[Rhodes22-list] those who can identify...raise your hands...

[Lowe, Rob]

I've got both hands up! Real high!


This is my personal story.

Some background information.
We've had three good snows this year, each about 14 inches.  
My driveway is a challenge even in good weather.  A quarter mile long, 220 foot rise from bottom to top, with 5 switchbacks. The house sits at the top.



Snow 1, a few days before Christmas.  
Ah yes, a white Christmas.  Just me and the wife and the pets snowed in.  A couple of days off from work.  Shovel a path out to the hot tub and sit in the hot tub sipping champagne with the snow coming down.  Ah, life is good.  I love snow!

1 day later.  Go out to start the tractor to plow.  Starter motor frozen up and tractor won't start.  Ah well, don't have to go anywhere for several days.  We'll just wait for it to melt.  Back to the house and pour a glass of rum.

3 days later, still snowed in and running out of beer and rum.  The dogs are tired of breaking through the snow to pee.  Been selectively shoveling and can now get the car halfway up the driveway.  Still walking up the top half.

4 days later, have to cancel visiting family for Christmas because I still can't get a vehicle all the way up.  Not altogether a bad thing.  Still shoveling but did manage to restock rum supply.  

5 days later, still selectively shoveling and between that and sun, get melted out enough to get car all the way up.  Wife leaves immediately to take advantage of after Christmas sales.  What?  Pick up some rum while you're out please dear.  Gives us a chance to restock with groceries.

Tractor is kind of old and beat up and leaks hydraulic fluid.  And now the starter motor is frozen up and more snow is forecast.  Time to buy that newer tractor I've been lusting after.  Although this year was supposed to be the year of the newer boat.  Ah well, got to have a tractor that works and already have a boat that floats.  Besides, no one is going to be selling boats this year that I can afford.

Find a nice, slightly used small Kubota tractor for $8K.  Even comes with a loader bucket, which I've never had before.  The new tractor even comes with a drink holder so I can drink beer while I'm working.  Would be nice to have around that house.  Drive up to look at it and buy it.  The admiral is doubtful when told the news.

Storm 2 is coming and no tractor yet!  The day before the storm is to hit the dealer calls and says it will be delivered later that day!  Yeah!  Bring on the snow, I'm ready for it!

Snow 2, a couple of days before New Year, another 14 inches.  Shovel a path out to the hot tub and sit in the hot tub sipping champagne with the snow coming down.  Ah, life is good.  I love snow!

1 day later.  Fire up the new tractor and start plowing.  I usually do the driveway in three passes.  Go down the middle, come back to the top and then plow off on side.  Return to the top and plow the other side.  So, down to the bottom clearing the middle as I go.  Hey, this is nice!  I'll be done in no time!  This snow's not so bad.  Get to the bottom and start back up.  And - can't - get - back - up.  The tires are slipping in the snow and I can't climb.  So here I am with my new tractor stuck at the bottom of the driveway.  Walk back to the house and tell the admiral.  The admiral is not amused.  Thinks I wasted my money on my new tractor.  Stupid snow!  Stupid tractor!

Call the dealer I brought the tractor from.  "Oh, you need chains for it, we're just ordering some, you want a set?  Only a hundred bucks and they will be here in two days."  Not really having a choice, I tell him yes.  The admiral is still not amused.  Walking the driveway for two more days until the chains come it.

Pick up the chains and put them on in the cold wet snow.  Stupid cold snow.  But the chains make quite a difference and up to the top I go.  Sweet!  I'll get this plowed in no time!  I'm working away and get about half of it done.  I'm about ready to quit as it's getting dark and I'll finish tomorrow.  And then I get the tractor stuck in a ditch and it won't move.  So I walk back up to the house and tell the admiral.  Admiral is not amused (anyone notice a theme here yet??).

The next day take the truck down and pull the tractor out with a chain.  Tractor pops right out of the snow back.  Thank goodness.  Take the truck down to the bottom (I can get vehicles down, but not back up).  Walk back up to the tractor and continue working.  

Check the oil in the oil tank (we have oil heat and a woodstove).  About a 10 days' worth of oil left and no way the oil truck can get up to the house.  Have wood, but it's running a bit low.  I'm getting a bit anxious.  I'm also out of rum, beer, wine, champagne, and the pantry is running low.  Stupid snow!
	
Take half a days' vacation the next day.  Borrow an empty 55 gallon drum from work and put it in the back of the truck and drive to the oil dealer.  A $130 for 50 gallons of oil?  Yikes.  

Spend the next three hours plowing and pushing snow off with the bucket.  You know, pushing and digging snow with a loader is kind of nice!  This is fun!  Nice tractor!

Finally get it cleared enough to make a run at it with the truck.  Up to the top I go!  I now have beer, rum, and oil up at the house.  The next day we go out and restock the pantry.  All is well and I relax a bit.

The next day I move oil.  The drum of oil is in the front of the house and the tank is in the rear and there is no way to get the drum around back.  So I siphon 5 gallons into my diesel container, carry it around back, and pour it into the tank.  What fun!  What a mess!  I reek of oil!  Do this three times and say screw it!  That will hold me for a week.  

Storm 3 is coming but we're ready.  Got rum, beer, wine, champagne, and the pantry is full.  Have some oil in the tank and 30 gallons sitting in a drum.  Bring it on!

Storm 3 is the one that dumped 2 feet in DC and shut down the government.  We get about 13 inches.  Shovel a path out to the hot tub and sit in the hot tub sipping champagne with the snow coming down.  Ah, life is good.  I love snow!

