't be bad if we could get it once a week. We did get about 3" just over a week ago but ever since it's been glorious 80 to 85 degree fall weather. I can stand all of this that the good Lord wants to send me.

 

[bczoom]

IIRC, the rain maps showed us in a less then average rainfall for the year. I still can't figure out how they came up with that. This is the first year that the yard didn't brown-out and the creek dried up.

 

[D&D Farm]

Rain??? We got a heavy sprinkle during the night. First moisture from the sky since back in early September and that all came in 10 minutes and ran right off.........Have had the pastures and woods covered with seed and fertilizer for going on a month now. Sure would be great to see some germination or growth..........Dennis

 

[bordercollie]

Glad to hear ya'll got some rain. We got about 1/4 " last week and about 1/10" this week . That's about it since July.So dry and no pastures for grazing this winter. I heard though that we in the Deep South have a good chance next week. About too late for pasture but maybe it will help some of the trees that are in distress and the animals .Praying for a mild winter and some soaking rains for all who need it. Bordercollie

 

[bczoom]

Hoping y'all get some rain if you need it.

Praying for a mild winter and some soaking rains for all who need it. Bordercollie

Pardon my ignorance and I do mean this in all sincerity, but what constitutes a "mild winter" in the deep south? We measure in terms of feet of snow and days below zero. What's your gauge(s)?

 

[Onfoot]

Rain is lovely after a long dry spell, to be sure. We don't get much rain, generally speaking. Most of our precipitation comes frozen.

 

[bordercollie]

I consider it much warmer I guess than our Northern friends have. A mild winter here is high temps in the low 50's and nothing below like 25 for long. When it is really cold like last winter,with days and nights below freezing for long streaks, I consider it a hard winter . With a hard winter we have to feed a whole lot of extra feed in order for the cows to have enough "fuel" to keep warm. They are sort of like a furnace. they can't produce heat with an empty stomach or milk for the calf. So when the temps are low, the feed bill goes way up .Bordercollie

 

[Onfoot]

It's 19 this morning. Going all the way up to 30 today. Won't be long before it will be more like down to -30 and up to -19. Suspect the cattle up here need a lot of calories through the winter. (And explains why there is no commercial dairy, I expect, though there are some beef ranchers.)

 

[bordercollie]

We once bought some registered cows from up North. One in particular had short ears and tail because of frostbite. We called her the princess cow- actually D40. We also got a few out of the bunch that would turn around backwards to cross the pipe carrying the electric fence wire at the gates. -very comical...The far Northern beef farmers must have hay out in the frigid weather- that is a huge help in keeping cows going. Bordercollie

 

[whatscookin]

Onfoot i gotta ask you some questions, and i thought southern Indiana was getting tuff in the winter, what do you do to your fuel for cold starting, what type of tires do you run and do you have a cab, super udt in the trans?

 

[Onfoot]

Frosty weather

Onfoot i gotta ask you some questions, and i thought southern Indiana was getting tuff in the winter, what do you do to your fuel for cold starting, what type of tires do you run and do you have a cab, super udt in the trans?

Hey, Whatscookin.

Good questions. Re. fuel, diesel (#2 stove oil) is sold in the winter with additives that are supposed to keep it flowing freely down to -48C (-54F). And it does get that cold here sometimes. (See attached pic of thermometer winter 2009.) I also typically add my own cold weather additive (sorry--cannot recall brand off top of my head, but widely used in Yukon).

Unless absolutely necessary, I don't use equipment outdoors when it reaches -40(F and C the same), as things tend to start breaking. But I have no problem being out in the -30's.

For cold weather starting, I plug it in for an hour or two before starting (cannot leave it plugged in all the time as I am off-grid and it would draw too much power). I have a block heater, an oil pan heater, a tranny heater and a battery blanket. So they warm up for a couple of hours before kicking her over. I have never had her miss a beat, even when approaching -40.

We do not have super UDT in Canada, only 'Premium UDT' which is rebranded PetroCan synthetic UDT--only more expensive. Or so I have been told.

I do not have a full cab. I do have a roof and windshield. There are other threads about this, but I like being able to get in and out without needing to worry about putting clothing on and off. I have winter gear that makes it fairly straightforward to be working outdoors as cold as it gets. Indeed, my favourite wood cutting and splitting temps are between about 10F and -15F.

My tires are the OEM worksite tires. Quite happy with them. Once snow is down for good I put on chains and have had no difficulties. The ATV tires do OK in snow, but are worse on ice than the worksite treads.

Hope that helps. Ask away!

Onfoot

 

[muleman RIP]

After 2 months of very dry conditions we are catching up on our rainfall. The fact that I had some excavating to do no doubt spurred this on. This morning temps are at 29 and the rain is a white coating about 1/2 inch but more on porches and cars.

