Winter Where You Are!!

[GCroyle]

BIG,

That's a lot of Paul Bunyan toothpicks to plant and put wire on for sure.

Yeah getting a workout, two man cross cut, I just checked on mine its a Stihl MS290. Splitting, yeah (son) Jake hit that one right THERE and it'll go for sure. BIG I split a lot of the current pile but this new pile of Willow Oak http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_phellos is a challenge. Jake has a big set of city shoulders, not farm hardened but still strong. He hit it with our heavy maul, nothing. Got out the wedges, took two wedges and a full weight sledge to get one in half. Look at the difference between the clean splitting oak vs the torn fibers of the willow. And that was a clear section, no limbs coming out of it. Big difference, might get a hyd splitter to keep me intact.

But if you want to load your cross cut and axe, com'on over, I'll save it for ya.

Gary

 

[BIGNASTY]

Gary in So Calif the wind was really bad where our house was, at the bottom of a Pass. Long ago the citrus and grape farmers planted Eucalyptus trees as wind breaks there were literately miles upon miles of them on both sides on long stretches of roads. Some of these had to be around 200ft tall and maybe 5ft across at the trunk. AND BIGGER!!

I never even tried to saw thru one of those without using an old Commercial Homelite the bar is 36" long I still have this beast its heavy, its hard to handle, its one bad A** chainsaw that had better buck on you or you could loose an appendage NO QUESTIONS ASKED!! and the saw wouldn't have a noticeable change in RPM while doing it. When we moved here FIL and BIL said its time to cut some wood for winter. They pulled out these little bitty POS chainsaws, I started to laugh and told them let me get a REAL chainsaw. They still wont touch the Homelite they dont have enough stones. It walks thru pine trees as if they were made of balsa wood. The big Eucalyptus trees gave it a workout, that wood is stringy Hard as the man of steels Nuts!!! and burns clean up, we had a fireplace that was going most of the winter in Calif :-laf im sorry that made me laugh (winter in So calif) very few times did we have to clear ash from the fireplace.

No Chance of splitting by hand, or cutting with anything but the toughest of chainsaws, sure wish I had some of that stuff now.

 

[GCroyle]

BIG,

That's not a tree I've ever touched. Not native to anywhere I've lived. Oaks are the biggest I have messed with. Seen a few old saws on display, never had been around one running.

Just spent a couple quiet hours out back burning some oak.

Gary

 

[BIGNASTY]

We don't burn ours out back, we have a 55 gal drum fire just about every AM, at the Hwy and drive. Have coffee and talk to the Hwy road crew and let them take the snow away for me.

 

[GCroyle]

BIG,

Well, I think I saw that Florence SC hit 80 today, a record. Saw two guys in shorts and flip flops one was going fishing earlier this AM and tonight saw a guy with his temp tag Sebring convertible with the top down.

Snow, all gone but lots of tree cleanup remains to be done in the areas hit by ice.

Gary

 

[JR]

We went from -15 degrees Monday night/ Tuesday morning to 50s yesterday. Supposed to be low 50s and rain today. Bad thing is we have 18" of snow on the ground, gonna be some serious flooding and EVERYTHING is going to be backed up because Lake Erie is frozen solid.
Don't you miss Ohio Gary?:-laf

 

[GCroyle]

JR,

Not sure if I remember or paid attantion to Erie freezing solid, seen it when open water was only visible at the horizon due to ice. I do remember all of the flooding reports from thawing and ice jams on the Chagrin River and others. News would show them blowing up ice jams every so often.

Do I miss Ohio? Somedays quite a bit.

Its getting to be time for the weekend pancake breakfasts with real Maple Syrup.
Real melt in your mouth good sweet corn.
The house that my parents built.
Cleveland, a city to hate and a city to be proud of.
Big Chuck and Little John.
Houlihan and Big Chuck.
Ghoulardi!
The downtown Cleveland skyline, too bad I hear the Hewletts are gone.
A real honest hand sliced Rueben sandwich, fav was Benny Shapiro's.
The Metro Park system.
4 seasons and Sugar Maple leaves in the fall.

Gotta go do some work.

