[AT] Ten Years Ago Today

[Mike Sloane]

I remember that storm, Rob. I tried to clear my private lane with my old 
Dodge pickup and got it stuck a mile from the house when I tried to back 
up and got it hung up on a block of packed snow. It was a very long day, 
and we ended up getting a local guy to come down the lane with his huge 
Case skip loader (with chains on all 4 tires). He then pulled my truck 
out, and I was able to finish up the lane and driveways. The snow was 
too deep for the Ford 860 with back blade to run through, so I ended up 
turning the blade around backwards  - my neck hurt for a week after, and 
I never did that again! I got rid of the Dodge and replaced it with an 
'87 Ford F350 mason dump with IH 6.9L engine and 8' western blade, and 
that has never let me down. But I still use the 860 to do the clean-up 
work and for one drive that is too steep even for the truck (I don't 
have chains on the truck, but I do on the tractor). But I will never 
again let the snow get ahead of me as I did that night - even if I have 
to stay up all night and plow!

This has been a strange winter for us in the Northeast - below 0 early 
in December, but above freezing since then. The constant freezing at 
night and thawing during the day has played hell with the dirt road, and 
the potholes have gotten really bad. Come the spring, and we will have a 
LOT of serious repair work ahead of us.

Mike

Rob Gray wrote:
> Ten years ago today the one of the biggest snow storms hit the east 
> coast. All roads in this region were closed by the states and people 
> hunkered down in their homes for a day or two to ride out the storm. I 
> recall posting weather updates here on ATIS during the storm and 
> remember other people posting the conditions where they were too. Over 
> 30 inches fell around here. Tractor-related: I did not even try to plow 
> the snow with the 8N in that storm (which is how I usually plow snow) 
> because it was just too much for the tractor to handle. A neighbor with 
> a backhoe cleared my lane in that storm...  That was a storm old people 
> will talk about from when they were a kid....
> 
> 

-- 
Mike Sloane
Allamuchy NJ
mikesloane at verizon.net
Website: <www.geocities.com/mikesloane>
Images: <www.fotki.com/mikesloane>

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I
learn." -Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790); US politician and scientist.


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