[AT] Snow/Ice Storms

Sun Dec 18 19:56:37 PST 2016

Herb,

I have been though Ellinwood. I knew various ones who went to Central, including a few cousins that went there a little.
I graduated from KSU with BS in Mech Engr in 72
I went to high school with a Kenneth Metz. Lost track of him, but last I knew he was a professor of chemistry at MIT.

Dennis

Sent from my iPad

> On Dec 18, 2016, at 9:33 PM, Herb Metz <metz-h.b at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> 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.
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> AT mailing list
>> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
> 
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
> 
> 
> -----
> No virus found in this message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> Version: 2016.0.7924 / Virus Database: 4739/13607 - Release Date: 12/17/16 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at