[AT] Snow/Ice Storms

Sun Dec 18 19:19:19 PST 2016

The Arkansas River goes east from CO into KS, then near center of KS, it 
makes a big bend (now called Great Bend) and then goes south  to Hutchinson, 
then Wichita, then Tulsa.  Approx eleven miles east of Great Bend is 
Ellinwood (approx 2500 people).  We lived on a half section approx six miles 
south.
My sister went to Central Christian College, McPherson, KS two years, then 
started teaching. I graduated from KSU in 1952, BS in Mech Engrg.
At Dad's suggestion, I worked two summers for an uncle near Otis (three 
quarters and one quarter near Ness City); could make more money for school 
that way. Back then IHC and Massey Harris were top dogs with 12' & 14' 
self-propelled combines; that was before any type of automatic transmission, 
in which case third was often too slow and fourth (high) was often too fast.
Herb(GA)

-----Original Message----- 
From: Dennis Johnson
Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2016 11:30 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Snow/Ice Storms

Herb,

Where in Kansas did you live???
I grew up in McPherson area. I almost ended it in a 1 room school, but moved 
to town the year I was to start. Remember 1 winter where there was a drift 
about 15 feet high we tunneled through just for something to do.

Dennis

Sent from my iPad

> On Dec 17, 2016, at 8:44 PM, Herb Metz <metz-h.b at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> 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.
>
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