 

[whatscookin]

Onfoot my hat is off to you or should i say my toboggan, i was raised on a farm that had lots of cows that had to be fed no matter the temp or snow and it does go below 0 here but not like you got it so sorta been there done that. While taking a lunch break at Subway there was a man and his wife there that had Alaska plates so i had to talk to him and the skin on his face seemed to be weathered\tough,very calm pleasnt man. Anyway my used RTV i just got has worn out ATV tires and i have found a dealer that must sell quite a few RTVes and has offered to sell me new take off rim and all tires for $70.00 per so i asked for a set of the atv type and now i see alot of pic of people pushing snow and now you say the worksite tires are fine. Can tell that tire would run longer smoother so now i feel like i should call him back and get the worksite tire, do not mean to jack the thread, Thanks.

 

[Onfoot]

Whatscookin--there is a thread about the pros and cons of different tires. Bottom line is that it really depends on the conditions in which you will be operating. In mud, ATV tires are more effective than Worksite tires. But worksite tires work very well in all other conditions. In snow it probably depends on the kind of snow--wet, dry, packed, loose, etc. With icy conditions, more rubber on the ground is better than less. So worksite will be better than ATV. Mind you, once we get a base of snow, I put chains on--but I would need to do that no matter what tires I was running.

 

[bordercollie]

We finally got enough rain to have mud puddles and run off into the ponds. I would have never believed it would be 4 months with out a real rain. anyway the grass is greening up -just in time for a frost which should be about this time for us here...but the longer off the better to give the pastures and trees a little catch up time. Thanks, Bordercollie

 

[Kanook]

No shortage of moisture in this part of Ontario this year...Not what you'd call soggy but sufficient and frequent enough that the lawn needed mowing every week....and so did the ones that I contract to do. Fortunately I price my grass cutting on a clip once a week but August and early Sept usually can get away with 10 days...Not this year however..Interesting that you southern folk have been so dry as they claim that the bulk of our rainy weather originates out of the Gulf of Mexico...Must just pass right over your heads..No snow yet but the Botas are anxious to get at it...

 

[bordercollie]

Yea it was weird, We never got a tropical depression/storm and that is usually what brings rain here for a few days in the summertime. It rained several inches in different places south of here but we only saw the clouds. Once we had lightening but no rain. Our row crop farmer neighbors joked "that someone around here must need to confess something" because we sat outside and watched a storm shower pass down the Big Black River and not a drop did we get. That High pressure area just wouldn't allow a storm of significance to muster anything but spot showers. We just got a taste of cool(66 for the high) today and a chance of scattered frost Friday night. Good Luck getting ready for the snow - I still have a few tomato plants with tomatoes but they won't ripen before it frosts, Bordercollie

 

[D&D Farm]

BC and Jamie.......what you guys missed......WE GOT....BIG TIME............have been putting off writing this as I am so depressed and upset and surely not to whine and moan. I really do thank GOD for His Grace and blessings in that nobody got hurt or no damage to structures in the storm HE sent this way...........

Monday morning at 5:55 while watching the TV weather about 3 orbiting clouds just to the SW on the other side of the ridge I hustled my wife under the stairs closet, not having time to get down to the bunker. It's seldom we EVER do something like this but in the dark with the wind pushing leaves/rain into the glass across the front of the A frame house and acorns sounding like a firefight on the metal roof it just seemed prudent to take some kind of cover...............

At first light went out and found:
When I say TREE I mean at least a 30" X 150' oak or hickory with the first fork/branch up perhaps 50' with an 18" fork branching...........

4 trees across our road........

6 trees down within 50 feet of the house

12 trees broken at the fork or just below and either hanging there waiting to fall, laying on the ground where they blew, or sprung leaning against the trunk........

God blessed us with NO real damage to structures...........It's kinda funny as my wife and I were finally finished with cutting/splitting/stacking 8 cords of wood and were commenting to ourselves several times about moving onto other chores.........NOW umpteen million cords to work on........

What is depressing is the lack of help from ANYONE.............what's the deal with folks???? Yes, the neighbors all have their share to take care of; but I am talking about friends, relatives, etc that KNOW the situation; but offer nothing.......NO, am not gonna call and beg/ask as if you know I have problems, if you really want to help, you step forward without me asking..................

Anyway, need to get rid of that bit of rant about NO HELP..........What is helpful is KNOWING that God helped us by: no REAL damage, good health even though old and slow, LOTS of good equipment to do the work (RTV, tractor, good chain saw, chain sharpener, industrial chipper), and just enough money/capital to pay off some guys named Jose to climb a few trees and get rid of widow makers so I can do ground work.............

THANKS for listening Guys.........Dennis

 

[bczoom]

Dennis

So sorry to hear about all your damage. Very glad to hear that nobody was hurt nor was there structure damage.

What did they say did it? Microburst?

That is really disappointing that people (friends in particular) didn't come forward to help. Thankfully, everyone around me does pitch in to help. After our last storm like what you encountered (ours was a microburst), all the neighbors and many of my friends came together, pooled our resources, triaged the neighborhood for what needed done then worked together to get it completed. Many hands made light work of it.