Born a Ohio Buckeye (tree not OS Football) guy.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Gary

Been out of town for a bit, did some pelt hunting a little North of us and did well. The gals like to have fur coats made to PO the green peace and PETA people :-laf

No flip flops here!! was tolerable cold here until yesterday afternoon when the typhoon came up, winds of 50 with gusts of 70 MPH makes for some interesting shooting and almost impossible to hold a steady aim, but that's what makes hunting!!! hunting.


BIG

 

[GCroyle]

BIG,

What kinda pelt does Penny favor? Wind getting in your way Mountain Man, can't you just hold your hand up like a guy at Pebble Beach telling the crowd to hush up and get the wind to stop for a second or so?

Forgot one ultra important Cleveland likes: Great Lakes Beer, Burning Fiver Pale Ale, Commodore Perry IPA, Edmund Fitzgerald Porter.

And hold on, this just about made my day, its distributed in the Charlotte NC area now, holy beer foam Batman! ROADTRIP its only a couple hours away now.

Low 80's around here today but back to the 50's tomorrow.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Not that easy Gary if it was more people would do it. Wife has several different coats some yote, 2 different kinds of cat and a few other she likes them all my favorite is the skunk coat with Bobcat collar, some of the nose in the air types in the bigger towns dont, and that makes me laugh when they make a comment about it. It makes them mad cause they cant do a thing about it, what really PTO is when I wear this shirt :-laf And then tell them that their opinion was not solicited and if I should want theirs I can scrape it off someones zipper!!! in the Men's room

This usually invokes some macho want-to-be to show his betrothed that he is a man among men and come to her aid. Most times that dont last to long either, I dont like people forcing their opinions on what my wife should or shouldn't wear, when they weren't asked if the first place, bottom line is if they don't like it they shouldn't look at it.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Another reason how many do you know can spend nights at -0 or more (this week was -19) and days in the mid teens. Not saying that many cant do it, just most not willing to add a heavy wind to this, with some added snow!!! its going to cut the crowds down considerably

 

[JR]

JR,

Not sure if I remember or paid attantion to Erie freezing solid, seen it when open water was only visible at the horizon due to ice. I do remember all of the flooding reports from thawing and ice jams on the Chagrin River and others. News would show them blowing up ice jams every so often.

Do I miss Ohio? Somedays quite a bit.

Its getting to be time for the weekend pancake breakfasts with real Maple Syrup.
Real melt in your mouth good sweet corn.
The house that my parents built.
Cleveland, a city to hate and a city to be proud of.
Big Chuck and Little John.
Houlihan and Big Chuck.
Ghoulardi!
The downtown Cleveland skyline, too bad I hear the Hewletts are gone.
A real honest hand sliced Rueben sandwich, fav was Benny Shapiro's.
The Metro Park system.
4 seasons and Sugar Maple leaves in the fall.

Gotta go do some work.

Born a Ohio Buckeye (tree not OS Football) guy.

Wait, Dick Goddard isn't on this list?? :-laf Don't forget about Pioneer Days! In good old Pierpont. Ahh yes, Great Lakes Beer, I've got a fridge full of Dortmunder. Still got a few Packs of the Octoberfest from fall stock piled in the basement. Very surprised to hear a little micro brewery from Ohio has reached out as far as the Carolinas, that's pretty neat.

 

[GCroyle]

The Channel weatherman, formerly lived in a development behind my parents house, the Mayor Govenor Grand Marshall of the Vermillion Wooly bear Festival and frequent sidekick with Big Chuck and Little John?

Never heard of him or Dorthy Fuldheim, Gene Carrol, Capt. Penny, Jungle Larry or Safari Jane, Mr. Jingleling, Barnaby or Abe Abraham either.


Dortmunder is their training beer for the more advanced tastes that come later. Actually went to a tasting put on by the Pres of GLB back about 95/96 in Bay Village still remember, OK these are BBQ chips and that is Dortmunder all the way to a chocolate brownie and Edmund Fitz Porter to close it out.

