Northeastern state Blizzard

[stihly dan]

I have reported a tree on the lines to the town, witch intern asked the police, fire, road agent, and electric co. All of them said that it was not there lines, or responsibility. Tree is still there after almost 2 yrs. Just waiting to take out my power.

 

[Chris-PA]

I have reported a tree on the lines to the town, witch intern asked the police, fire, road agent, and electric co. All of them said that it was not there lines, or responsibility. Tree is still there after almost 2 yrs. Just waiting to take out my power.

Usually the power lines are at the top of the pole. If the tree/limb falls below that they don't care - it's not a threat to the power lines. The phone and cable guys never come out until the line actually breaks. They don't even care much if it's on the ground since it's not much of a hazard, as long as they can keep billing that all they're concerned about.

 

[stihly dan]

I did mention that the tree was on the lines, as the tree is not on the ground because the power lines are keeping the tree in the air.

 

[mikefunaro]

We let them too.

The municipally-owned electric companies have a fraction of the outages and much shorter duration then the investor-owned utilities.

Comes down to this -- the municipals spend the money at a steady pace and keep replacing their infrastructure as it reaches end of life.

Northeast Utilities and the other private utilities wait for storms to break their worn out ####, then hire out of state crews to repair in mass and file for a rate increase to cover storm damages.

CL&P and it's contractors have done a poor job trimming on the western side of the state.

Over the last 15 years we got flyers for tree trimming around the lines three times, but only once was it actually done. Seems asplundh and Lewis knew for a while that the CL&P supervisors were only checking along the mainline roads and not in any of the private ROWs. Then finally in some winter storm the lines started arcing and CL&P came out with their own crew, hacked a bunch of the trees up in a hurry, and left the debris behind.

 

[wudpirat]

It's A**hole deep out there

Ended up with 36" (3ft) here in Oxford.
I did manage to dig a path 35 ft out the back door to the wood pile, but couldn't find the wheelbarrow. After poking around, Found It.
Another path for the puppies to piddle and poop.
My car is under that big white lump in the yard. Don't care, got enough food till tuesday, couple weeks supply of cigars and coffee.
Guess I'll fritter away the time on the web and keep the furnace stoked and the birds feed.

FREDM, Oxford

 

[dave_dj1]

Ended up with 36" (3ft) here in Oxford.
I did manage to dig a path 35 ft out the back door to the wood pile, but couldn't find the wheelbarrow. After poking around, Found It.
Another path for the puppies to piddle and poop.
My car is under that big white lump in the yard. Don't care, got enough food till tuesday, couple weeks supply of cigars and coffee.
Guess I'll fritter away the time on the web and keep the furnace stoked and the birds feed.

FREDM, Oxford

WOW! is all I can say. I'm glad that you have enough provisions to hold up for a couple of days. Stay safe.
Almost forgot, pics or it didn't happen! LOL

 

[timbrjackrussel]

Rocky Hill CT. snow time lapse.
CTV News | News Video - Top National News Headlines - News Videos

 

[Naked Arborist]

Went back to snow plowing in a PU this year. I missed the money but not the hours. Been snow plowing for 30+ years. The storm of 96' was the worst I ever worked in around here. The layers of slop made it damn near impossible when fools in management did not get it done before the layers packed up upon each other. That really busted up equipment. Speaking off which you will say "huu?" when you see the pics of my left angle ram. Never have I seen one split like this. The bottom is blown open from front to back. Yes, split right down the middle and it never blew the hydro line. Par for the course I guess.

The best part was I got bumped up again this year to twp roads The #### part is the development is a nightmare to work in :msp_sneaky: The tree limbs are too low and in the road, the mail boxes stick out way too far, the cobblestone curbs always suck and the man hole covers are up between one and two inches :msp_mad:. I launch one down the street doing cart wheels and was only going ten to fifteen at the time :msp_mad: The train wreck cleared the dash and the seat. The hole, whole ring was toast! Cut it right off. The second one just popped up. I thought moving up from industrial parks, banks, malls, loading docks and all those handicapped spaces was going to be an improvement, yea right. Long easy runs, yea right. This has to be one of the worst most ####ed up places I have ever plowed. Five years old with big money homes. I walk back in after at the shop and get asked, "how was it?" Then I knew I was had :msp_sneaky:

The incoming customers at the vet hospital all drive like #######s too. The staff was great as most are and moved the cars to the back lot when I cleared it off :msp_thumbup:

 

[Fred Wright]

I'm a believer.

And that my friend is why I refuse to sell anybody a plow for their lawn tractor. I know it costs me a couple of tractor sales every year too. The catelogs all show plows available for even the $999 machines, but the smaller the tractor, the quicker it will "meet it's match" in a snowstorm. The reality is that to have any success at all, the user has to do like you said and go out every several inches. And even then, a small blade on a tractor still can't pile the snow, so you're plowing in an ever shrinking environment. 2 to 3 feet for a snowblower is no problem at all. And it spreads the snow out so that big piles of snow are non-existent.

