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

[R22RumRunner at aol.com]

Rob,
That was precious. I think I'll have another drink, reread the story and  
then die laughing on the floor. 
I have a story or two very similar to yours from when we lived in  
Wisconsin. Some day I will tell you about bring the pipes from the well into the  
house.......during the winter. All fifty feet of them.
 
 
In a message dated 2/19/2010 3:36:37 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
rlowe at vt.edu writes:

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







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