A Bad Day Blowing Snow

Mark M · January 28, 2004, 08:13:37 PM

Last weekend we got a pretty good snow, about 6 inches. Out here on the prairie a few inches is a big deal because it blows around and makes some pretty big drifts. I get out my snowblower and start to clear the parking lot (the thurdy-room house has parking for about 10 cars). The drifts are about 2-3 feet high but I have memorized where everything is that buried under the snow (well almost everything).

I'm trying to get close to the house and BANG! one flower pot bites the dust. OK - no biggie, it's just a plastic flower pot and we have a lot of them. I turn around make another cut, and BANG - another flower pot. DanG! - I thought I knew where those things were.

So now I go out by the wood pile and I know there is some wood under the snow so I better not get too close. Werrrrrrrrrr, Flip Flip Flip Flip, squeal, crunch. DanG! - I forgot that tarp was laying by the wood pile. Oh well its only a $10 plastic tarp. I tip the snowblower up on it's handles and my wife and I start cutting the tarp out of the blower. DanG its hard to get 20 feet of tarp out of a snowblower! Found one of the shear bolts broken so I go out to the garage and get one of my cheap Taiwanese bolts and put it in the auger.

Next I tip the blower back do, pull the rope, and about rip my fingers off. DanG thing won't turn over - hmmmmmmm? I know what it is, I must have had some gas run down into the crankcase. OK, I pull the dip stick and about 1 quart of oil and gas runs out of crankcase. Wow! - I'm glad it didn't start otherwise I would have ruined the engine. I push the snowblower into the garage, change the oil, and I'm ready to go again.

About a half hour goes by and everything is working great. Now I'm over by the log pile and my sawmill. I know I have a few logs there and some slabs from when Gus was up so I better be careful. BANG! - whoops I got a little close to that little pine log that's hidden under the snow. No problem, I have a hole box of them cheap bolts. Another half hour goes by and now I have most of the parking lot cleared. I better try to get a little closer to the house. What this? my extension cord is hanging over the old freezer, I better not get too..........flip flip flip flip flip flip flip.... CLOSE. DanG! - now I got my good 12-guage extension cord! Oh well it's not really that hard to get 25 feet of extension cord out of an auger. Besides that I can always use two short extension cords.

Some days it just don't pay to get out of bed.

Mark

PS - If that weren't enough when I get inside I hear: Honey the sewer must be plugged again. There's water coming out of the drain in the washroom!

Paul_H · January 28, 2004, 09:09:30 PM

:D :D 8)
Good one Mark.I'll bet that struck close to home for alot of us.
I remember something about Norm having water gushing out his roof vents.

Percy · January 28, 2004, 09:52:43 PM

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :DGood story Mark :D :D :D :D :D :D

I sold my snowblower when I got the Bobcat. Before I got rid of it, I ruined a perfactly good EASTON aluminum hockey stick, the dog chain got eaten....and about 50 feet of uptown garden hose. I went thru about a pail of them cheap bolts as well.

slowzuki · January 29, 2004, 05:10:42 AM

I broke the gatepost off for our property plowing the road on saturday, I'm glad I don't have a snowblower!
Ken

Gus · January 29, 2004, 07:44:18 AM

Winters picked up to a real crescendo around here Mark. The ends of my thumbs are cracking open from trying to splice 24 gauge wires with no gloves on when its 10 - 15 below zero. Makes it hard to type. :D :D :D

OneWithWood · January 29, 2004, 09:53:40 AM

I thought you were pushing busses out of the sand in Peru? Did you just get home and start in on the snow?
Don't you wish you were back in Peru? :D

dail_h · January 29, 2004, 11:46:08 AM

WHAT"SA SNOWBLOWER?

Jeff · January 29, 2004, 03:09:28 PM

My question is, its nye on 24 hours since you wrote that. Have you seen the cat?

Gus · January 29, 2004, 03:40:42 PM

:D :D :D :D :D

karl · January 29, 2004, 03:46:05 PM

Don't cha just hate the way stuff moves around under a good snow fall? ;) Thanks for the chuckle- glad you have a sense of humor 8)
Backed my car into some fresh snow beside my house once- could'nt figure out what that snapping sound was until I remembered the wood extention ladder I'd left laying there. :

:-[

WV_hillbilly · January 29, 2004, 05:12:20 PM

Isn't it great to be home Mark . Your day sounds like the month I 'm having . So far I have locked up the motor on the log splitter , broke the scroll saw , broke my 3 month old 372 Husky, and fried the printed cicuit board on mini lathe . The best part is there is still a few days left in the month to break something else . So far except for log splitter motor nothing cost over $100 per machine Just lots of agravation . >:( I think I'm just going to watch tv for the rest of the month . ;D

Stan · January 29, 2004, 06:17:35 PM

You call 2 to 3' of snow a drift? I can remember one that reached the barn roof peak, and swallowed a Cat and a tank retriever. Best of all, that was with less than a mile of fetch. 8)

