Massive Deep Freeze for Christmas?

[Lunentucker]

I haven't been through my cold weather acclimation cycle here yet, so this one should do it.
A 50 degree in March feels entirely different from a 50 degree day in September.

Gave up duck hunting a few years back.
That'll get you dialed into what real cold feels like in a hurry, running 30 mph in the teens with no top, no doors, and no windshield.

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[ShadowsPapa]

A couple of years back we went for several days without electricity. The gas range and the little propane freestanding fireplace we have downstairs kept us cozy. On about the third day I hooked up my inverter to the Subaru in the detached garage, cracked a window to keep it vented and run a cord through, fed the cord into the den to run my TV and internet and all was right in the world.
We put perishables on the covered porch off the kitchen to keep them fresh.

We live in the country, so I had filled the garden tubs with water for flushing and we had bottled water for consumption, cooking, washing, brushing teeth.
It really wasn't bad.

Several days without electricity is a normal thing here.
A couple years ago, almost a week after the derecho.
Back in about 90 or 91, ice storm so bad power was out in our entire part of the county - ice was inches thick and collapsed big towers. I still had my 656 tractor and a pto drive generator. We were up on top of a hill and could see the area all around us - down below, dark and earie. You could hear the echoes of trees cracking and breaking under the ice. Crashes through the night that echoed through the valleys.
And there we were, an all electric house- cooking, heat, you name it - electric. And we had LIGHTS. Yard light, it was as if we never lost power with that big PTO drive generator powered by my 656 tractor.
I later sold the tractor and traded off the generator for my first flatbed trailer. Big mistake..........
When we got married in 89, we got married January 7 and that day a huge ice storm and blizzard hit north Iowa and knocked power out. I had hogs and had to keep water to them - that's when I bought that big generator. But our wedding night - no power, and we tried to keep things from freezing, especially her neat hex-shaped aquarium.
We've had a lot of times we've gone days or a week with no power.
My wife asked today if we had plenty of gas for our little portable generator.

 

[Rusty PW]

Dec 24th 1983, -24F. Was working for my brother. He owned a gas station/garage. We had cars on both lifts, with cars parked under them. All with frozen fuel lines. Get them thawed out and started. Pour a bottle of gas line anti-freeze in the tank. Once started, we park them outside and running. Call the owners to pick them up. Then push another car inside to thaw out. I had to change a starter outside laying on the ground because of no room inside to do it. Plus I had to fix a guys exhaust because he spun and hit a snow bank backwards. I was frozen when I got home. We made a shit load of money that day. We was supposed to close at 4pm that day. We closed at 10pm that night. Wifey was pissed at me. It was our daughter's first Christmas.

 

[guarnibl]

We're sunny and 4F right now, got down to -14 w/o windchill last night. I'm training for a winter bike/ski race in a few weeks, so this week's training is going to be fun:

Halfway expected a picture of death himself somewhere in there.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Dec 24th 1983, -24F. Was working for my brother. He owned a gas station/garage. We had cars on both lifts, with cars parked under them. All with frozen fuel lines. Get them thawed out and started. Pour a bottle of gas line anti-freeze in the tank. Once started, we park them outside and running. Call the owners to pick them up. Then push another car inside to thaw out. I had to change a starter outside laying on the ground because of no room inside to do it. Plus I had to fix a guys exhaust because he spun and hit a snow bank backwards. I was frozen when I got home. We made a shit load of money that day. We was supposed to close at 4pm that day. We closed at 10pm that night. Wifey was pissed at me. It was our daughter's first Christmas.

I recall those days. Shop full, boss towed in car after car which I ended up working on outside in the alley behind the shop. Frozen fuel lines, you name it.
But the one that was a perennial sight the first really cold early AM was a Le Car. Every time all that was needed was a new set of spark plugs. No matter the miles that passed between the last time, we never found anything wrong with any of the plugs. They looked great, not worn out, not wet with gas - the first winter or two we tried drying them, cleaning, everything we could think of and finally ended up tossing new plugs in. Finally each time the boss towed it in that first super cold morning, we simply put in new plugs and sent the owner on their way and it was good until next winter.

Then there were the tractors - you'd get a large steel pan, maybe the bottom 2 or 3" off a 55 gallon oil barrel and filled it with charcoal and let that burn under the differential. Some would toss a tarp over the tractor to keep it warm so it would start and move.
Multiple reasons - the thick gear fluid in the tractors, necessary under normal conditions, was just too stiff when it was below 0 (F) and in some cases condensation in the differential would freeze.

My neighbor, a retired 80 year old former county plow operator said - it used to be really common even for big trucks to have coals burning, glowing, under the bull gear.
He used to keep coals burning under the differential/rear axle housing of his tractor.

 

[TrainMan]

Yuck! I hate winter. I just want a white Christmas...but not too much snow. Then I'm ready for spring! I miss mowing and fertilizing my grass.

 

[Lunentucker]

Think of it like leaving the refrigerator door opened for a while.
Sure, cold air will spill well into the kitchen, but the fridge loses a good amount of the cold it had bottled up too.

Early January shows appreciable moderation in temperatures across much of the lower 48.

 

[Rusty PW]

I recall those days. Shop full, boss towed in car after car which I ended up working on outside in the alley behind the shop. Frozen fuel lines, you name it.
But the one that was a perennial sight the first really cold early AM was a Le Car. Every time all that was needed was a new set of spark plugs. No matter the miles that passed between the last time, we never found anything wrong with any of the plugs. They looked great, not worn out, not wet with gas - the first winter or two we tried drying them, cleaning, everything we could think of and finally ended up tossing new plugs in. Finally each time the boss towed it in that first super cold morning, we simply put in new plugs and sent the owner on their way and it was good until next winter.

Then there were the tractors - you'd get a large steel pan, maybe the bottom 2 or 3" off a 55 gallon oil barrel and filled it with charcoal and let that burn under the differential. Some would toss a tarp over the tractor to keep it warm so it would start and move.
Multiple reasons - the thick gear fluid in the tractors, necessary under normal conditions, was just too stiff when it was below 0 (F) and in some cases condensation in the differential would freeze.

My neighbor, a retired 80 year old former county plow operator said - it used to be really common even for big trucks to have coals burning, glowing, under the bull gear.
He used to keep coals burning under the differential/rear axle housing of his tractor.

Neighbor was a truck driver. He had a 55 gallon drum cut in half. He would tarp the motor and burn charcoal in the half drum under the motor when it got cold.
Have friends that would put drop lights under the hood to keep the motor warm.

 

[Mojave Nunzio]

And it's going to be cold too lol

 

[Jeepasaurus_Rex]

South Texas is showing a high of 36 and low of 17. Not too bad! We had a bit of that last year and the year before, and some snow.

It'll just be a little taste of back home for me. I'll watch all the Texans freeze in their unpreparedness ?

 

[Lunentucker]

Cold air meets hot front ?

 

[Maximus Gladius]

Does this win the prize for today?
Stopped yesterday and help a poor old guy under a blanket freezing in his car. Had him warm up in the truck till help came. His alternator was done.

 

[Cavitt]

Does this win the prize for today?
Stopped yesterday and help a poor old guy under a blanket freezing in his car. Had him warm up in the truck till help came. His alternator was done.

I think that make you the winner - Bobby Bare 1973

Merry Christmas!

 

[Rusty PW]

Cold air meets hot front ?

Nice rump roast, and chicken breast.

 

[Rocksalt]

cold in Northern MN and windy

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