I hate winter

[danl]

We got over an 1" of ice Monday and Tuesday, no power for almost three days, glad I have a generator.
My cattle are no longer separated, I have them all in the barn lot together, since all of my fences are demolished.

It sounded like rifle shots for two days with tree tops coming down. I have never seen anything like this.
I tried to fix some fence Wednesday and after a couple of near misses I quit, well actually one not so near miss when a chunk of ice hit me on top of my head and made a big knot. I looked up and there was a big limb, about 4" diameter caught, swinging back and forth, guess my guardian angel was hanging on to it. Because I don't know what kept it from coming down on me..

I'm gonna be afraid to turn the cattle back into some the pastures because of all the tops just hanging out of the tree tops. I'm not sure how to deal with that.

Dan

 

[dun]

I'm gonna be afraid to turn the cattle back into some the pastures because of all the tops just hanging out of the tree tops. I'm not sure how to deal with that.

Dan

For a while, alwasy wear a hard hat when you're in the woods, or around trees. After you can get around you wook a chain on the limbs you can reach and pull them down with a tractor. For the ones you can;t reach you just hope for the best or fell the tree. If your cows are anything like ours were after our big icestrom, they won;t be going under a tree for a while.
This is year 2 since our turn for the ice and we're still having widow makers falling.
One other thing, one of those pole saws can be a life saver when clearing the tangled/downed/piled up limbs, tops and trees.

 

[danl]

Dun, you didn't get any of this? I was wondering about you yesterday.

My formerly separated calves were about to stampede Tuesday morning , every time a top busted out they would run in circles. Right now they are all in a lot with no trees, and fortunately I had enough sense to built my barn out in the open.

For the last two days I have had to drive five miles to get to the cattle. Six large trees were over the county road back to the field. The house is a 1/2 mile from them but I wasn't gonna walk or take a four wheeler through the woods. Even coming in the long way I had to get out of the truck with the chainsaw every few feet, and cut a path. Sometime yesterday the county took something real large and powerful and shoved the trees out of the road.

We are supposed to thaw tomorrow.

 

[MShaffer]

Same thing here in Southern Indiana. Power has been out for 3 days. Lucky, we could borrow a generate to keep some heat in the house. Temps at night have been in the teens and 20s with daily highs below 30. Lots of bent and broken trees. The electric fences are covered with ice and some are close to hitting the ground. So far, the cows have not messed with them.

Looking forward to temps above 32 on Saturday and Sunday.

 

[dun]

Dun, you didn't get any of this? I was wondering about you yesterday.

My formerly separated calves were about to stampede Tuesday morning , every time a top busted out they would run in circles. Right now they are all in a lot with no trees, and fortunately I had enough sense to built my barn out in the open.

For the last two days I have had to drive five miles to get to the cattle. Six large trees were over the county road back to the field. The house is a 1/2 mile from them but I wasn't gonna walk or take a four wheeler through the woods. Even coming in the long way I had to get out of the truck with the chainsaw every few feet, and cut a path. Sometime yesterday the county took something real large and powerful and shoved the trees out of the road.

We are supposed to thaw tomorrow.

This time it went south of us. We got a little ice and sleet then 6 plus inches of snow on top but nothing damaging. Another hint, when the stuff starts thawing it can be just as dangerous as when it's freezing.
I did find one thing interesting when the that stared here in 07. All of the power lines were sagging a good bit and had icicles hanging down from them. As the ice on the wires melted the icicles would turn around as the weight of the ice let the wires lose there sag. I wanted to get pictures of the icicles pointing straight up in the air but didn;t.

 

[danl]

We have a Hardy wood boiler, so the generator kept it going. all it has to have is the circulating pump and a fan.
And some fool (me) to fill it up...
We ran the furnace, the refrigerator and the freezer, used candles for lights. I have a rechargeable Sears led light that runs for hours and give off a lot of light. I was impressed. I looks like a tube with a bunch of leds.

My fences are smashed to the ground in many places, I do not have a tree on the place that doesn't have the top broke out.

 

[dun]

We have a Hardy wood boiler, so the generator kept it going. all it has to have is the circulating pump and a fan.
And some fool (me) to fill it up...
We ran the furnace, the refrigerator and the freezer, used candles for lights. I have a rechargeable Sears led light that runs for hours and give off a lot of light. I was impressed. I looks like a tube with a bunch of leds.

My fences are smashed to the ground in many places, I do not have a tree on the place that doesn't have the top broke out.

June of 06 I bought a 6500 watt generator. Wife chewed on me for weeks about wasting the money. January of 07 she was glad I had "wasted" the money. We ran the whole farm including the well and fence chargers with it, the only thing it couldn;t run was the water heater. We have propane for the furnace and cook stove so we were set. Without thinking she fired up the microwave to heat water once and didn;t have any problems.

