Snowmageddon?

Grab your shovel and swing by the house. I need to be at the firehouse by 5:30.

At least they're lifting the driving ban this afternoon.

I was supposed to move this weekend. Ain't happening. Fortunately I have a month of overlap between the places, so I've already rescheduled the trailer rental for next weekend.

The good news is I've extracted my car, and I can now make it to the Mardi Gras party tonight that I was going to totally miss because I was supposed to be moving.

White_and_Nerdy wrote: At least they're lifting the driving ban this afternoon. I was supposed to move this weekend. Ain't happening. Fortunately I have a month of overlap between the places, so I've already rescheduled the trailer rental for next weekend. The good news is I've extracted my car, and I can now make it to the Mardi Gras party tonight that I was going to totally miss because I was supposed to be moving.

A driving ban????? That has to be the dumbest thing I ever heard. The only time I've seen enough snow not to drive, I could not even get out the driveway, so what's the point?

My parents are in western CT, got 18-20 inches. They're in their 70s and still insist on hand-shoveling their long, steep driveway. Call it 125'x15' + 20'x30' garage apron. They're both very, very insistent that they shovel it - plows would rip it up, and snow blowers are lazy, noisy, and a sign of moral decay.

I just got a phone call from their next door neighbor - her husband was showing my dad how to use their snowblower on my parents driveway!

Hell has apparently frozen over.

Keith Tanner wrote:

Lesley wrote: I've been stuck in Chicago since Thursday night, my flight home cancelled. Arrived at the airport this morning only to find this flight cancelled too, and no chance of getting home til late Sunday or early Monday. Just exhausted, I slipped, gashed my head on the counter and knocked myself out for a couple of seconds. Lovely people at Air Canada managed to squeeze me on the next flight home. Just hoping all the numbnuts stay out of my way on the drive home from the airport, apparently there were several feet of snow last night.

That seems like an extreme way to get on a flight, but after a couple of days in an airport I'd probably do the same.

Pushy broad, isn't she?

Hope your noggin is ok.

Took me 3.5 hours to do my driveway with the 8 hp 26" toro. Time for MORE POWER!

The town couldn't get a plow truck down my street so they sent a 624 deere wheel loader to clear the road first, then they sent the chained up plow truck. It was fun watching the big wheel loader get stuck about 6 times doing just a little bit of road.

Town needs Katy.

Damn, sounds like y'all are having some fun. We haven't seen snow that burly in MN in like 20 some years.

peter wrote: Hell has apparently frozen over.

I think it came up to take a look and decided to exit stage left.

5 hours later and everything is clear. My 9hp sears snow blower worked like a champ. I found that I had to tilt it up so the top of the auger opening was at the top of the snow. This left 6 inches of snow under it but using this method I could make continuous passes in 2nd gear and move the bulk of it. I then came back and get the 6 inches I missed but I could hit that in 3rd or 4th gear.

We have snow banks taller than me. The roads are like tunnels. My neighbor and I cleared a good section of the road because the plows could not get through due to an abandoned car. We dug out the car and almost immediately the local police and a tow truck showed up to pull it away. My neighbor opened the door and found the keys on the visor and immediately moved the car to my driveway. The tow truck operator was a little P.Oed but the car belongs to a neighbor and the officer actually lives down the street as well. We gave the tow truck driver a 6 pack of Sam Adams. This made him happy again. The neighbor came ad got the car about 20 minutes later.

Other than that the kids are having a blast. My dog is completely confused and my arms feel like they are going to fall off after all that vibration from the snow blower. I think it is time to fire up the BBQ and open a cold one.

The farmer that leases my land came over and plowed my driveway, so I was able to get to work on time. 44 people called in sick on my shift

I'm not sure what we got here (15 min Northeast of Danbury, CT), but it was a decent amount (1" below the top of the snowblower - I'll measure it later). Drifts were much higher, many were mid-thigh to waist high. We have a 275' long driveway, a pretty long (and wide) walk, and a large deck. Between the three of them, I was out this morning at 8AM, took a 1/2 hour break to eat around 11:30 AM, and then got in around 3:30 PM. I'm whooped!

I'm very thankful for my 9HP, 28" Craftsman snowblower. Our driveway would have taken several days to shovel without it! Also very thankful this hit on a weekend, so I didn't have to take time off from work to deal with everything!

Hope everyone's doing OK!

How well do full-size trucks with plows work with this much snow (say 18")? I've always considered getting a plow for our truck to do our driveway. It's basically 275' long, slopes gently downhill, and it would be fine to just push the snow down to the bottom of the driveway. As I was clearing my driveway, I was wondering if a plow truck could move all this snow. I was marking 8-10" wide passes using my 9HP, 28" wide snowblower. Any more than that, and I could hear the engine working hard.

For most storms, I think the plow would work very well and would save a bunch of time. This one I'm not sure about...

I don't know about deep snow like that BUT- think of it like this- take you maybe 10min to run that driveway with it, do it multiple times through the snow with no problems, still be out less time than 1 good snow blow.

Just got power back. I don't know our average snow totals, but some drifts are clear over an M3 in front of my building. Where I parked my van, however, is almost clean. All the wind blew the snow clean off of the van and the surrounding area. no snow even blown under it.

fidelity101 wrote: We only got about 4-5" here in Detroit, its kind of flurrying right now but not really... I fear for up north because if they get 6-10 inches there will not be ice racing this weekend because they cant plow :(

who can't plow 6-10 inche ?. Piece of cake. Our track is plowed and we are ready to go racing.

Got about 1 foot over in W. Michigan. Too cold for it to pack up.

well, there was a snow building competition today....

