Damn‼ A bit nippy today.

[Whitespider]

Just came in from being on top of a grain silo... 1° and wind blowin' 25 MPH out'a the northwest... -24° windchill.
I'm just a tiny bit frosted along the outer edges...
Thinkin' I'll stoke the furnace just a bit more than usual when I get home tonight... maybe an armload of oak.

 

[windthrown]

And I thought that 7° here was cold... now you got me thinking this is balmy!

 

[Ironworker]

Funny, I was just getting ready to start a thread on the first real nasty weather of the season and stumbled on this, so I guess I'll just jump in.

Pretty nasty out here with icy rain.


But not too bad here and a garage full of wood to boot.

 

[laynes69]

Those temps are brutal, but it's the wind that gets us. A clear cold single digit night ain't so bad, but put a strong wind behind it and it tears right thru our home. We've been down to 11 this year so far. Eventually we will fall in the single digits to below zero, but hopefully not anytime soon.

 

[Jim Timber]

It got back up into double digits yesterday and that felt good.

What sucks is that we're the same difference below freezing as comfortable weather is above it.

 

[zogger]

There's only a few things that are good at that temp and windspeed..one I remember is, doing your laundry in the winter, then hanging it outside, it would freeze dry real quick like....

Trying to remember what the other good things were...have to think on it....

..OK..snuggling up to them big fat holsteins while milking...

..dang that sounds a little weird..but I did it! ..ain't proud....

...ice fishing...never liked it much..

..ice skating...never could do it or liked it much....

...skiing...did it some, fell down some, too...never tried skis with honest real bindings though, hay bale rope and army boots and some big wooden skis from the dump.....

..oh, I remember the best..going out double digits below zero and wind..just so that years later you could claim it. AFAIK, my record is -32 with little wind, maybe around minus some teens and windy.

 

[hanniedog]

So what were you doing atop a silo?

 

[windthrown]

It got back up into double digits yesterday and that felt good.

What sucks is that we're the same difference below freezing as comfortable weather is above it.

Yah, its a 60 degree drop to go outside in this stuff. We had whicked 15 degree 40-50 knot winds here three to five says ago. Everything is frozen solid. I am waiting for the warm up... supposed to get above freezing during the day in a few days. Supposed to snow more tonight too. We are breaking a lot of record lows at this level. I think the coldest ever recorded here was about zero. These are 30 year lows for this area.

I ski a lot in winter, as I am on the ski patrol here. When it is this cold everything turns to ice and then we get a lot of cases, and so I do not ski much. Keeps me sane in winter, and out there moving around.

 

[mainewoods]

There's only a few things that are good at that temp and windspeed..one I remember is, doing your laundry in the winter, then hanging it outside, it would freeze dry real quick like....

Trying to remember what the other good things were...have to think on it....

..OK..snuggling up to them big fat holsteins while milking...

..dang that sounds a little weird..but I did it! ..ain't proud....

...ice fishing...never liked it much..

..ice skating...never could do it or liked it much....

...skiing...did it some, fell down some, too...never tried skis with honest real bindings though, hay bale rope and army boots and some big wooden skis from the dump.....

..oh, I remember the best..going out double digits below zero and wind..just so that years later you could claim it. AFAIK, my record is -32 with little wind, maybe around minus some teens and windy.

Sounds like you used to live in Maine,Zogger.

 

[zogger]

Sounds like you used to live in Maine,Zogger.

I did for some years. That one cold spell I was outside in the moonlight sitting on a log and a tree a-sploded right next to me, I guess the sap freezes or something, crack/boom/splinters, like a big barber chair..

I went home and had some hot coffee with molasses in it after that.....

 

[dave_dj1]

We had a bit of a fizzled out storm here over night, less than 1/4" of snow. Today was a balmy 35* and cloudy. Looks like the deep freeze is coming though. I'm still trying to get things straightened up around here before we get any real snow.

 

[Bushmans]

Around 20-25 all day. Snow here all day. Mostly lake effect stuff. No real accumulation, maybe 2" but it was enough to get out my new toy and try it out. A few laps around the yard for the first time I ever rode it!

 

[Whitespider]

So what were you doing atop a silo?

Friggin' two-way repeater antenna went bad‼

Cripes, those things near last forever unless lightning strikes 'em... and, by the looks of it that's what happened to this one sometime this summer. Problem was it must'a been a light hit, just enough to crack the outer fiberglass and not smoke the innerards. So then it filled with water... then we get a -10° night like last night... and then the water freezes dead solid, expands and crushes the inner copper core. I was on top of that headhouse for near three friggin' hours by the time I pulled the new one up the side of the silo, then up the side of the headhouse and got it replaced.

You ever tried to hang on to a 15 foot antenna in a 25 MPH wind and get it mounted??

 

[hanniedog]

We have one of those antennas on top of a 75 ft grain leg. Its useless now since we went to cell phones. We used hand held radios and those things ate batteries.

 

[Whitespider]

Ya' know?? It's kind'a funny, a lot of farming operations got away from two-way a few years ago thinkin' cell phones were a viable replacement. The problem with cell phones is they're mostly point-to-point and you have to dial a different number for each person, or unit. With two-way radios ya' just grab the mic and speak... and everybody, and every mobile unit with a radio hears it. During planting and harvest, when there may be a dozen, two dozen, or more pieces of equipment running everybody gets the same message simultaneously. The cell phone just didn't work out; the last couple of years most of them have come back to two-way... they're just faster, handier and everybody knows what everybody else is doing. Most of 'em even install a base radio in the farmhouse kitchen so mama can call 'em all in for lunch... she just grabs the mic and hollers... CHOW‼

Some of the small family farms are using cell phones, the three and four man operations... but once you start gettin' up around a dozen people/pieces of equipment running the cell phone ain't cuttin' it for 'em. The two biggest complaints I hear is trying to manipulate the cell while trying to drive a combine, and loading/unloading trucks and wagons. If'n ya' need to holler "STOP"... well... by the time ya' dial the number and the other guy answers it flat too damn late.

This was actually the coop's repeater... and coops have always stayed with two-way. When ya' have that many different trucks and pieces of equipment the two-way radio is the only real option. I just up-graded a coop this summer to all new radios... 87 mobile radios in as many pieces of equipment, 5 office base radios, three repeaters, a three dozen handhelds (portables). Yeah, it weren't cheap for them, but think of what the cell phone bill would be each month... and think of the nightmare trying to keep all the phone numbers straight, and keep everyone informed and on the same page?? Using two-way, the guy in the office grabs the mic and every employee, in every piece of equipment, hears what he's yellin'.

 

[hanniedog]

Well there is only three of us and just two doing the field work so the phones work fine. Can see your point when getting into many workers. Use what meets your needs

 

[Iska3]

That had to be a cold one for sure. I was outside this AM when it was around -8 below plowing the smow on the road with the ATV... I was going up and down my road about 14 mph at the time. I had on some bibs and a big coat but never gave my neck a thought until it started to sting. Wouldn't want to be up in the open air working on something in those temps and these conditions... Bad enough trying to work on stuff when you are on the ground...

Glad things worked out for you.... Hope that new stove is doing the trick for you...

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

-7˚ here with wind!

I'm using the wood the crew cut for us last winter!

A big

THANK YOU!

 

[Whitespider]

Hope that new stove is doing the trick for you...

70° in here right now... the wife's under a blanket and just said that don't feel warm enough on a night like tonight (-9°, wind at 16 MPH, wind chill -32°)...
So, before sittin' down at the keyboard, I stopped at the thermostat and bumped it up a couple
In about 15 minutes she'll be complainin' it's too warm in here

The good new is the wind has switched... comin' from the south now.
Should actually start warming up a bit after midnight... might even be up around 0° by sunup.
I'm hopin' we break out'a single digits tomorrow 'cause I have to be on two roof tops in Iowa Falls.

 

[Iska3]

Glad to hear the stove is working out for you. I know what you mean about the wife under the blanket. 74 degrees in the house and she has that blanket up around her neck. Hey! When you get to be my age, maybe that's a good thing.
Talking two more days of this cold weather and then we get a week of the teens to play catchup.. Not fun working outside like that. I can buck and split wood all day in sub zero but working with my fingers and hand tools, that's a different story.

Be Safe!!

70° in here right now... the wife's under a blanket and just said that don't feel warm enough on a night like tonight (-9°, wind at 16 MPH, wind chill -32°)...
So, before sittin' down at the keyboard, I stopped at the thermostat and bumped it up a couple
In about 15 minutes she'll be complainin' it's too warm in here

The good new is the wind has switched... comin' from the south now.
Should actually start warming up a bit after midnight... might even be up around 0° by sunup.
I'm hopin' we break out'a single digits tomorrow 'cause I have to be on two roof tops in Iowa Falls.