 

[danl]

Dun I will try to put a icycle picture on here for you. My wife came in the living room yesterday and said the icycles are upside down on the power lines, and I sort of said you are nuts... But I went and looked and she was right.

So I took a couple pictures. My theory is that the icycles formed first then the ice started building up so fast on top that they are top heavy. then when they started to thaw they flipped over on the power line..She did not seem too convinced i was right

 

[dun]

Dun I will try to put a icycle picture on here for you. My wife came in the living room yesterday and said the icycles are upside down on the power lines, and I sort of said you are nuts... But I went and looked and she was right.

So I took a couple pictures. My theory is that the icycles formed first then the ice started building up so fast on top that they are top heavy. then when they started to thaw they flipped over on the power line..She did not seem too convinced i was right

I don;t know how they did it either or if they rotated around like that as they were forming. But I thought it was a neat thing to see.
First and formost while you're messing with the problem is SAFETY. There is nothing that is so vital that taking a little longer to do it and not getting hurt doesn;t make sense.

 

[tom4018]

Things here in KY are not good either. Not got to check all my fences but had some extra heifers show up today and most of our fence is electric. My bull so far has respected the dead fence but the heifer was in heat and she did not so she is in with mine now.

Power been out since Tuesday and talking 1-2 weeks for us. Some areas around here are without water and power so they really got it rough. One neighboring county says a month to get power as they say the whole county is out.

 

[spoon]

Hang in there Tom. We got lucky here in s.e. Ky and only got about 1/4 to 1/2 inch ice and snow, depending on where you are in the area. Hope y'all get some power real soon.

 

[bigbull338]

i sure do feel for you guys that got hitt by the ice storm.an i know how hard it is for you to get things done.thankfully we missed the bad stuff.it was only real cold here for a few days.

 

[danl]

We have electric now but a lot of my neighbors don't. I assume it is because we are on the same line as the County Water Tower that is real close to my house.
Was a pain in the neck when the tower ran out of water, can't believe they don't have a generator.
I thought we were in good shape with our generator and outdoor wood boiler. Then the water quit.
I'm at my office now, still don't have internet at home. That is a small thing to do without considering a lot of folks around here still have no heat
Dun, thanks for mentioning the pole saw, I have one and didn't think about using it on my fence, till you mentioned it. but it really helps. and its a little safer for falling branches too.

 

[chrisy]

I am with you there I hate winter too. The weather man has said we are about to get snow and very cold winds coming in from Russia, well all I can say is they can keep it, the wind is picking up and it is mighty cold outside. Glad to be in in the warm comfort of the living room.

 

[tom4018]

We have electric now but a lot of my neighbors don't. I assume it is because we are on the same line as the County Water Tower that is real close to my house.
Was a pain in the neck when the tower ran out of water, can't believe they don't have a generator.
I thought we were in good shape with our generator and outdoor wood boiler. Then the water quit.
I'm at my office now, still don't have internet at home. That is a small thing to do without considering a lot of folks around here still have no heat
Dun, thanks for mentioning the pole saw, I have one and didn't think about using it on my fence, till you mentioned it. but it really helps. and its a little safer for falling branches too.

We are being told 1-2 weeks to get power here. Glad you got yours back. Got to check part of my fence and fields today sure is a mess. Got of the 3 strays that showed up, wonder if I can get a breeding fee from the guy. :lol: :lol:

 

[hillsdown]

My prayers go out to all of you ,and I hope your weather becomes more forgiving, and that those of you without power have it restored quickly..

 

[Australian]

You people sure have a rough winter. Ours are very tame compared to yours.We get down to minus 15c just for an hour or so in the morning then its sunny. That happens about twice in winter. Generally our morning lows are bout minus 5/6c. Our low tops may get to a max of 5c but that happens about 2 days in winter. Our usual temp in winter is about 12c.

 

[curtis]

It's suppose to get up to 62 degrees today in east AR. :banana: :banana:

 

[tom4018]

It's suppose to get up to 62 degrees today in east AR. :banana: :banana:

Got in the 50's here yesterday and suppose to be 55 or so today. So all the ice is gone. The big problem now is some flooding with 5" of actual precipitaion between the rain, snow and ice. The power companies are having trouble getting equipment in to repair lines and some areas are floode to were they can't. We still don't have power here yet trying to run a generator some. At least its a nice pretty day to cut up more trees.

 

[redcowsrule33]

I am beginning to appreciate below 0F and snow :shock:

We had our first day of temps above freezing since 12/28 yesterday. It was like being released from prison.

Good luck to you guys. Hope the rest of the winter is smoother.