# Anybody out plowing snow?



## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Just did a 9:00am to 9:00pm shift in the 9540 with the Arctic poly plow. Man I love Arctic snowplows.
We got about 21-24" today. 
She's petering out now. 
Good by winter storm Jonah.

Gotta go back out tomorrow and do more.

So 2 weeks ago one of my more money than brains neighbors texts me and says "your snowplow services are no longer needed" 
I thought it was odd. I know him pretty well, found a lost dog for him and returned it to him, plowed his driveway a few years, sold him some firewood, etc. 
so today I'm plowing the neighbor to the more money than brains neighbor and this guy with bad teeth and a limp comes walking over with a worried look on his face. He says to me "you the guy who used to do the___________'s driveway? I said "yep". He says "I'm the new guy doing it, but the snows so deep, my truck won't make it through". I said "ain't that something, you come knocking on doors and taking customers from me I've serviced for years, and now you want my help"? He said "I'll pay you whatever you want". I told him "run along and see what it's like to be in the snow plowing business when the going gets tough". 
He took another 5 yr customer from me down the road. Her driveway isn't even done yet. 
No wonder I want to be by myself in a tractor in the middle of a big field half my life. 
I'm sick of assholes like that shitting up my turf.


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## Trillium Farm (Dec 18, 2014)

When they come back to you and they will, I hope you'll reward their loyalty with a hefty increase.

At least now you know where you stand.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

I can't even get out of my house!


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

8350HiTech said:


> I can't even get out of my house!


Yeah? What'd you get up there? It just ended here. Looks like close to 2 foot.
Bad snow drifts. 95% of everything normally open is closed. Wawas are open.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

JD3430 said:


> Yeah? What'd you get up there? It just ended here. Looks like close to 2 foot.
> Bad snow drifts. 95% of everything normally open is closed. Wawas are open.


Something in the 20s. Some people have said 30. There's a 5' wall pushed up from the state plowing the road. Some big drifts. The windows above my front porch are completely covered.

I was thinking about driving my Valtra home last night (it's only 3 miles) but I drove my Jetta because snow estimates are always high. ... Almost always. Oh well.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Nothing here, I haven't even put the plow on the truck yet.


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

I've only had to push snow twice this winter. That's just fine by me. In the winter of 08/09 we had something like 12 ft of total snow that winter. It was a never ending job of pushing snow. Most days you'd push snow for an hour before you'd feed in the mornings and then push more snow when you were done, just to have the wind blow more back in by the next day. Shoveling bunks everyday before you feed gets real old real fast. Calving was real fun that spring as most of that snow didn't melt till May. Cows calved on little islands of high ground with water everywhere when it melted. We went through 3 bad winters in a row then. I hope I never experience that again but know I will.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Oh the previous couple of winters I'd push snow for twice as long as it took to grind a load and feed em, that got old in a hurry. Then plow for an hour or two every time we loaded the hay trucks.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Meanwhile, in Shiner, TX...






I rolled out a couple bales yesterday evening when I got back to the farm after taking my folks to their eye appointment...

Was a cold night-- got down to 32...

This morning before I could go get a croissant at the bakery, I had to use my ice scraper on the windshield of the van... was a solid thick layer of hard frost...

Came back and shredded around the house and barn, then switched to the rolling stalk choppers to knock down frozen dry weeds and chop them up so the winter grass can come through...

Later! OL J R


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

JD3430 said:


> Yeah? What'd you get up there? It just ended here. Looks like close to 2 foot.
> Bad snow drifts. 95% of everything normally open is closed. Wawas are open.


 Should have been this lucky in the lottery 31 inches. Took a lot of digging to get this guy in


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Have heifers 5 mile from home . Drug a load of feed back there.2 lane highway nobody moving ,coming back thankfull for power line poles . Whiteout conditions longest five miles I ever drove


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

Blue sky and sunny yesterday here. Could see the wall of clouds to the east though.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

JD3430 said:


> Just did a 9:00am to 9:00pm shift in the 9540 with the Arctic poly plow. Man I love Arctic snowplows.
> We got about 21-24" today.
> She's petering out now.
> Good by winter storm Jonah.
> ...


