Here we go again!!! I clear snow at a high school in the big city on the graveyard shift. So last night, I was clearing snow with a Kabota rider with a snow thrower on the front. Lately it has had an intermittent issue with the thrower's belt slipping - one day fine, next day useless. Last night was one of those nights. It took me almost three hours to do what normally takes an hour. After an hour and a half of fighting with it, finessing it slowly to keep the blower chute from clogging, it inexplicably starts working as it should - like magic! Weird! Anyway after finishing and looking like Frosty the Snowman I had just enough time to grab my lunch bag and head out the door.
About this time my phone starts going crazy with texts. My Daughter is stuck at the end of the driveway and her car is "dead". Oh great! Now my wife won't be able to get out either! She says "You'll have to park at the neighbour's". I didn't waste time chatting and just got on the road out to the 'sticks'. When I get there, she's stuck alright, hood is up and her boyfriend is stuck right behind her. Oh man!!!! Alright, what first? Let's boost my daughter's car and push it out to send her on her way, late for work. Quick boost and it fires up, my son is at the wheel and Daughter's boyfriend is about to help push it out to the road when it dies again. Huh? Son says "Gauges went screwy, then it just quit".... ALTERNATOR!!! I look in there to see what kind of job that will be and see lots of snow pushed up into the pulleys and all around the bottom half of the engine. Wow! She made it pretty far down the drive, pushing all that snow. Impressive in a 2 door Focus!!! Then I notice some ice build up on the AC compressor pulley on the drive surface. Strange. I grab the belt and it's super slack!!! Ah-ha! TENSIONER, not alternator. OK, new problem, this car isn't going out, it needs to go back in. The Daughter's boyfriend is still stuck, even though he and my son were digging while I was trouble shooting. New plan: push him forward up to the back of my Daughters bumper with the plow, then back up to his rear bumper and plow the drive towards the house. WOOOT! One car out of the way! Now we hook my Daughter's car up to my van and drive them both simultaneously while still hooked to the jumpers! Driveway is very long - cables are very short - challenging! WOOOT WOOOT! Cars 2 and 3 out of the way! Now I can plow the driveway properly, Daughter gets a ride from her boyfriend and by now they're both very late, wife can finally get to work...late. My son and I are left to deal with the sliding shop door, which of course, is frozen solid and buried in snow. Son is digging while I plow from the house way back to the shops, several prybars free up the sliding door. Plow truck put back into action to push the little car into the shop.
Fire is going, snow is melting and I'm about to look into a new tensioner. All this on Zero sleep in the last 33 hours! It could be worse, at least the plow and snowblower were working well and the pipes weren't frozen at the house like last time!!! I figure another 3 to 4 hours parts chasing and swapping and I'll be ready for a good 10 hour nap!!!!
WHAT A CRAZY WINTER!!!! How's your day going?
-- Edited by Fordy Acres Car Farm on Tuesday 18th of February 2014 11:29:14 AM
__________________
"If I could get back all the money I've ever spent on cars...I'd spend it ALL on cars !!!
I have had enough too.I am tired of shoveling snow off my ROOF! We got another 10 cm last night and it plugged the kitchen sink vent stack.When all this melts there will be some serious high water levels.(in my backyard)
__________________
Reality; A test of Mind and Spirit And BODY. (`-`)
Next round of "fun" should begin tonight and run into the weekend, it's called rain!!!!. Last time we had a thaw in January the water backed up and flooded the garage twice, spent the time since then clearing away as much ice as possible. Guess it's wait and see time!!!!!
When it rains....it pours. Enjoy your much deserved nap. I've decided to just say no to winter
I guess the tensioner was dirty/rusty/frozen. I managed to free it up with much WD-40 and back and forth leverage throughout the available range. I doesn't really SNAP back like it should, but hopefully will get her to warmer weather - COME ON SPRING!
Off to la la land!
__________________
"If I could get back all the money I've ever spent on cars...I'd spend it ALL on cars !!!
I have had enough too.I am tired of shoveling snow off my ROOF! We got another 10 cm last night and it plugged the kitchen sink vent stack.When all this melts there will be some serious high water levels.(in my backyard)
I noticed the furnace and water heater vents were getting pretty close to disappearing on one of my many trips back and forth to stuck cars at the road. I dug them out real good on the last "Everything is Broken" episode and they were 100% buried and disabled my furnace!!! I dug them out again today and hopefully the rain will finish the job in the next couple of days.
I never usually have standing water in my yard, even on the rainiest days, but it's all clay, so it stays wet/soggy longer - it will be a long time before I'll be driving on the grass come spring this year! I hope you don't get flooded. I know my sump pump will be running constantly, probably starting tonight/tomorrow.
__________________
"If I could get back all the money I've ever spent on cars...I'd spend it ALL on cars !!!
I have been trying to keep the snow off my popup, I'm tired of it also.
Can't do it, it's my Daughter! Not going to get anywhere near 10 hours either - gotta pick her up at 5:00. Looks like I might get four and a half hours tonight and much, much more tomorrow. Hey, I can always sleep when I'm dead!
__________________
"If I could get back all the money I've ever spent on cars...I'd spend it ALL on cars !!!
Next round of "fun" should begin tonight and run into the weekend, it's called rain!!!!. Last time we had a thaw in January the water backed up and flooded the garage twice, spent the time since then clearing away as much ice as possible. Guess it's wait and see time!!!!!
Not looking forward to the rain at all! That built up snow "cake" on the driveway/sidewalks will be sheer ice until it melts completely - nightmare!
