Figgin' March weather...

[Whitespider]

Yesterday I was splitting white ash... with no shirt on, enjoying the warm sun on my back.

Man! Am I ever ready for that!
Heck, they've put us under a Winter Storm Warning... 5 to 9 inches of wet heavy snow on the way tonight.
No doubt it's all my own fault... yesterday I went and purchased a walk-behind mowing machine and a pressure washer. I should have known that buying new summertime outdoor power equipment this early would cause Ol' Man Winter to teach me a lesson!

 

[stihl023/5]

My tarps are still holding up and the wood is dry. Put a full load in the basement yesterday before the rain started.

 

[stihl023/5]

Man! Am I ever ready for that!
Heck, they've put us under a Winter Storm Warning... 5 to 9 inches of wet heavy snow on the way tonight.
No doubt it's all my own fault... yesterday I went and purchased a walk-behind mowing machine and a pressure washer. I should have known that buying new summertime outdoor power equipment this early would cause Ol' Man Winter to teach me a lesson!

As long as you get good deals before season its worth it.

 

[Whitespider]

As long as you get good deals before season its worth it.

Yup, both on a preseason sale.
But lookin' them over and checking manual specifications for oil, I'm starting to wonder what the design/manufacturing world is coming to; there ain't no oil drain plug in either engine (B&S on the mower, Honda on the washer), you're supposed to tip them over and drain the oil from the fill port... What the bleep is up with that?

I mean seriously, how ya' gonna' do that without spilling used oil and gasoline all over the ground? I thought we were supposed to be going "green" and reducing pollution... and then they design stuff to virtually guarantee ground contamination. I don't get it.

 

[Iska3]

I can take the cold and I can work around the snow but this rain on top of the frozen ground, is a real test of a persons nerves. We had a rain yesterday with temps in the 30’s and last night things frozen outside. My OWB was ok but getting to it was another story. Pull a 1200 pound bale of hay out to the donkeys in 4 inches of frozen slush on top of all that ices and snow. Not Fun trying to walk out there. That frozen crust of ice is going to be hard on the wildlife. Darn wolves will be able to out run the deer.

The last time I saw weather like this in Minnesota, the firewood prices doubled overnight because most people couldn’t get out in to the woods. They were saying that the Jet Stream turns south of us and it’s stuck in a trough. Looks like you will get more rain and then the snow.

One word for this weather.. Miserable!! But I could have it worse. Sounds like your area and the noreastern states are in for a real mess before this is over… Hang in there, spring is on the way. To quote the words of my old GF after our second date.... "It won't be long now"

Man! Am I ever ready for that!
Heck, they've put us under a Winter Storm Warning... 5 to 9 inches of wet heavy snow on the way tonight.
No doubt it's all my own fault... yesterday I went and purchased a walk-behind mowing machine and a pressure washer. I should have known that buying new summertime outdoor power equipment this early would cause Ol' Man Winter to teach me a lesson!

 

[Iska3]

:hmm3grin2orange:

Geeeezzz... I hate it when that sort'a stuff gets tossed back in my lap.

 

[zogger]

I can take the cold and I can work around the snow but this rain on top of the frozen ground, is a real test of a persons nerves. We had a rain yesterday with temps in the 30’s and last night things frozen outside. My OWB was ok but getting to it was another story. Pull a 1200 pound bale of hay out to the donkeys in 4 inches of frozen slush on top of all that ices and snow. Not Fun trying to walk out there. That frozen crust of ice is going to be hard on the wildlife. Darn wolves will be able to out run the deer.

The last time I saw weather like this in Minnesota, the firewood prices doubled overnight because most people couldn’t get out in to the woods. They were saying that the Jet Stream turns south of us and it’s stuck in a trough. Looks like you will get more rain and then the snow.

One word for this weather.. Miserable!! But I could have it worse. Sounds like your area and the noreastern states are in for a real mess before this is over… Hang in there, spring is on the way. To quote the words of my old GF after our second date.... "It won't be long now"

Double firewood prices doesnt seem too bad....at least there is a tradeoff Around here big storms mean the prices drop, a lot of the trees come down and the area gets flooded with cheap/free good wood.

 

[Whitespider]

One word for this weather.. Miserable!!

Even the word Miserable!! don't describe it well enough!
We've had miserable March weather in the past, but this is as lousy as I can remember.