In reply to fanfoy:

The driving ban has actually helped get the roads cleared much sooner than in the past years. Think of how many morons are forced off the road. Makes the plows & emergency personnels job much easier when they aren't inconvienced by some fool that needed a pack of smokes from 7/11, or needed a snack, etc.

This is what the parking lot at work looked like around 4:30am:

I was scheduled to get out of work at 1am and head to a nearby hotel, but the snow drifts were too tall and I barely drove 20ft in the Eclipse before it got stuck and I had put it back in its parking space. Even the full-sized trucks were struggling to make their way out. When the plows came through it only took 30-45 minutes to accumulate another 5in of snow in the parking lot. Visibility was nil until sunup.

dj06482 wrote: How well do full-size trucks with plows work with this much snow (say 18")? I've always considered getting a plow for our truck to do our driveway. It's basically 275' long, slopes gently downhill, and it would be fine to just push the snow down to the bottom of the driveway. As I was clearing my driveway, I was wondering if a plow truck could move all this snow. I was marking 8-10" wide passes using my 9HP, 28" wide snowblower. Any more than that, and I could hear the engine working hard. For most storms, I think the plow would work very well and would save a bunch of time. This one I'm not sure about...

The best thing to do is to plow a few times if you can. It's alot easier on the truck to plow 6 inches three times than to do 18 inches all at once. Once to much snow piles up ahead of the plow you will just spin your wheels trying to move it.

As far as the driving ban I wish they would do that in NY. Far too many idiots go out and clog up the streets making it almost impossible to get the streets cleared properly.

Not the worst storm I have experienced here in south-eastern, MA but it sure does suck. I was out all night driving in the E36 M3. Driving on roads at 3 am that I drive everyday was interesting to say the least. I couldn't see much beyond 10 feet or so in front of my van. on Mmany occasions I had no idea where I was, and that was driving on my own road.The wind in downtown Plymouth was brutal coming off the water.

The worst part of it all aside from having no power, and no sign of utility workers in my area is the fact that my snowblower is not working. I was able to clean up the end of my driveway at 3-4 am so I could get the van off the street, but this morning when I went out to do the rest of it the mighty Husqvarna wouldn't throw the snow. Turns out I have never changed the belt, and it is stretched/worn out to the point where it won't spit the auger or the ejector wheel. I couldn't find the user manual, so I looked it up on my fancy smart phone, and it looks to be a real bitch to replace the belts. Of course I need to find the belts first, but with no power in the whole region it seem unlikely that will happen anytime soon. I guess I have to take the auger assembly, and chute off the front of the machine to get to the belts!! I had the bottom off of it today trying to figure things out before downloading the manual, but it didn't appear possible any other way.

6+ hours of shoveling my really large driveway suck really bad, especially after not getting much sleep. I didn't even get the whole driveway cleaned up, and had a friend come by to scoop outt the big stuff. Of course he said he would be right over at 10 am this morning, but didn't show till 7pm after I had most of it done. Man I miss my snowblower!!!

Went out this evening with the family to go have a shower at one of my offices a few towns away that has facilities for such activity only to find that the whole town there had power and the local McDonalds was open. Not what my wife and I wanted, but it was warm, and we were hungry. The kids were thrilled. Ran into a whole crew of IBEW line workers from Syracuse,Rochester, and Buffalo there as well. I hop they come to my town, but I bet they don't!! My wife, and kids are at my parents house which also is lacking in the power department, but they have a wood stove, so at the very least they will be warm tonight. I'm back at work, and not sure if I am heading to my parents afterwards or back to sleep in the cold house. At least it would be in my own bed, and not on the floor, but it sure is cold there.

Wally wrote:

dj06482 wrote: How well do full-size trucks with plows work with this much snow (say 18")? I've always considered getting a plow for our truck to do our driveway. It's basically 275' long, slopes gently downhill, and it would be fine to just push the snow down to the bottom of the driveway. As I was clearing my driveway, I was wondering if a plow truck could move all this snow. I was marking 8-10" wide passes using my 9HP, 28" wide snowblower. Any more than that, and I could hear the engine working hard. For most storms, I think the plow would work very well and would save a bunch of time. This one I'm not sure about...

The best thing to do is to plow a few times if you can. It's alot easier on the truck to plow 6 inches three times than to do 18 inches all at once. Once to much snow piles up ahead of the plow you will just spin your wheels trying to move it. As far as the driving ban I wish they would do that in NY. Far too many idiots go out and clog up the streets making it almost impossible to get the streets cleared properly.

You angle the plow, and you can pretty much push anything. I've had a jeep cj with a plow as well as a full size dodge ram. In the big storms you just have to be careful, about the piles you make. The piles compress and freeze over time, so you won't be able to move them. So with early storms you have to push the piles way back. If you push too far, the plow gets surrounded by snow on the back side of it. Then the plow becomes an anchor, and life can suck after that point. I use an atv plow now. It's not really up to the task for the biggest storms, so I have to be plowing before it hits twelve inches to avoid misery. The type of snow does matter. In Vermont we get a lot of heavy wet stuff on the edges off winter. 8 inches of that is misery.

Ohh god, the "Your roof is going to collapse" hysteria has started again.

These were taken late Saturday morning when things started to calm down a bit. Driveway & front lawn got a dusting that required no shoveling or plowing. 30" total in Quincy, the snow drifts are what made things no fun. Florist shop wasn't happy to find that I closed their gate Friday when they left. They've been shoveling all morning. There is a bar on the other side of the gate & the 2 has already been scraped by either them or a drunk. Wasn't chancing their plow hitting something.

My neighbor's Matrix.

Back of the driveway, somewhere on the left is a BMW.

Got the 2 out.

Found the BMW, just barely make out the rear tire. She will remain buried.