What's the weather like in your neck of the woods?

[Cobleskill]

-11*F here this morning. Clear and beautiful sunrise, no wind. That is the coldest it has been this winter. Not bad without wind.

 

[Reddog]

-10 here, and the same no wind and clear.

 

[HolmenTree]

Warmed up to -15 F here.






I'd rather be back here where I was a few weeks ago.

 

[Dave Shepard]

-12F last night. I woke up at 3:30 to 60* in the house. The slabwood in the boiler bridged up and the fire went out. boiler was at 110 instead of 185-195. I had to steal a 100 lb cylinder off the house and hook up my brush burner torch to get it going. Boiler is back up to temp, but house is only at 65 after having dipped to 55.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Dayum!

 

[stig]

Install a buffer tank and you'll never have that problem again.

 

[Dave Shepard]

My house is too poorly insulated. There is 400 gallons in the boiler, which does give some buffer, but not enough to go all night.

 

[stig]

Wow, that is poorly insulated, indeed.
That is about what I have in my buffer tank, and I heat it up when I get home, then it lasts a full day.
Unless it get REALLY cold and windy ( Pre global warming temps) then I need to light a fire in the morning as well.

 

[Dave Shepard]

They didn't worry too much about oil consumption in the '50's. 2"x4" walls with insulation that has gotten waterlogged. Ceilings are a little thicker, but not much. I can't afford to do anything about it right now. I'd like to tear it down and build a small well insulated timber frame. Or better yet, a large timber framed barn with an apartment upstairs and workshop downstairs and do away with the house altogether.

 

[stig]

Now, that sounds like a nice solution.

 

[Tucker943]

It went up to 32 F today and we didn't even know how to act. I had to use a torpedo heater to get my Boxer running yesterday.

 

[gf beranek]

Chilly here, in the 50s.

 

[cory]

The cold temps and no snow cover have the lawns absolutely hard as rock. Yesterday we used a 55t, it had to go in a tight spot, we looked things over and then backed the crane in, on the lawn, no mats, no issues. But the setup didn't look right, so it was decided to drive the crane back out, turn it around, drive it in forward and then do a 3 point turn to get where it needed to be. Did all that, with no trace of impact on the lawn. Ha! The idea of driving the 55 in and then back out and then back in, all without mats and no lawn damage is almost inconceivable, the thing is stupid heavy at 73k lbs.

Gotta love winter tree work.

 

[FireFighterZero]

Do you cold weather types work trees all winter? Is there a limit to the misery you will stand?

 

[cory]

I love winter work cuz of all the labor and time that can be saved as illustrated above, but I'm not super hard core about the temps, I probably won't work if it's below 5*, I think it's too tough on everything and everybody. Love to be out in those temps, but not trying to make money in them.

 

[Tucker943]

I don't bother below 10 degrees. I don't have enough winter work that I'm pressed to keep up a schedule. Any of it can wait a day or two or three for temps to come up a bit. If I had a good winter work load year to year I might think differently.

 

[Dave Shepard]

I only do my firewood chores when it's really cold, and I try to get enough ahead on the warmer days. I like it to at least be mid 20's and sunny to run the mill.

 

[cory]

I don't have a huge workload but, thankfully, enough to jump on stuff sooner than later, especially cuz you never know how long the frozen ground will last.

 

[Dave Shepard]

I've done some logging down to about 0F, but the chance of a breakdown goes up as the temp goes down. I don't envy people who are running machinery at 30 or 40 below.

 

[Al Smith]

It's been chilly ,minus 9 one morning .I didn't even start the woodburner until about a week ago when my lady friend spent about a week here .

Something about a nice warm wood fire ya know.

 

[cory]

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

Cool. Been wondering about that, Al, as I hadn't read any updates. Maybe you've been preoccupied, and of course working, and less online??

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

50's, sunny, dry, calm wind. Beautiful. Didn't want to stop working at dark as it was so nice.

 

[HolmenTree]

I shut er down when its 15 below and days are too short doing urban tree work.
But 30 below as a logger hand falling spruce is a different story. Everything goes so nice , limbs snap off so easy with the skidder delimbing versus my saw, frozen solid timber harvests so quick and smooth with little effort.
Even at 40 below our bright Manitoba sun melts the snow off the boughs of our dark colored spruce and Jack pine.

 

[cory]

CRAZY freezing rain today. The ground was thoroughly frozen and then rain came in quickly and froze on contact with the ground. Every paved surface is thoroughly iced with black ice. It is nuts.