 

[stihly dan]

Spidey, thanks for the weather report. Your's is generally better than the news here. I tend to know what we are going to get by what you post. Just 3 day's later. It's beautiful here for know. so I took the quad, (you know the new fangled thing that one doesn't need for fire wood.) Ran up and down the snow path a bunch, maybe a few donuts and wheelies too. ( it was awful, hated every minuteuttahere2::msp_tongue Now I have a nice compact road to wheel barrow the rest of the seasons wood into the basement. The rain, mud and everything else will be no issue now. So thanks again for the warning.

 

[Blazin]

Even the word Miserable!! don't describe it well enough!
We've had miserable March weather in the past, but this is as lousy as I can remember.

I'm on the way....again!

 

[Whitespider]

Spidey, thanks for the weather report.

Glad to be of service :msp_tongue: I don't believe you're gonna' get this one though, it's tracking more north than east.
Now "they're" callin' for 8-12 inches of snow, but it's still raining... so thinking positively, every minute of rain is one less minute of snow. It's a cold rain... ain't thawing the ground one little bit so the water is just standing, or running off where it's broken through the snow dams. Temperature has dropped now, almost to the freezing mark, and the wind has picked up to 25 MPH or a bit more at times.

This is the first time in my short 55 years I've seen white-capped waves ON MY LAWN!
If I had a sailboat here I'd be able to get to the firewood stacks!

 

[Cheesecutter]

It's been raining here all day too. I've got a normally 3' wide by 3 inch deep creek that is now 100' wide up to 6' deep and only 10' from one of my woodsheds, and geese were swimming only 15' away. We still have 6-12 inches of frost in the ground along with 18" snow and now 1 1/2 inches rain. Oh, I love March.

 

[740jsmayle]

Almost 70 today but rain on its way supposed to be in the 30's Thur. March the month of ups & downs.

 

[Whitespider]

Ha! I understand people were paddling kayaks through the yards in in one of the small towns south of me today!
Snowing now... heavy, close to 2-inches already.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

You get enough rain maybe you can float it all to the house. A firewood log jamb might be a problem though.

 

[Encore]

Yesterday was awesome. Instead of hitting the usual sunday afternoon nap, I took off and filled the dump trailer with firewood for next year. Was about 70, sunny, what a nice day. Today it's supposed to turn back to crappy but it's ok. Was nice while it lasted haha.

I would like it to stop snowing so I can take the plow frame off my truck for the year.

 

[stihl sawing]

It was 75 saturday and this morning in the 30's. but supposed to warm up again. what can ya do but just enjoy every day god lets ya walk on the earth.

 

[Whitespider]

This week is spring break for my kids...
Last year, during spring break, I took the week off. The weather was fantastic, started out in the upper 60's and ended in the lower 80's, the frost was mostly gone and sunshine near the whole time. I got out the lawn furniture and cleaned it up, did spring service work all OPE, pulled plastic off windows and even installed a couple of screens. Spent three of those days splitting/stacking firewood... around 4-cord that I'd been cutting during February. Each day ended with a box-o-beer, sitting around the fire pit, something cooking over it. I was outside before sunup every morning, had my shirt off before lunch, and never even thought about a jacket in the evening. By the end of March we were in full summer mode...

This year...
Even if I wanted to there ain't no way I could get the lawn furniture and OPE out... the doors of the sheds are blocked with ice and snow banks. It's near impossible to walk around the yard without slippin' and fallin' on the ice, the fire pit is buried under more than a foot of snow, and I sure ain't pulling plastic from the windows. I didn't manage to cut one single stick of firewood after the first of the year... between the ice and wind it just flat wasn't safe to be out there. Now, with all the rain, snow and ice we have, along with deep heavy frost... likely the mud will make it impossible to do anything outside until mid-April, best case. It might even be into May before the frost is gone, so the water can drain from the fire pit... and when the frost goes out late it just flat shortens summer by a full month or so (and it can't start to go out until the snow and ice is gone). I can't even say this weather has provided needed moisture because the type frost we have this year (called "concrete frost", and actually brought on by the drought last year) will just force it all to run off... heck the river rose over 4-feet the last couple days, and it was still rising last I knew.

It ain't that I'm whining... I'm just pointing out that Mother Nature is doing everything she can to make this a miserable year for this part of the country. Likely we'll see a lot of spring flooding from near 100% run-off, followed by continuing drought... when/if it rains it will be in the form of heavy thunderstorms, bringing crop-destroying wind and hail. Y'all will feel the effects... when the heartland is struggling the prices of everything go up. Add that to the rather bleak economic outlook for the country as a whole...

 

[Gologit]

It ain't that I'm whining...

Oh?

 

[Whitespider]

Well... OK... maybe whining a little.
Still, I've lived here near my entire life... ya' just know when things don't "feel" right.

But, on the non-whining side of things... it sure is a pretty morning!