Wild and Free

Since this is happening on christmas day all of the stores are going to be sardine cans today and tomorrow. I think you may feel the wrath of this one too Buzzin.

If it was anything like the last one there is absolutely no work happening outside at all. Can't see your hand in front of your face "Literally" in these conditions. Snow coming at you horizontally at 50+ mph will disorientate you and makes one dizzy.

(THIS IS NOT A SNOWFALL MAP). This is a QPF forecast. This shows how much liquid precipitation could fall. It's a bit safer to post this, instead of snow estimates. A wide area of North and South Dakota have the potential to receive well over an inch of melted precipitation. Depending on snow ratios, that area could receive 12 to 16 inches (or even higher). I'll wait for the Weather Service to make that call, and they should be releasing official snowfall estimates tomorrow once the storm actually makes landfall on the West Coast. The bottom line is this: The Northern Plains has unobstructed access to deep Gulf moisture that will be surging north into the storm. I mean, a lot of moisture. This massive moisture surge will make this storm wide in terms of areal coverage. Winds mixed with that heavy snow will make travel nearly impossible. Gusts over 60 mph are a real concern for Sunday into Monday. Right now, snow should begin early Sunday morning between 3 and 6 am. The snow will expand and intensify as the Low is kicked out of Colorado and sent our direction. All day Sunday (Christmas) should be hazardous in terms of travel. You are welcome to come visit next week and try it out after a real snow storm lol.

On some local forums here guys were posting the limits they ran into with that style snow pusher "They are not an actual plow" with the heavy and deep snow we have had, a couple have since upgraded to a regular full sized plow now lol. Here is one such fellow. Talking about a foot to 18 inches more here on Christmas day with 50+ mph winds again. Just got done clearing the yard of the last 3 feet of snow over the last 3 weeks.

We are acustomed to snow and cold but we had it so easy the last 3 years with very little snow and no extreme cold snaps it takes one by surprise and then we don't usually get 2 bad blizzards a week apart this early in the season. 3 feet of snow in two weeks on the open prairie with 50+- mph wind for 3-4 days straight makes a mess of things unlike a lot of places where the snow falls straight down, man that would be a dream come true for us.

Sorry Mike I just got your message this afternoon, never even looked at my phone this weekend. I get home from work and it winds up in my lunch box as I am so sick of it during the week, on it constantly for work. As to this issue, I have not seen nor heard of this issue before, new one on me so I wouldn't have been much help. Been spending all my spare time trying to keep up on snow removal in my yard since getting back from vaca 3 weeks ago and then extreme cold all this last week has not helped. Finally got the yard cleaned up yesterday after 5 hours on the loader tractor now to find out possibly another foot of snow over Christmas weekend.

Well we did it last night. set a new record low of minus 30 we actually saw minus 27 on my pickup thermometer on the way home from date night with the mrs. Have not see minus 30's since winter of 2008-2009 here myself. I was coming home from work and saw minus 36 with strong wind with the 05 cummins, was a cold trip home couldn't get it to make heat in the engine not to mention in the cab.

We are currently in the mid minus 20's actual temps with minus 40-50 wind chill feels like temp through tomorrow then into the low 30's monday and tuesday, everyone will be wearing tank tops and flip flops by then, We were all laughing at work a couple days ago, it was negative 10 and dead calm and everyone thought it was a beautiful day lol. the wind is what does us in with the cold, one get used to the cold fairly fast but even a slight breeze is really killer and it gets worse the higher the humidity is with it. This is my wifes vw tdi as she drove out of the yard this morning. and a screen shot of a friends weather station south of us.

Shocks aren't too short are they/ I would just pop them out and drive it for a day just as a quick experiment.

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Have to update, I have been out of the loop for a bit luckily the wife had not mailed in the acceptance offer. I had not read it since she started it and you are correct they only offer buy out with an emissions update. i told her to stop and refile to try for a buy back offer now instead, having to do the emissions update in order to receive payment just killed that deal for us.

Not sure why they don't just force them to upgrade to clean diesels rather than ban them all together. From sitting through several diesel emission seminars the new diesels actually clean the air in highly polluted areas. The air exiting the exhaust is cleaner than what they are taking in and one seminar had it backed up by some study from California.

I would move to Florida in a split second, only thing holding me back is my wife helping her mom who is 82 years old and having animals on her farm yet.

Seriously considering looking into an upgrade this next summer once i get the repower done on the other tractor. possibly selling both the current ones and getting into a nice used 45+- hp range L series with a cab.

Wife is a smiling girl today. VW has sent out buy back options for the TDI diesels that where part of the big VW mess and her car is part of the deal. They sent out a nice gesture a year ago already of a 500 dollar prepaid gift card and a 500 credit to be spent at the dealer which was nice. Then came the buy back campaign where they make different offers, total buyback offer for a set price depending on several factors or keep the car and do the recall emissions repair and get a partial refund or one can get a partial refund and not do the emissions repair. I did some number crunching and decided if we keep the car we could come out 2-4K better taking the partial refund price decline the emissions recall and if she wanted to sell car outright which she submitted and she got the offer back last night of a bit over 6K from VW which was the loan payoff amount when she submitted the app a couple months ago. She is very happy as am I, just fell into the deal real sweet to start with being it was a repairables car and we got it @ around 5k under book to start with and now this, She wants to possibly sell it now and use the win fall gain to get into a larger 4wd or awd rig now.

Yeah.............85* last week Wednesday when we flew back home to minus 21 today talk about a shock to the system. Talking highs of only zero for the next week here now excluding tomorrow which may get close to a whopping +10......maybe. The last two years Bismarck got 24-26 inches of snow for the entire season we had that alone last week and then another 6-8 inches earlier this week and all of it with 40-60 mph winds. And now saying a few more inches possible today.

This is what the thermostat sai @2am as I pulled into my driveway from work and now going to go out to deal with this crap which is nearly as hard as concrete now and about average depth of 3 feet.

I had to dig out the operation manual too to figure it out the first time I needed to get my 2010 1500 into neutral to tow it home when I toasted the tranny a couple years ago, what a PITA. I would need to look it up if I needed to to it again, mine has the neutral button under the rotary switch. There is a procedure to get it into low range IIRC as well but it is simpler than going into neutral.

Haha funny you say that, first push i made I missed the approach by a couple feet that I push across the road into the open field across from my house and wound up high centered. 1 minute into snow removal and I was shoveling the tractor out. Worst part of this stuff is it rained fairly heavy just before the snow started so there is a thick layer of ice under the snow so traction sucks big time.

Man just got home about 1 pm jumped on the tractor about 2 pm and moved snow for about 3 hour, still have several more hours to get things done but can at least get in and out of the yard and buildings now. Have a couple drifts about 7 feet deep that crossed my main drive way and 4-6 foot drifts in front of most every door of shop and house. Stuff is extremely wet and heavy snow too, you can see the water in it when moving it. just got done putting the winter studded tires on the wife Jetta too. 3 days and about 18-24 inches of snow in all the areas around me with 30-40 mph wind.

Sounds like i will get to play in the snow when I get home from Florida tomorrow if the flight goes which looks good we have gotten over a foot of snow and still falling through tomorrow morning Interstate is closed between town and my place now but have back roads to get home

That is my some day plan, love Cape Coral for that exact reason, looking for the nicest area to look for an investment/ retirement/ vacation condo. Getting it narrowed down to the area of town we like best now after four trips here.

Haha it's been way warmer and wetter than normal but it still falls short of sw Florida, that was from the Westin of Cape Coral florida looking towards the Caloosahachi river where it meets the Gulf of Mexico by sanibel island