Back in '97 we had a shit ton of snow, resulting in 20'+ snow drifts where you could walk up on top of buildings. My brother and I dug out a snow fort that had three different chambers, one of them being above the other two. They were big enough to stand up and walk around in, and we made it so you could take a sled and slide through all of them starting from a hole at the top of the drift and ending at the bottom entrance. I wish we would've taken pictures of it. After a few days the drift settled and the rooms and tunnels got smaller, so we had to dig it all again, this time with the snow twice as dense. It was a lot of work, but it was awesome.
What I'm digging the tunnels in is just the snow from my driveway. I asked my friend who plowed us out to try to bunch it all together so we could dig into it. It's as hard packed as a 4x4 Chevy 2500 with an 8' plow can make it, but that also makes it a bitch to dig into. The nice thing is, it should last quite a while. I made the tunnels big enough for me to squeeze through, but the kids and Tonka fit fine. The area in between the two separate tunnels is going to be built into a castle turret, and I'm going to try to make another elevated one on top of the snow pile. There is also a second pile that is disconnected in front of our shed, so I will make my own connecting tunnel when I get into that. Going to try to make some decent sized rooms for the kids to be able to eat lunch and drink hot chocolate in. Needless to say, this will be my job tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. We're supposed to be getting a "wintry mix" storm on Tuesday, so hopefully it will glaze the whole thing over. No temperatures above freezing until then, so it should get nice and solid tonight. Does it make me a bad person that I want a plow truck now just so I can build stuff like this every winter?
We used to build stuff like this when it snowed in MI. After a big snow, we'd have a huge mound (like the size of a large rv) from the plows at the end of the street a couple houses down. We'd play king of the mountain on that for hours before we dug into it making a massive, multi-room fort. Then we'd destroy it later that day. Then we'd go sledding down it.
Not at all. But I suggest a yard tractor, even a small one so you can pile the snow 8+' tall. Stormagedon is upon us again. Wintry mix will either equal nothing or we'll have the glorious ice storm of 2008 all over again. Either way I filled up every available fuel tank I had this morning, topped off my winter vehicles, and stocked up on the essentials. I'm just hoping it starts before the morning commute so I can beg off going into the office. I hate when these fuckers hit midday and screw everything up.
Here's where we're at now. I've been lazy this weekend, and didn't get much done. I built a wall to connect the two tunnels using trashcans full of snow. Starting a second level to go all the way around like a turret. Supposed to get a snow/ice storm tomorrow, so that should really glaze it over nicely.
I'd even go so far as to suggest a snowblower for an ATV. That way you get the use of an ATV when not building snow forts. Unless you're on a sizable piece of land, might make more sense. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.bercomac.com/accessories-videos-23-prestige-snowblower-atv.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.bercomac.com/accessories-vid ... er-atv.php</a>
The girlfriend's kids wanted to build a snow fort yesterday, so I took my Bobcat with a snowblower on it and made all my snow piles into one big pile. They're too small to manhandle a shovel, so I pretty much did all the digging while they watched. I spent about 4 hours on it and it's big enough to stand up in. I'm so fucking sore today I could hardly get out of bed. The little fuckers owe me one.
Yikes... $5k for a snowblower attachement. Think I paid $3k for the one on my tractor which cuts a 60" swath. However the ATV snowblower is an excellent way to get an ATV out of the deal.
Holy shit. I paid $900 for the 7' tractor blower that I retrofitted for my skid steer and I thought that was enough.
I'm sure there are tons that are way cheaper, I was just linking to the video for reference. Joys of a small tractor is it (usually) has a PTO, and drops the price of any add-ons in a BIG way. Mind you, in my neck of the woods, tractors are fucking EXPENSIVE. ATV's are a dime a dozen, and lots of people have plows on them around here. I'm just thinking that something combined with an ATV might have more year-round use compared to a tractor. Just another option I thought I'd bring up.
It actually snowed today here in Shanghai. You'd called it a wintery mix. I guess it's pretty fucking rare to get snow here, this is the second time this year so far. Everyone is out taking pictures of the 1/8th of an inch of accumulation. Traffic flow is hard enough to gauge here and you white knuckle it rain or shine, but the cabs are near impossible to find when this stuff happens.
And so it begins. Flurries were flying when I brought the pooch out at 530. With overnight/current temps of right around 6 degrees fahrenheit the snow flakes are tiny tiny which means they stick to everything which could be bad news later if we get rain and freezing rain.
Guy Fawkes, I'm about 45 miles east of you, and we're at two inches of accumulation, and it's borderline snow/freezing rain right now. They've already canceled school, so my kids are going to be thrilled.
I was just about to gloat about having insanely perfect weather (50 degrees), but then I realized that come July, when I'm stewing in a mixture of my own sweat and tears, someone would throw that back in my face.
Yup school canceled here as well. Have the neighbors kids playing with my dog outside right now. The Fawkes Taxi service was in full effect as I had a friend who couldn't get out of the parking lot at 7:30AM (she works overnights in the ER) and a buddy that spun off the road a little but needed to get to work. I didn't mind because it got me to the coffee shop for breakfast where I got to listen to some of the funniest bullshitting and ball busting I've ever heard courtesy of a bunch of retired old guys. Those fuckers are brutal to everyone but especially each other. We've got about 3" on the snow but the temps are rising so it's sticking to everything, especially the road. It's fucked up because these are the exact same conditions that caused the ice storm of '08. At least the power company learned it's lesson because I saw half a dozen tree trucks out and about already.
Yeah, it's coming down as slush now. Going to go out and start shoveling before it gets too wet and heavy. Even the dog doesn't want to go out and play in it, it's cold and miserable today.
10" of fresh snow and all is quiet. Too quiet. Nothing falling from the sky right now... but it feels like the scene from a horror movie when a shark or monster is circling under the water. I know something bad is coming (and inch of rain and then a half inch of freezing rain/ice) but I'm just sitting here waiting for it.
Connecticut is a fucking mess today, the parking lot at work might as well be made of glass. The drive home should be fun. If I don't make it home alive TiB, you can have all my things.