You wusses down in the lower 48 need a REAL snow removal machine!
Posted on 02/12/2010 4:03:04 AM PST by Kaslin
I'm the kind of person who always has candles, extra matches and batteries on hand, as well as canned goods in the pantry, in case of an emergency. But I was far from prepared for the Mid-Atlantic Blizzard of 2010. We lost power for almost five days -- which is bad enough if you live in a city, but if you're out in the middle of nowhere, as we are, it can be life-threatening.
Rural folks are usually better prepared than city people, but for those of us who are transplants, it's a challenge. With 35 inches or more of snow on the ground and an 89-year-old mother, a 20-year-old parrot, two dogs and a husband to try to keep warm and fed, I'm worn out. But I learned a few lessons along the way, and maybe next time, I'll be better prepared.
First lesson: Buy a generator. When electricity goes out, so does heat and well water, which requires a pump to get to your house. If you hook up a portable generator to run your furnace and pump, you'll be a lot more comfortable when the power fails.
Second lesson: Next time a guy comes to your door offering to sell you a cord of wood, take him up on it. Those Presto logs they sell at the store work OK to create a romantic mood, but they don't throw off much heat. And a box of them lasts for about a day if you're burning them 'round the clock.
Third lesson: Don't give away old books; they burn better than artificial logs. I was glad I had a few left-wing tomes to throw in the fireplace, along with my collection of reports from the Center for Immigration Studies. I'm not sure which threw off more hot air, but they kept us warm for a few hours.
Fourth lesson: You can heat your house with snow. Since I have a propane stovetop (though, unfortunately not oven) I was able to boil enough snow to keep a small portion of the house warm with steam, that is if you consider 50 degrees warm. You can also use the boiled snow for drinking and cooking. I made a pretty tasty pot of black-eyed peas and a mean chicken and wild rice soup with snow, though we had to be careful to avoid the twigs that found their way into the mix.
Fifth lesson: Don't count on the government to rescue you. After several days of no heat or water and food getting low, the Virginia Department of Transportation did manage to plow our country road to within two-tenths of a mile from our house; though, in the process, they blocked all access to our drive with a 6-foot mountain of snow. Thankfully, we were able to hire a private operator to dig us out with a Bobcat.
Sixth lesson: If you're finally able to get out, stay there. Once the Bobcat cleared our drive, we were able to pack up and leave in our four-wheel drive truck. We took mom to a hotel and the parrot to our son's house. But when the power company notified us that the electricity was back on, my husband and I headed home with the dogs. Bad idea.
Now, snow is falling again, the wind is howling at 50 miles per hour, the house still isn't warm, and who knows how long the power will stay on. But we'll tough it out. We bought more logs, filled up every pot in the house with water and stacked more books near the fireplace -- giving all new meaning to the phrase "burn after reading." I'm actually looking forward to the challenge now that the most vulnerable members of the household are safe and warm. But as soon as the snow melts, I'm headed to Home Depot to buy the biggest generator they sell.
Nothing like the 20 foot drifts that frequently engulfed my boyhood home, but nothing to sneeze at either.
DC snowfalls can kill!
Don't drop your car keys in the parking lot.
I think we’re better prepared in the country because we have to be. When widespread power outages happen, cities take priority and we’re left to dend for ourselves till utility companies get around to us.
Consider this God’s grace to teach us a lesson before the real $h1t hits the fan. The south had Katrina, back in December 2006 the northwest had a nasty storm which left metro areas without power and such for a week+ and now it seems it’s the east’s turn.
Remember these lessons and adjust accordingly. Always have a month if not more supply of food and water available. Have a plethora of everything else too. Live as if the grocery store would disappear tomorrow, and don’t forget to Trust in God!
The folks need to spend some time in VT.
I went two weeks a few years back after a February ice storm. The think that hurt me most was the fact that my utility pole was taken out by a tree so I was pretty much dead last on the list of priorities. A tree even broke the line from my propane tank to the house.
You wusses down in the lower 48 need a REAL snow removal machine!
And now for the rest of the story....
If you’re tired of anemic, one-lung snowblowers with their slipping drive belts, you might consider Kai Grundt’s V8 snow blower which raises the bar on the traditional snow blower in every respect. With electric start, electric block heater, antifreeze heater and eight cylinders, it has no drive belts to freeze up and you’ll never get bored with the job as the 454 cubic inch big block Chevrolet V8 produces 412 horsepower, 430 foot pounds of torque and can throw snow 50 feet at just 3500 rpm.
Nor will you get cold as the machine has been ingeniously designed to route the engine coolant through the handle bars, with the rear mounted, enclosed radiator keeping the operator nice and cozy.