Mark M · January 29, 2004, 06:23:35 PM

The cat knows better that to go outside Jeff, unlike me. I got back from Peru late last Wednesday and it started snowing the next day. Now we have this cold stuff. Yesterday it was a little below -20 and it was snowing like crazy. In MN it rarely snowed if it was cold. I'd go back to Peru in a minute! The weather was absolutely beautiful there, around 75 every day. Lots of nice flowers and flowering trees, a lot like Florida. It wasn't too hot and it wasn't very humid, but the sun caught me off guard and I got burnt to a crisp in just a couple of hours. It was a shock when I got off the airplane but I'm really glad to be back with my family.

Furby · January 30, 2004, 03:48:54 PM

I got eaten by a snowblower before..............
only once! :-/ :

;D

Corley5 · January 30, 2004, 07:40:36 PM

Rocks, dirt, sod, branches, leaves etc. ;D Usually break a couple shear pins the first couple times I blow snow. After that everything is frozen down that wasn't blown away the first couple times. Ran a chain binder into it once. Broke a shear pin and the binder ;D Dad and I make it a point before the snow comes to canvas all areas to be plowed for anything that shouldn't be there. We usually get it all ;) I got too close to the mailbox last year. Just missed putting it through the blower and took a big chunk out of the post with the augers :

burlman · January 31, 2004, 10:06:15 AM

all part of the fun of the season. I went out with the plow a couple of weeks ago, to open up a cottage road. I was pushing along fine with my 250 ford diesel with my Boss V-plow slicing apath down the road, when with a load bang and a dead stop, we hit a washout in the road about 10 in. deep. I guess the big rain we had at the end of december cut under the road surface but let enough of a layer of ice on top as to not notice the depression in the snow. Any way we bent one push arm, broke the bracket on the frame off the other side. the harness then pushed under the truck, bending the front of the truck frame , ahead of the shackles down about 2in. and sideways about 3 in. broke the push beam on the plow as well as the corner of the cutting edge. all in all ow! great way way to clean out under your seat in a hurry. Thankfully we had a seatbelt on, I hate making out with the steering wheel. Well were all back together and ready for the next storm, 2 more months and the end wiil be in sight.

Paschale · June 10, 2005, 03:20:38 PM

Thanks for bringing this back to the top, Jeff. I missed that the first time around.

CHARLIE · June 11, 2005, 10:47:06 AM

Thanks Jeff. Mark sure had a way of putting a smile on my face.

Paul_H · December 21, 2005, 11:03:45 PM

Merry Christmas

Jeff · December 21, 2005, 11:06:47 PM

Merry Christmas Mark.

Paschale · December 21, 2005, 11:13:25 PM

Yup....Merry Christmas, Mark.

sawguy21 · December 21, 2005, 11:16:32 PM

Thanks for bringing that back Jeff. I sure needed a good laugh to lighten my day. Mark was a character.
For years I was the guy at the local repair shop cutting barbed wire, extension cords, dog leashes, fortunately no dogs, baler twine, and various other implements of destruction out of snowblowers. The worst part was trying to get the augers off the rusted shaft. Oh, and washing the dog's land mines off the machine.

isawlogs · December 21, 2005, 11:26:06 PM

Merry Christmas Mark

To all of those that have left us there is a thought here for you . Joyeux Noël

etat · December 21, 2005, 11:40:02 PM

I found this picture of Mark and his other family besides the one he had here. I hope it is appropriate to post it because I couldn't find a link back to a thread it was posted in.

Merrilee, Jesse, Jessilee, Bob, Sasha, Mark, Cindy, Aaron, Cliff

VA-Sawyer · December 21, 2005, 11:51:03 PM

"A good man passed by this way, and we were all better for it"

Merry Christmas Mark.

IMERC · December 22, 2005, 12:51:19 AM

I knew there was a real reaon not to move snow.

Jeff · December 22, 2005, 12:57:50 AM

For some of you folks that never got the pleasure to know Mark, here is another thread that is a must read. Read the whole thing. My eyes are watering again after reading the part where Mark gets back after

Going to Town

tnlogger · December 22, 2005, 05:38:18 AM

jeff thank you

OneWithWood · December 22, 2005, 08:01:21 AM

Mark definately started a few things around here. In many ways I think he is still very much here.

sawguy21 · December 22, 2005, 08:54:38 AM

Thanks Jeff. I missed that the first time around. It is a hoot. Outhouse with the roof missing. Now that is funny :D :D :D :D :D

GF · December 22, 2005, 10:03:52 AM

That gave me a laugh this morning to start out my day, it is very obvious how Mark touched each person. Thanks for bringing the topic back to the top and starting my day out with a laugh. May eveyone have a Merry Christmas including Mark for all the great memories.