When storm 3 passes it gets cold, real cold.  In the teens with highs in the 20s.  Go out to start the tractor to start plowing.  Tractor starts, runs for a couple of minutes, and dies.  Will not start.  Tell the admiral, who is not amused.  Something about wasting money on my new tractor.  Sigh.  Stupid GD tractor.

Call the dealer to discuss and he surmises that there is a bit of water in the fuel supply and it's trapped in the fuel filters and the fuel is gelled or the water is frozen.  Asks if I have a hot pad or electric blanket to lay over the tractor to heat it up.  Yeah, right.  But I do have a space heater that I put under the tractor.  The dealer says he will mail me new fuel filters for free.   After an hour being warmed by the heater the tractor starts.  Whew.

I start clearing by the house which makes the dogs happy.  They now have space to pee without trouncing through the deep snow.  Yeah for pee spots!

The snow from storm 2 is still piled along the driveway so I can't plow off the latest snow because there is nowhere to push it.  So I'm having to use the loader to dig, move, and dump.  It works, but it's slow!  And after my last fiasco I'm starting at the top and working my way down.  I can't afford to get the tractor away from the house as I have to heat it up each time until the new filters get here.

I work over the next several days clearing snow.  I have to warm the tractor an hour each day first, which really cuts down on work time.  And the bad thing about working my way down from the top is you still have to walk up the entire driveway.  We talk about getting our exercise and the admiral is a good sport about the whole thing, but I tell you, carrying a case a beer up the driveway in the snow (now turning to ice), sucks!

Check my oil supply again.  It's been cold and the furnace has been running a lot.  Between what's in the tank and what's in the drum, I've got about 10 days left again.  I shift into panic mode.  I'm also out of rum, beer, and wine again.  This is not good!

Take half a days' vacation the next day.  Borrow a second 55 gallon drum from work and put it in the back of the truck and drive to the oil dealer.  A $130 for another 50 gallons of oil?  Yikes.  

Spend the next two hours plowing and pushing snow off with the bucket.  You know, pushing and digging snow with a loader is kind of nice!  This is fun!  Nice tractor!

Finally get all the way to the bottom of the driveway!  I'm clearing off the final stretch and I'm working on the first curve (turn 1 at our house, we refer to the turns by number, starting at the bottom. Turn 3 is the real bitch).  And I get the tractor off to the side and get it stuck.  Real stuck.  Off the entire driveway stuck.  And almost ready to roll stuck.  And it's stuck where I can't heat it up so I know it's not going to start the next day stuck.  Stupid tractor!  I guess it's really the stupid tractor operator.  I'm in tears at this point I'm so frustrated.

But I think I can get the truck up now and there is just enough room (2 inches??) to get around the tractor.  Of course this is barreling up the drive, getting around turn one at the same time missing the tractor.  Screw up the turn and I either hit the tractor or put the truck into a snow bank.  So I drink another beer and make a run at it.

Well, I made it.  Couldn't have missed the tractor by much but I now have more oil at the house.  Tell the admiral that latest situation with the tractor.  The admiral is not amused.

The next day I offload the oil and load up chains, shovels, salt, a come-a-long, and a blow torch.  Figure I get one shot at this.  I need to heat up the fuel system so the tractor will start and then pull it out with the truck again.  And try not to roll it while pulling.

It's a nice day, the sun is out and some of the ice is melting.  I work on the fuel system with a blow torch for an hour as the admiral shoves snow.  Tractor won't start.  The admiral is not amused. Stupid tractor!

Well, we figure that since we got past it with the truck once, we can do it again.  Back (walking) to the house to change clothes so we can go grocery shopping (and hit the liquor store).  On the way back down, try the tractor once more.  It starts!  Seems the sun has warmed it up enough.  Pull the truck around and hook up the chain.  The admiral drives the truck and we ease the tractor out of the ditch, without rolling it.  I'm not taking any chances of not having the tractor near a heater so I take the tractor up to the house and walk back down.  Off to restock again and we get both vehicles up the driveway that afternoon.  Yeah!  Oh, and the new fuel filters are in today's mail!

The next day is oil day again.  But first I replace the fuel filters, taking a bath in diesel fuel doing it.  But I'm not carrying 5 gallons of oil at the time this time.  I can put the drum in the loader bucket and carry it around the back of the house where I can siphon directly from the drum to the tank.  But can I get the tractor through the snow back to the tank?  I try, but the snow is too deep.  So, I start shoveling.  I shovel the first 10 feet and try it and it works!  I can drive the tractor where I shoveled and then it gets hung up again in the snow.  So, back to shoveling.  But it's a long way to shovel all the way back to the tank. But wait a minute, I've got a loader on this tractor.  What the hell am I doing hand shoveling?  I'm not too bright on occasion.

So, I use the loader to clear a path to the oil tank.  Who the heck else is clearing their back yard of snow?  But it works, I get back to the tank so back to the front of the house to pick up the oil barrel.  I lay it down in the bucket, carry it around back, and siphon the rest of the drum into my oil tank.  Yeah!  Oil in the tank and a cleared driveway!  

So, tomorrow is oil day again, with the second drum of oil.  But instead of siphoning I'm going to pour.  I've got a spigot that fits in the drum opening that so I position the whole thing above the tank and just open the valve to empty the drum.  Life will be good after that. 

Now, what really, really hurts is that, not one, but two, beautiful Rhodes came on the market in the $8K range right after I bought my tractor.  I'm afraid I can't afford both a tractor new and a new boat, so the boat will have to wait another year.  The admiral is not amused!

The good thing is the new fuel filters work, the tractor fires right up now. 

Feels so good. I just love those little white pills they keep giving me. Why am I tied to the bed?   

So, how's your winter going?

rob
S/V Getaway