Figgin' March weather...

[greendohn]

The rain and mud is killing me! Temps aint so bad, it's the soft ground.
Last year I swore my wood shed (16x25) was gonna be full before I quite fire woodin', but!,,but the fishin' was so good this time last year the shed was forgotten, the saws put up, left on the shelf and the "whoopin' sticks", like a magic wand, led me to the water day after day. Life was good..

Now here I am, AGAIN, with a half full shed and I can't get to the woods. I even had the "Beer-Can-Pickup-Hack" come by to fetch me and my splitter last week for halves on truck load after load for a splittin' party and all I came home with was two p/u loads of ash and oak 'cause the ground was getting too soft. I even got hung up a bit in the creek!
Will I ever get years, even ONE year ahead on my wood stash? I'm starting to get worried, as I made a "pilgrimage" to the Bass Pro shop down in Cincinnati last week and spent the evening with a box-o-beer riggin' my "Secret Slayin' Baits" for the Whoopin' Sticks.

I need to develop a plan,,,,:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[Whitespider]

L-O-L!
What we have here is one colossal mess... there's 10-20 inches of snow (depending), floating on 1-6 inches of water (depending), sitting on top of a thick sheet of ice, under it is 2-5 inches of solidly frozen ground, and all of it is sitting on top of 18-20 inches of ground frost. You can't walk in it, can't shovel it, can't use the snow blowers, can't plow it, and can't get any traction. Cars and trucks stuck in their driveways, plows stuck in the roads and parking lots, even 4-wheel-drive is near worthless. I followed a semi into town this morning, he was doing a fast 20 MPH with his emergency flashers running; some idiot with 4-wheel-drive went by us in the left lane, and then a mile down the road we drove by him... buried to his mirrors in the center medium... L-O-L!

I've been standing at the front door here in the office... sipping coffee and laughing my azz off at all the fun. The guy across the road was trying to shovel his walk, slipped and fell, a title wave of water/slush/snow ripped over the snow bank, when he stood back up it looked as though he'd just climbed out of swimming pool and someone through 5 pounds of flour on him... too funny. Needless to say, he tossed the shovel in the snow and stomped inside. This is just the sort of weather the auto body shops pray for... L-O-L!

 

[Steve NW WI]

I'm staring at taller snowbanks than we've had in quite a few years around here, but otherwise it's been a pretty normal winter, even the rain we got Saturday is to be expected (if not really wanted or appreciated) in March. Just pulled the fishhouse off the lake this last weekend, but gimme a month or so and the boat will be in the water. If you've still got frost down there in May, I'll eat my hat.

Gimme a couple weeks and it'll be time to break a trail out to the woods. I've not cut a stick of my own wood since Christmas time, just cause I don't need to. Life is good that way, but I'll have to be busy for a couple weeks before field work starts or I'll lose interest and the stacks won't get full till fall, and then I'll wanna go hunting instead...

 

[Deleted member 83629]

March hasn't been nothing special just a regular winter little snow and quite cold this winter with a few mild days. I will say one thing it is has been cold,muddy, and straight up nasty for the last three months.

It seems like this year will be more normal,but i hope it wasn't a hot as last summer are area was spared from the drought last year wasn't really that bad either, it wasn't the first time we had weather like that.

Here is a taste of weather you might have to enlarge the image.View attachment 283918

 

[Old Doug]

It rained here most of yesterday so the snow is gone. I am runing low on wood at home but today it is half frozen so i went back with my jeep and got some. My buddy ranout friday. I took him a small load so he could make it till the guy he buys wood from could get him some but now that guy cant get any till it dries up. I have some that needs split he said he would take it.

 

[Whitespider]

If you've still got frost down there in May, I'll eat my hat.

Let's see the hat... and will that be boiled, with mustard??
The soil you have there is more like the soil up at the Minnesota lake home, somewhat lighter and sandier... and often the frost is gone there before here.
If we have snow/ice cover into mid-April (and it sounds like we're gonna' get more snow), it ain't all that uncommon to find to find deep frozen earth around the first of May. Especially after a winter like this... cold, with little snow cover for insulation through February, allowing the frost to go deep in the dry soil from last summer. And now, when it should be starting to thaw it's well insulated by several inches of snow and ice.

What happens over the next 2-3 weeks is gonna' make a huge difference. If we stay cool and in this snow pattern, ain't gonna' be any heat getting to that ground... it can't even start to thaw until the snow and ice are gone.

 

[stihly dan]

How does DRY soil freeze more than wet soil? Just asken.

 

[Whitespider]

How does DRY soil freeze more than wet soil? Just asken.

It doesn't freeze "more", it freezes "deeper". When the top soil is at normal moisture levels in the early winter the cold finds moisture just at, or just below surface level where begins to freeze. Depending on how much moisture, how cold, and the amount of insulating snow cover, the frost can go anywhere from a few inches, or up to 3-feet deep. Wetter soil freezes more solidly, making it harder for the frost (the cold) to penetrate deeper.

Last fall/early winter we had little moisture in the top soil, no snow cover to speak of, and a lot of cold weather (the ice on the river is as thick as I've ever seen it). That allowed the cold to penetrate the dry soil until it found moisture some several inches deep, where it started freezing, causing the same normal 18 inch or so thick layer of frost... only it didn't start until over a foot under the surface. Then we got some rain, and light snows (that melted in the sun on dark soil) in late January and February, soaking the dry top soil over the frost layer... then it turned cold again, and we got a second frost layer on top of the first.

Then came more small batches moisture/snow, which alternately thawed and froze on the dark soil, finally freezing the top couple inches or so into a solid mass of high moisture content with an inch or so of ice over it (a third frost layer called concrete frost). The final straw has been the heavy snows and rain this March... which has insulated the soil from any sort of sun radiation. Until the snow and ice cover is gone, the soil can't begin to thaw... and the concrete frost will cause all the melting (or rain) to run off. Once the snow cover is gone, the sun and warm weather (when it gets here) has three separate layers of frost to thaw... each layer extending the time before the next layer can begin to thaw.

If it stays cool and cloudy, and we have snow cover into April... finding frost deep in the rich black Iowa soil around the first of May would be no surprise.
Some few years ago we had a similar "concrete frost" event (late 80's ??). Dad put an outhouse in down by the river; digging the hole on the weekend after May Day we found frost at about 2-feet, several inches thick... rather than fight it, we ended up waiting a week to finish.

 

[stihly dan]

That makes sense, glad I asked.