__________________
"If I could get back all the money I've ever spent on cars...I'd spend it ALL on cars !!!
And when yah get all caught up and get that ten hr sleep ..I got a couple acres that NEED snow blowing..maybe even some removal..I am getting pretty sick of it..worst I can remember in the last 30 years out here..MUST BE THAT GLOBAL WARMING THING EH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am shutting the shop down on Thursday for a week I can't take it anymore ..I have even considered having a drink..but as I smelled it that was enough to get me drunk..so I'm back to Mennonite beer ...Iced tea..But yes it has been a tough winter and the liberals are not finished with us yet they will grind another couple $700 a month bills from us just to keep us with a big smiley face.. we need to get every body to-gether and have a snowball fight ...
being retired I lay on the couch with the dog (since last week) gas firplace cranked up Dop asleep on his back World looks good James BOND marathon is on
being retired I lay on the couch with the dog (since last week) gas firplace cranked up Dop asleep on his back World looks good James BOND marathon is on
While I'm glad that I have a job, I'm not glad about the job I have - retirement sounds great, I can't wait! All this chaos would have been easier if I wasn't up all night working.
Enjoy all the 'Bond....James Bond' action!
__________________
"If I could get back all the money I've ever spent on cars...I'd spend it ALL on cars !!!
And when yah get all caught up and get that ten hr sleep ..I got a couple acres that NEED snow blowing..maybe even some removal..I am getting pretty sick of it..worst I can remember in the last 30 years out here..MUST BE THAT GLOBAL WARMING THING EH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am shutting the shop down on Thursday for a week I can't take it anymore ..I have even considered having a drink..but as I smelled it that was enough to get me drunk..so I'm back to Mennonite beer ...Iced tea..But yes it has been a tough winter and the liberals are not finished with us yet they will grind another couple $700 a month bills from us just to keep us with a big smiley face.. we need to get every body to-gether and have a snowball fight ...
I can't help ya with your acres Chuk, I can barely clear my own driveway, let alone the Fordy Acres here on the Car Farm!!!! You should see the drifts on either side of my driveway at the road -massive tonnage of snow!!!!
__________________
"If I could get back all the money I've ever spent on cars...I'd spend it ALL on cars !!!
I was just reminded by a short piece of broken cable, that my cable equipped winch driven plow blade from the fine folks over at 'Toys R Us' broke the cable this morning too! That was fun to fix in the wind driven snow!!!
__________________
"If I could get back all the money I've ever spent on cars...I'd spend it ALL on cars !!!
Just seems to be the way it goes. Froze my ars off workin on that truck over the weekend when I needed it to be warm....it was freezing....now its fixed and it nice out now. The way it goes.
My lovely daughters truck she bought with her own money.
2000 Ram 5.9 magnum 4x4
She get her G2 in 2 months. But is now going to Humber in the fall, so maybe something a little smaller. SUV of some type. Maybe an expedition?? Durango Not really sure yet.
-- Edited by Fordy Acres Car Farm on Tuesday 18th of February 2014 11:29:14 AM
Roads were crap, worked from home. Got a call, dad got stuck in the driveway, went and helped him out. The hump at the end of the driveway from the snowplow was not soft! car rode up on it and sat down. Bottomed out. Jacked it up and used some wood and a mat to give it a little traction under the wheels.. done and done. Cleaned out his driveway.
Got home, call centre system at work crapped out, spent the afternoon workin on it. No problemmo :)
Mother nature has a note to report to my woodshed for a whoopin. I pick the switch.
fordy, i am a firm believer in the mantra of, if it has to be done-you do it, and when reading your post i could relate to it. this part here caught my attention though, All this on Zero sleep in the last 33 hours!. don't get me wrong i am not doubting you in any way, it just made me think of the many-many times i put those kinda hours in as a truck driver before all the log book stuff came to be. the times were the 70's and the 80's though when i was a much younger person with new truck and trailer payments. good for you buddy, don't know if i could today. -as for plowing snow this winter, yea its getting boring and i use a 580K backhoe. for previous years you didn't mind it as it broke the monotony of the winter up. now it is turned into more of a regular job that has to be done. my 3 lane ways, path to the barn, another path to the barnyard to put hay out and the lane way of my older widow neighbour. -another as for, this little thaw and maybe some rain that is suppose to be coming shortly isn't the big problem. the big problem will be the actual spring thaw thats coming. with the 2-3-4" of ice on the bottom all this snow won't be going into the ground. when the thaw switch gets thrown stuff is going to happen fast instead of a more gradual run off. batten down your hatch's, this could be ugly. my thinking only here.
fordy, i am a firm believer in the mantra of, if it has to be done-you do it, and when reading your post i could relate to it. this part here caught my attention though, All this on Zero sleep in the last 33 hours!. don't get me wrong i am not doubting you in any way, it just made me think of the many-many times i put those kinda hours in as a truck driver before all the log book stuff came to be. the times were the 70's and the 80's though when i was a much younger person with new truck and trailer payments. good for you buddy, don't know if i could today.
Well, it certainly wasn't planned! The original plan was to come home and go directly to sleep! I was REALLY looking forward to it actually. Styx lyric: "Nothing ever goes as planned" , but yes, you gotta do what you gotta do! Just sucks in the winter!
__________________
"If I could get back all the money I've ever spent on cars...I'd spend it ALL on cars !!!
we need to get every body to-gether and have a snowball fight ...
I meant the truck lol lol 