 In my younger days we were in the snow removal and I can say been there and done that to the pickup truck guys out bidding me and then looking for help as soon as it snowed more than 6 inches. The pickup truck warriors couldn't even get to the job much less try to plow yesterday there's a bunch of them in the ditch . ignoreSomebody abandon this one in the middle of the road right in front the dairy barn. We moved it


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## Growing pains (Nov 7, 2015)

We got lucky. Only a couple inches but I still had to go to work from 11 Friday night to noon Saturday to clean it up. It's always funny to watch the pickup truck warriors out trying to plow. Seems to be about the most inefficient way to move snow.


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## DSLinc1017 (Sep 27, 2009)

Not one flake from this storm! Has been sunny and a bit on the cold side. Have only plowed a few to 4 inches maybe twice so far this winter.


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## Growing pains (Nov 7, 2015)

DSLinc1017 said:


> Not one flake from this storm! Has been sunny and a bit on the cold side. Have only plowed a few to 4 inches maybe twice so far this winter.


Vermont seems like a place where it would snow a lot more than 4 inches twice a year. Warmer up there than normal this year too?


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Saw 8-10 plows heads up north yesterday from Florida on I-75.....I guess they mounted the blades on them and hauled ass....I didn't even know they had that many......


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## glasswrongsize (Sep 15, 2015)

JD3430 said:


> He took another 5 yr customer from me down the road. Her driveway isn't even done yet.
> No wonder I want to be by myself in a tractor in the middle of a big field half my life.
> I'm sick of assholes like that shitting up my turf.


Hate to burst your bubble, but you'll get your throat cut in the hayfield, too. Someone will come along and have "hay" for sale that is really hubcaps, beer bottles, some weeds, and if they are lucky there will be a hamburger wrapper with some cheese left on it for some nutrients. Someone will buy their junk too...once.
Once you get those customers weeded out, it will leave only the good customers and make room for MORE good customers. Short term, the loss of driveways etc can have economic setbacks, but long term you may be thankful.

I have mixed feelings on the customers (as the personal relationship is an unknown) that left you for another.
You can decide if the customer thought they had their best interest in mind in that the "new guy" might have sold them a bill-of-goods that convinced them you weren't near as good as them and were higher priced as well. You customers will have learned their lesson (hopefully) and if you take their work back, they may learn from their mistakes, hold you in even better regard and never even entertain another offer. They may also live by the motto of "fool me once"...

73, Mark


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## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

It's a weird feeling, there's a lot of snow in the news and Buffalo, NY isn't being mentioned!?! Even here where we are used to getting dumped on, 2 to 3 feet would shut things down for a day or two. It's nice to be able to send our plows out to help instead of having to ask others to send theirs in.

I still scrape our driveway with the bucket on the tractor, but move most of the snow with the 3pt hitch snowblower. It helps keep big banks of snow and ice from being built up right next to the driveways since it can through it back 20-30 feet and get it out of the way. I'm hoping everyone had feed delivered prior to the storm and that the milk tanks got emptied before the storm hit. I can't imagine it's going to be too quick before those deliveries/pickups start back up.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Just finished up for good. Took on a few people who only call when its a catastrophe.

Final total was 25"

4th highest in Philadelphia history.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

It settled some by noon today when I took these. I shoveled my driveway out by hand so that I could get my car out. Neighbor was going to finish it with his NH Boomer I left for the farm to get the Bobcat and do a few friends who live in the other direction. Every loader tractor and backhoe is out and about getting people freed. Not sure where our official number ended up but we were pushing the record. So, to the original point, it's not unfathomable that someone had gone with a cheaper plowing alternative. Clearly we don't have many of these snow events. Just really, really bad timing for your neighbor.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

Whops. Just turn your devices upside down


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Josh in WNY said:


> It's a weird feeling, there's a lot of snow in the news and Buffalo, NY isn't being mentioned!?! Even here where we are used to getting dumped on, 2 to 3 feet would shut things down for a day or two. It's nice to be able to send our plows out to help instead of having to ask others to send theirs in.
> 
> I still scrap our driveway with the bucket on the tractor, but move most of the snow with the 3pt hitch snowblower. It helps keep big banks of snow and ice from being built up right next to the driveways since it can through it back 20-30 feet and get it out of the way. I'm hoping everyone had feed delivered prior to the storm and that the milk tanks got emptied before the storm hit. I can't imagine it's going to be too quick before those deliveries/pickups start back up.


That's really weird....I just assumed yall were buried alive as usual, that in itself must be a record!


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## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

somedevildawg said:


> That's really weird....I just assumed yall were buried alive as usual, that in itself must be a record!