Learned this lesson some years ago when I lived in VA. The neighbor man bought a snow blade and tire chain set for his Toro Wheelhoss. First winter after that we got 2 feet of wet snow and he figured it out fast. First off, he was up all night, every hour or so running that blade up and down the driveway to stay ahead of it. He said the thing wouldn't steer worth a darn when pushing snow. And he could only push a load off to the side once. There just wasn't enough open space to push it all to. He got smart... sold the blade the following year and bought a snow thrower.

I was considering a snow blade for my old Murray GT... until I found that it cost about the same as a walk behind 2-stage snow thrower. Guess which one I got.

 

[Chris-PA]

I did mention that the tree was on the lines, as the tree is not on the ground because the power lines are keeping the tree in the air.

Ahh, I get it now. Misunderstood the situation.

 

[G_P]

Right around 36" here in central CT. Its a mess on the side roads and schools are closed again Monday. I'm only 30 but I've never seen this much come down all at once.

Sent from my C5120 using Tapatalk 2

 

[cnice_37]

Might be in the 18-24" zone here. Snowfall wasn't the worst but 2days without power in the cold is rough.

Between truck, plow, tractor, generator and wood stove we are golden. There are some with none of those items freezing their asses off. I dropped off a bucket load of wood at the neighbors. Their house was 39F inside!

Without the blower house was a little chilly but 63F when it was 4F outside... I call that a win.

Power is back and no real damage. Couple trees down in my yard. Roads are pretty crappy but passable.

 

[peterc38]

We ended up close to 30" here. Yesterday was a good day to finish cleaning up.

 

[Somesawguy]

We ended up close to 30" here. Yesterday was a good day to finish cleaning up.

It was decent out. I finished most of it, but still need to make a path out back for the propane guy.

We have some rain on the way to freeze things up solid.

 

[spike60]

Learned this lesson some years ago when I lived in VA. The neighbor man bought a snow blade and tire chain set for his Toro Wheelhoss. First winter after that we got 2 feet of wet snow and he figured it out fast. First off, he was up all night, every hour or so running that blade up and down the driveway to stay ahead of it. He said the thing wouldn't steer worth a darn when pushing snow. And he could only push a load off to the side once. There just wasn't enough open space to push it all to. He got smart... sold the blade the following year and bought a snow thrower.

I was considering a snow blade for my old Murray GT... until I found that it cost about the same as a walk behind 2-stage snow thrower. Guess which one I got.

Yeah, blade, plus weights, plus chains can add up. What most folks don't get is it has very little to do with horsepower, and is mostly a weight issue. (which is why Dalmation's Cub is halfway decent). You need the weight/mass of the plow vehicle to move the weight of the snow. The horsepower on a tractor would come into play if it was going to run a snowblower, but means very little when pushing snow.

Maneuverability is another item that favors a walk behind snow blower. Easy to turn around, and really the only choice if you got some paths to do; woodshed, workshop, dog pen, whatever.

Then, as a dealer there's another lesson we learned about people using their tractors for snow. The twice a year change over between snow removal and mowing can be a source of endless aggravation. Many people can't do it, and want the shop to do it. They ALL wait til the last minute and call when there's a forecast for snow, or the grass is already 6 inches high. And the job by it's nature has to be done at the customer's house, laying on their dirt, after cleaning out their shed/garage to dig out the snow blower or mowing deck. Hoping they didn't misplace a bracket or some hardware since the last change. No lift tables or air tools like at the shop. Here again, I know it costs us some business, but I tell people that want to go this route that they must be able to do the change over themselves, because it's not a service we offer.

 

[avason]

I'm finally getting the energy to post. I have a dodge 1500 with a curtis snow plow. Not the greatest but hey good enough right? Wrong! I should have done a couple sweeps during the storm because even going downhill and pushing the snow to the side was terrible. Got stuck twice and decided to break out my crapsman snow blower and do my 1,000 foot gravel driveway. Did half of it and got in my truck to to the rest. The snow blower worked amazingly. Didn't go down to the gravel but probable 2 inches away from it. That snow blower saved me. Didn't think it would pull it off.

Then I had to do my brothers driveway and my inlaws. Inlaws took me almost 3 hours to do. They were up hill and it was actually easier. I may have turned into a professional after this storm (tonque in cheek)!
Another day off today because of all the snow out there! :msp_razz:

 

[peterc38]

Here are my two Great Danes toughing out the storm.

 

[Blazin]

Here are my two Great Danes toughing out the storm.

Nice! But they can't be true Great Danes, they're not on a couch

 

[peterc38]

Nice! But they can't be true Great Danes, they're not on a couch

100% Great Dane and trust me, they get plenty of couch time !

 

[dave_dj1]

Funny thing is that it's snowing harder right now than it did on Friday night during "the big storm"! :confused2: