Rose Mary Axell
11-27-2006, 07:40 PM
I HATE SNOW DRIFTS
The weather has been -30 and blowing. Wind chill is dropping the temp to -40. The snow has been blowing like crazy and we have huge snow banks. We do not have automatic watering so we have a tank that we haul around with a tractor to water all the horses every day. Because of these rotten snow drifts I have spent the last 3 days fighting with tractors and snow to get water and hay out to 30 horses. Usually we get a lot of wind but not a lot of snow so feeding and watering is not a major issue around here but the last three days have been just way to annoying! (Grumble snarl grouch!)
Here is an example - day 1:
Get up and stoke up the fire temp is -30 with a wind chill of -47 (we live on flat prairie with very few trees so the wind blows for miles with nothing to slow it down). There are snow drifts but figure we can still water OK. Got the first thee pens watered and then ran in to a snow drift that was too deep so the water tractor got stuck. I decided to go get a bigger tractor to pull out the water tractor. Got to the bigger tractor and it was hooked up to the round bale mover and the tractor had 3 feet of snow drifted up against it. Start it up and warm it up while I went to get a shovel to dig it out. I dug out around the tractor a bit so that I could get it moving. Finally managed to get it moving a bit – rocking it back and forth to break some trail. The bale mover has wider tracks than the tractor and I was having enough trouble with just the tractor so eventually I decided that I really did not need the bale picker. I dropped the bale picker so I could go out and rescue the water tractor. I managed to get to the water tractor by hitting snow drifts, backing up and hitting them again until I could finally get through (about 10 drifts between the big tractor and the water tractor) Meanwhile hubby has been digging out the drift around the water tractor. Got the water tractor out and used the bigger tractor to tramp down drifts so we could get through with the water tractor. 2.5 hours later we got all the horses watered and managed to make it back into the house. We warmed up for a bit and decided we had better go out and pull out the brother-in-laws truck that was stuck in the drive way. Broke 2 chains pulling him out and found he had a flat tire. (Left the tire for him to fix) Hubby went to town for the day while I decided to go and get the Bale picker now that the watering was done. I wanted to use yet another tractor (the Ford) to pull out the bale picker…. The Ford has a 3 point hitch so I would be able to lift the nose of the bale picker to get it over the snow drifts.
Found that the Ford tractor was in a snow drift as well, and apparently had a dead battery. Got the shovel and dug around the Ford and got the big tractor over to boost it. Got the Ford running and warmed up then managed to break it out of the snow bank. Then I drove the big tractor back into the yard and came back to drive the Ford over to the bale picker. I could not back in to the bale picker because it had drifted in again. Eventually I managed to get close enough to get a chain on the picker and lift it with the three point hitch. With a bit of work I was able to jerk the picker out of the snow drift, but in the process I damaged the drop pin and blew a bunch of antifreeze out of the tractor. Parked the tractor and the Bale picker on high ground and went to town for parts.
Came back home with parts and decided that I would use the big tractor to haul some extra round bales into all the horse pens. (All the horses had hay but I wanted to put out extra bales to feed during the next 3 weeks while my husband is gone. That way, I do not have to worry about horses running out of hay while I am at work, or getting a tractor stuck when there is no one here to pull me out! I figure it is better to have the horses waste hay that have them run short of feed!) I went to start the big tractor to hook up to the bale picker but the battery was dead! Apparently I did not let it run long enough after boosting the Ford. Brought the car over and boosted the big tractor to get it going. Warmed up the big tractor and took it over and hooked it up to the bale picker. Drove the tractor and picker 200 yards and got stuck in a snow drift! At that point I decided that feeding horses in -40 weather is a man’s job and it can wait until my man is home!!! Besides it is the man’s fault that we have all these snow drifts. He changed the tires on the Ford tractor this year and did not have fluid put back in them. Now I can not plow the snow because my tractor does not have enough weight!
Eventually after two days of trying we did get all the hay out. But I told my hubby that I want a 6 foot snow blower for my tractor before Christmas... or else! :twisted:
The weather has been -30 and blowing. Wind chill is dropping the temp to -40. The snow has been blowing like crazy and we have huge snow banks. We do not have automatic watering so we have a tank that we haul around with a tractor to water all the horses every day. Because of these rotten snow drifts I have spent the last 3 days fighting with tractors and snow to get water and hay out to 30 horses. Usually we get a lot of wind but not a lot of snow so feeding and watering is not a major issue around here but the last three days have been just way to annoying! (Grumble snarl grouch!)
Here is an example - day 1:
Get up and stoke up the fire temp is -30 with a wind chill of -47 (we live on flat prairie with very few trees so the wind blows for miles with nothing to slow it down). There are snow drifts but figure we can still water OK. Got the first thee pens watered and then ran in to a snow drift that was too deep so the water tractor got stuck. I decided to go get a bigger tractor to pull out the water tractor. Got to the bigger tractor and it was hooked up to the round bale mover and the tractor had 3 feet of snow drifted up against it. Start it up and warm it up while I went to get a shovel to dig it out. I dug out around the tractor a bit so that I could get it moving. Finally managed to get it moving a bit – rocking it back and forth to break some trail. The bale mover has wider tracks than the tractor and I was having enough trouble with just the tractor so eventually I decided that I really did not need the bale picker. I dropped the bale picker so I could go out and rescue the water tractor. I managed to get to the water tractor by hitting snow drifts, backing up and hitting them again until I could finally get through (about 10 drifts between the big tractor and the water tractor) Meanwhile hubby has been digging out the drift around the water tractor. Got the water tractor out and used the bigger tractor to tramp down drifts so we could get through with the water tractor. 2.5 hours later we got all the horses watered and managed to make it back into the house. We warmed up for a bit and decided we had better go out and pull out the brother-in-laws truck that was stuck in the drive way. Broke 2 chains pulling him out and found he had a flat tire. (Left the tire for him to fix) Hubby went to town for the day while I decided to go and get the Bale picker now that the watering was done. I wanted to use yet another tractor (the Ford) to pull out the bale picker…. The Ford has a 3 point hitch so I would be able to lift the nose of the bale picker to get it over the snow drifts.
Found that the Ford tractor was in a snow drift as well, and apparently had a dead battery. Got the shovel and dug around the Ford and got the big tractor over to boost it. Got the Ford running and warmed up then managed to break it out of the snow bank. Then I drove the big tractor back into the yard and came back to drive the Ford over to the bale picker. I could not back in to the bale picker because it had drifted in again. Eventually I managed to get close enough to get a chain on the picker and lift it with the three point hitch. With a bit of work I was able to jerk the picker out of the snow drift, but in the process I damaged the drop pin and blew a bunch of antifreeze out of the tractor. Parked the tractor and the Bale picker on high ground and went to town for parts.
Came back home with parts and decided that I would use the big tractor to haul some extra round bales into all the horse pens. (All the horses had hay but I wanted to put out extra bales to feed during the next 3 weeks while my husband is gone. That way, I do not have to worry about horses running out of hay while I am at work, or getting a tractor stuck when there is no one here to pull me out! I figure it is better to have the horses waste hay that have them run short of feed!) I went to start the big tractor to hook up to the bale picker but the battery was dead! Apparently I did not let it run long enough after boosting the Ford. Brought the car over and boosted the big tractor to get it going. Warmed up the big tractor and took it over and hooked it up to the bale picker. Drove the tractor and picker 200 yards and got stuck in a snow drift! At that point I decided that feeding horses in -40 weather is a man’s job and it can wait until my man is home!!! Besides it is the man’s fault that we have all these snow drifts. He changed the tires on the Ford tractor this year and did not have fluid put back in them. Now I can not plow the snow because my tractor does not have enough weight!
Eventually after two days of trying we did get all the hay out. But I told my hubby that I want a 6 foot snow blower for my tractor before Christmas... or else! :twisted: