[AT] Snow/Ice Storms

[Herb Metz]

We had some bad storms, and an infrequent blizzard in central KS, but very 
seldom as bad as some recently mentioned.  Our one room grade school was one 
mile north of us, so roads were occasionally closed because of prevailing 
west winds.  I do remember several times when Dad got up earlier, hitched 
the team of mules to our lumber wagon and my sister and I would hope in, we 
would pick up several neighbor kids on the way, including the neighbor girl 
where the school teacher stayed (who was not happy to see us pull into the 
yard, because that meant we would be having school, so get in more coal 
right away to get more heat into a cool school house), and the teacher, and 
continued on to school.  I do not remember home many students showed on such 
days (20 +/- 3 was total enrollment), but enough that we had school.  People 
on east west roads were not as affected as us north-south residents.
The township had a D-7(?) Cat with big V-blade for opening mostly badly 
blown areas on north-south roads.
At times like that there was much rubber-necking on our single wire rural 
party-line phones without much objection because neighbors were concerned 
about the well being of each other.
Around 1945 the phone line/system was upgraded to two wire, twisted every 
quarter mile or so.
Herb(GA)


-----Original Message----- 
From: John Wilson
Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2016 4:14 PM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Subject: Re: [AT] AT Digest, Vol 154, Issue 16
Re: Speaking of Stuck
Hate to think of all the times someone has been seriously stuck and I've
been involved in fixing it.
Fuel truck stuck in a 6 ft drift on the road in front of my house. Ended up
with probably 25 Amish guys and 10 kids digging a bunch of snow out of the
way to get him up there.
Cattle feeding truck for a guy I worked for. About a 72 Chevy 2WD with a
welded rear axle and pizza cutter tires. Home built rig to carry round
bales. The guy had arthritis and just didn't get out much in the winter, so
he hired some of his winter chores done. I learned really fast that snow
and mud had little effect on the truck when it had a couple of bales on the
back, so I drove uphill to feed and arranged it so I could drive downhill
to a gate. Another guy wasn't so smart. He got it stuck and wasn't smart
enough to stop and sat it down on the axle. The old guy called me and he
drug a 20ft wooden beam out with his H Farmall. Dug a hole to get the end
under the back bumper. Stacked some boards for a fulcrum and we raised it
up 6 or 8 inches. Wedged boards under the axle and repeated the process
until we got it out of the hole. More boards under the wheels and it was
ready for the H to pull it home. Put the beam and boards on the back of the
truck and the old guy made the kid who got it stuck walk back!
One bad winter I was running out of cattle feed for my steers, so I needed
to get my truck out. The feed truck was backed up for days because he had a
4x4 tractor escorting him everywhere he went. Rain, freeze, snow, snow,
snow made for a heck of a mess. Tried to drive my Deere 2640 out, and it
wanted to go downhill through the fence. Dug my way out toward the Deere
with my Bobcat and it got hung about 10 ft behind the tractor. Pulled my
truck out to try to winch the Bobcat out with a come along and watched the
truck almost go through the fence just sliding along the path I'd cleared.
My neighbor gave it a shot from the other end with a smaller Deere 4x4 and
he finally got hung too. Ended up borrowing all the chain I could find and
using a big oak as an anchor to use the come along to back the truck and
Bobcat out. Neighbor put his bucket down and I was able to use the come
along to pull my tractor around the curve and part of the way up the hill.
Then started shoveling. Another neighbor brought us a scoop of gravel and
we got the tractors out. I bundled up and drove the tractor to town for
feed.
Same winter as above, a D8 trying to get a road grader out end up stuck for
three days! I got dinged for missing work because the road wasn't legally
closed. Not sure how I was supposed to travel on a road a D8 couldn't
handle.