Maneuvering the massive beast (it has a total wet weight of 912 lbs) is a breeze thanks to the hydraulic-drive 4WD skid steer on independent walking beams which offers a zero turning radius. It’s also as fast as you like, with an infinitely adjustable speed range on the drive wheels via dash mounted flow control. At the opposite end of the scale, it has more than enough torque to pull your car out of the ditch before the hydraulic motors stall!
Adding to the well-balanced feel of the unit, just 15 pounds of down force on the handlebars will lift the auger blade off the ground in order to climb stairs/walkways for ease of snow removal. Safety has and continues to be paramount with spring return to center “fail safe” type directional controls with emergency stop and tether cords.
Safety is one of the key theme, with a flashing blue light (as required by law in many areas) being the least of the safety features. No-one will fail to hear you with those twin throaty exhausts, which come standard with 92 decibels at the controls, though if the rumble of a V8 exhaust is music to your ears, you can obviously go much louder. Even at the standard baffling, hearing protection is strongly suggested.
The powerful yard machine lights and a dashboard with backlit gauges complete the package to ease the burden of this normally reviled task. The custom 42 inch, two stage auger has a Chevrolet 10 bolt truck differential with spool and a centrifugal auger clutch with shear pin protection, further adding to the image of this “automotive theme blower.” As each unit is custom-built, optional extras for the snow blower are both diverse and outrageous as the base unit - there is unlimited auger choices from single to multi stage designs and various motor combinations to suit the religious preferences of the customer (Chevy, Dodge Hemi, Ford) and such exotica as a V-10 or a diesel engine or remote starting can be accommodated. And if, after a while, you feel you’ve outgrown the 400 horses, this particular engine is well catered for in the performance modification area, with Lunati camshaft, Milodon Gear drive, Holley and Edelbrock components to name a few, and there’s always the fuel injection option too, if you feel you need to throw the snow out of the county or ensure your seat in the “neighborhood blower blingster hall of fame.”
I realize this is an insignificant question - but how and where are the clean-up crews planning to dump all those mountains of snow?
If the temperatures stay in the 30’s the piles of debris will not thaw for weeks.
Understand that Baltimore & DC are dumping snow in the Bay & rivers.
Additional suggestion:
The generators are a good idea, but take care of that in summer or
early fall...and get a good electrician to make connection to the
home wiring system. And buy big enough capacity on those generators
to power extra electricity-fed heaters and heated tape to keep the
water pipes from freezing/cracking.
Also...
Buy some Big Buddy propane heaters.
Along with the hosing that allows you to hook up those large propane
bottles used for outdoor grills.
They have low-oxygen and tip-over cutoffs.
And can be obtained at Cabellas or Bass Pro Shops.
The first year after my cousin married and moved to DC, there was a snowstorm. Cousin looked around for a shovel, but her husband (who had lived in the DC area for several ears before they were married) didn’t have one. Never needed it. So poor Cousin had to go around numerous stores looking for a shovel, but there were none to be had. At that time, stores didn’t stock too many of them, and what they had were gone as soon as one snowflake fell.
In my area the snow is being dumped in ballfields, empty lots, in whatever spaces they can find. I understand they won’t dump in the rivers because of fear that when all this stuff melts, we will have massive flooding on our hands.
I never cease to be amazed at people who attempt to buy things when they are needed instead of before they are needed. When you need it, so does everyone else.
I get my house in order for winter every fall. Firewood, generator check, fill tanks and treat the gas. If the electric goes out or we get snowed in we’ll be just fine.
ping
- 500 gal propane tank, propane central heat, propane hot water heater, propane fueled generator in the shed permanently wired into house through a switch
- large diesel tractor with scraper blade and front end loader, extra diesel
- four All Wheel Drive vehicles
- monster woodstove, wood fireplace
We still got caught with our pants down. We were low on propane when the storm started and the gas company has still not delivered after a week ! Lesson learned - get a second 500 gal tank and only use for emergencies. Also keep some wood around (my wife got tired of the mess 10 years ago).
And groceries. I can see that we can’t always stock up too much on milk and other perishables, but...toilet paper? Do these folks buy only one roll at a time?
After the brutal winter of 1976-1977, I learned to keep my house well stocked. I have lots of food in the freezer, plenty of cleaning products, paper products, canned and packaged food, etc. Whatever happens, I won’t starve. And I will have more than enough toilet paper.
FAIL!
“Fourth lesson: You can heat your house with snow.”
Um ... no
Remember latent heat of phase change?
The Calories aren’t lost, but they they are committed to TWO changes of phase, instead of heat.
While the higher humidity ma feel better, it ain’t ‘warmer’ than what the propane flame provided.
It always amazes me how people think if times really get tough they will just move into the country and grow everything they need and cook it on a wood stove just like their great grand parents did during the depression....like it will be the easiest thing in the world to do. Then a snow storm comes and cuts their power off for a few days.....
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