Pierpont Pioneer Days is what every small town wants to leave as a memory in folks minds about them.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Went out this AM to DIG OUT!! the weather station the wind speed indicator wasn't working, guess im going to add some height to the pole to keep this from happening again. Let things reset to get an accurate reading on wind speed and temp.

temp is -29 wind speed 41 MPH makes doing chores an adventure :-laf

Heavy snow today, tomorrow and light to heavy snow's predicted for the next week Oo.

http://www.google.org/publicalerts/alert?aid=f5ac3a9f9f5907b&hl=en&gl=US&source=web

 

[JR]

I'll take my -13 and no wind, thank you. Hey BIG, how high off the ground is that wind speed indicator?

Hey Gary, the offer still stands on shipping you some fresh syrup. We've had a cold winter this year and it's hard to say when the weather will break, but it's gotta happen eventually!

 

[GCroyle]

JR,

Too good of an offer, we'll have to work this out somehow. Just don't tell anyone else, we'll keep the supplier/customer relationship our secret. Last time I got syrup from Chardon was spring of '96 IIRC.

Long sleeve shirt weather so far today.

Gary

 

[JR]

No problem Gary, I'll get together a care package when I get my hands on some. I am good friends with a family that generally processes about 2000 gallons of sap a year give or take. Of course this is all dependent on the winter weve had and how long the weather holds during sap season. Generally upper 30s to low 40s for daytime highs and 20s at night are the optimum weather for the sap to flow the best. I was visiting with the Hudson family last weekend and they are all geared up just waiting on the weather to break. I usually get up there at least a day or two while they are running to help out, I really enjoy it. Will keep you posted when things get closer to happening.

Speaking of Chardon, Maple Fest is barely a month out. Not sure if that was taking place when you were here, it is a neat weekend to tour the town.

 

[GCroyle]

JR,

Last time was '96 I took the family to Chardon to get some syrup and buckwheat pancake flour for a friend in TX. We pulled in to the square and up to the cabin a bit early one Saturday, I went in and the JC's or some guys were just getting setup. They asked if I had any kids, yup 3. Bring 'em in, we need somebody to test this Maple Syrup cotton candy. They all remember it. Picked up my goodies and then found a pancake breakfast somewhere.

It was all good. We'll figure this out somehow, lets see ever had Rice from Darlington SC? Not a match for syrup but its darn good, also got Peaches out the wazoo around here http://www.macspride.com/ this farm is HUGE and just a few miles away, we'll make something work.

 

[BIGNASTY]

I'll take my -13 and no wind, thank you. Hey BIG, how high off the ground is that wind speed indicator?

Hey Gary, the offer still stands on shipping you some fresh syrup. We've had a cold winter this year and it's hard to say when the weather will break, but it's gotta happen eventually!

I was thinking about this when I was digging it out, I believe it is a 15 ft pole and I guess-ta-mate about 3 ft in the ground.

So figure 12 ft pole the snow covered the weather station that's about a foot and a half tall (give or take) Maybe about 13ft of snow if that's were your going with this.

I keep up with the National Weather Guy that comes and takes measurements off of some old equipment that is no longer used, but he still likes to fiddle with it our measurements are pretty darn close. Even the new electronic equipment that he looks after is very close, but it takes readings in a different fashion than the old equipment does.

His new equipment says we have 169" of snow accumulation this year, take into account that when it snows that adds to it, but the next day it may rain and take what was the measurement and lower it because the rain melted some of the snow.

My weather station says that we have 152" of snow, his old equipment measurement is 153" so pretty close!!!

Most times the temps are different, I think because of the placement of the systems, when I get ready to do something outside I look at the wind speed and temp. Frostbite is a VERY REAL possibility here and it don't take long at all. I dress accordingly, I have found that when I go to the barn that's 200 yards away on the walk out, there is one spot that is so much colder than the rest of the walk, and I mean that it is a significant temp change, walk another 25 yards and the temp goes back the other way UP its kind of weird because there don't have to be a wind to feel this. I have taken my handheld weather station and when I feel the change I looked for wind and there was none.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Well heard the the South/East is having their butt's kicked again with another 2" of snow :-laf

sorry I just couldn't resist the temptation

BIG