Yeah, it didn't get much into central NY and we didn't have anything in WNY. I actually went to look at a stacker wagon yesterday just east of the southern end of the fingerlakes and only ran into a light dusting of snow on the way back. Noticed a lot of clouds to the south though.

Don't worry, Lake Erie is probably not going to freeze over this winter, so I'm sure we'll get some more lake effect snow to keep us company.


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

We got a good 24" here. The milk trucks were chained up and rolling.

Buddy has a snowplowing account with a large bakery. I can skidsteer 9 hrs on sat pushing back what the plow truck mowed to the edge of the lot.

One truck ran there 13 hrs just to keep after. Other plow truck jumped between 2 other locations. Plow trucks got hung up 3 times...what a pain.

Only real issue now is all the idiots are out on the road making it that much harder/dangerous to move equipment.

I always get a kick out of first time plow truck guys. They think they have a dozer not a plowtruck. Many don't realize that you have to keep after in a large storm because plow trucks cant push 20" snows. I am also amazed at how few people use chains anymore...


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

Seems like 24" to 36" in this county, I'd say closer to 28 here. Plowed for a while Saturday morning for family, neighbor and elderly and then spent 2 hours welding on the plow pivot. Turned down a request to plow access roads for local windmill site, haven't called for 3 years and now the pickup plow can't handle the volume they want the farmer and his tractor. My insurance company wanted $1100 for snow removal coverage and it makes a handy excuse. Lots of local guys need the work here anyway so everybody just needs to be patient.

The frustrating thing for my daughters is they have been waiting all season to run the snowmobiles and there hasn't been enough until about 9 pm Friday. Pretty cold, like 9 degrees so I talked them into waiting till Saturday. Well now the snow is too deep. We spent 2 hours today on the sleds after it settled a little overnight and most of that time was digging them out. Lifting a snowmobile out when its buried is way more taxing than loading little bales by hand.


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## Dill (Nov 5, 2010)

Josh in WNY said:


> Yeah, it didn't get much into central NY and we didn't have anything in WNY. I actually went to look at a stacker wagon yesterday just east of the southern end of the fingerlakes and only ran into a light dusting of snow on the way back. Noticed a lot of clouds to the south though.
> 
> Don't worry, Lake Erie is probably not going to freeze over this winter, so I'm sure we'll get some more lake effect snow to keep us company.


Haven't talked to my buddy up on Tug Hill in a couple weeks. He did have one big one forecasted. We've got maybe a foot all told this winter. But most everything is snow free. Its been very windy for us. A week of 30-40mph gusts. Its put a real damper on my sugarhouse build.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

A few pics I snapped during the fog of war. For optimal viewing, tilt head 90*


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## Orchard6 (Apr 30, 2014)

Well, we haven't had much at all this year. I think the most we got out of any one storm is about 6". But should we get more we are ready!

JD 6420 with a 10 foot scraper on front and a 10 foot back blade on the rear.

Along with a 5105m and IH model 70 snowblower, and yes I'm stuck in this pic but it's the only one I have of the blower!


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

Getting easier to ride each day. Stuck a ruler in today and the snow has settled to 17". Found another telehandler use, if you stick the boom all the way out you can ram/lift/stack a tall snow pile.


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

Like the rest of the dairyman on here we have been busy keeping milk truck access open, we milk at 2 farms and the home farm we can only hold 1 day's milk. We also help our Amish neighbors with their driveways for their milk trucks. Helped 20 some neighbors and also helping the county open up closed roads. This our big pay loader , we call it Billy. Billy likes to PUSH!!!!!. Mostly use Billy to push and pack silage, but he likes snow also.


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## FCF (Apr 23, 2010)

Nice to see Billy getting his "teeth" cleaned, oral hygene is important!


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

Neighbor had to dump his milk sat night. First time in over 60 years of milking. He is about two miles off the main road. THere used to be a whole row of dairy farms between him and the main rd so there were a lot of farmers working to keep the road open. Now hes the only dairy on that stretch of road...


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Usually power failures that make folks dump milk here. Have heard of grapple skidders borrowed to drag the milk truck up the driveway in a storm. The luckier farmers have the barn and milk tank right at the road.



PaMike said:


> Neighbor had to dump his milk sat night. First time in over 60 years of milking. He is about two miles off the main road. THere used to be a whole row of dairy farms between him and the main rd so there were a lot of farmers working to keep the road open. Now hes the only dairy on that stretch of road...


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