Fording with a Lexus ES 330
April 13, 2014
It was a placid Sunday drive to check out a new kennel where our spaniel could enjoy her vacation while we went on ours. The navigation system directed us to the Narrows Lock Road and away we went. Then we came to a stretch of asphalt which seemed to be below water level for about two hundred yards.
Orange cones denoted the entrance on both sides, but there was no ROAD CLOSED sign such as the one I encountered last week on my way home from Chaffey’s Locks.
Realizing that we both had our rubber boots on for the kennel visit, I stopped the car and waded out half-way. It was borderline. My feet weren’t in danger of getting wet, but there was quite a bit of water above the yellow line painted on the asphalt below.
So we started off, slowly wading the low sedan through the calm water. This went well enough. I watched the floor and nothing was leaking in. Then the pavement broke up. This was a surprise. It had looked smooth from the top, but the drive was becoming very lumpy. But there was no going back now, so with memories of that floating Ferrari on the Don Valley Parkway last summer, we headed slowly for the other side.
As we emerged, flashers flashing, a woman in a new Ford pickup ignored my warning and blasted through the whole thing, throwing a bow wake like a Quebec cabin cruiser on a holiday weekend.
Oh, well.
A low-speed chase:
April 4, 2014
Rod, I’ve noticed when reading your blog that you have a fascination for 4 wheeled machinery of all shapes and sizes with tractors high on your list. I draw to your attention the article in the Globe today page A3 by Carrie Tait which covers the RCMP — 5 members — chasing a robbery suspect during a prolonged chase with the suspect evading capture by snowmobile, then a Rhino and finally, and I suspect your favourite, a John Deere 6400 tractor. This story is just made for you!
Cheers, George Kitching
It was -10C this morning with an icy north wind. The snow crunched like midwinter’s when I stepped on it. O.K., I was bored. I had fired up Tony’s 4WD Polaris Ranger to take out the garbage and it made sense to warm it up a bit before putting it back in the shed. And there was that huge expanse of untraveled snow…
The Ranger booted over the snowbank at the edge of the driveway and dove down behind the house. No problem. If it can do this, I can haul the sugar-making equipment up to the shack. How do I get back up? Last year I ran on down the hill, crossed to the barnyard and climbed back up the hill there.
Off I went at full speed. The snow felt like concrete under the freshly-tuned Ranger’s wheels. I carved a wide turn in the 20-acre field below the house and headed west. This was too much fun. Why not carry on to the other end, another quarter-mile away, and come back the next field over?
At cruising speed I ducked through the gap between fields. A straight shot to the 50 acres beyond beckoned, so I headed north.
All of the sudden the left front wheel of the Ranger dove into deep snow, quickly followed by the rest of the 1500 pounds of vehicle, cargo and driver.
Why is it always the left side which falls through the crust? Tony has a real stability problem with that machine.
Mind you, my slightly lighter Ranger TM did the same thing in January. In fact the only way three of us could keep the 1100 pound vehicle on the crust after lifting it up and rolling it ahead was to drive it from outside, manipulating the gas pedal with an old canoe paddle found in the box. Maybe it’s the driver’s weight that’s the problem. Oh, well.
So there Tony’s Ranger sits, front corner down in two feet of snow, next to a quiet farm lane. It’s comfortable. There’s no point abusing it in a frantic attempt to back out. A crew will either lift it back up onto the snow or spring will free it, whichever comes first.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/112002166@N06/13428228334/
UPDATE: 6:50 p.m.
Did I mention I buried the winch tractor on the way back to rescue the Ranger? I explained to Bet that I had needed some space in the buildings for sugar-making equipment. This barely earned the derisive grunt it received.
After supper I walked back to the Ranger with a round-point shovel. Anything I dug just buried it deeper.
On the other hand the Massey Ferguson 35, though apparently stuck in the snow, wasn’t quite done yet. After rocking a bit of a gap, I discovered that while high speeds were useless against the crumbling snow, if I eased the old tractor forward very slowly it would in fact climb back up onto the crust and creep the final 150 yards to where I could turn it downhill and run the cable 150′ to the Ranger. That was 5800 pounds + driver riding on the crust at least a foot above the field.
The buried Ranger offered no resistance whatever to the 8800 lb winch. In no time it was back up on the crust and after a couple of spins around the fields to celebrate and allow the battery to charge up, I put it away. The MF35’s as comfortable there as anywhere.
UPDATE: 27 March, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
It only gets worse. I need spring to get here.
UPDATE: 30 March, 7:30 p.m.
After a day of thaw I was able to drive the winch tractor from where I had abandoned it to a road a half-mile away. With the winch I then rescued the Bolens by dragging it through three feet or more of snow to a path I had blown out with another tractor.
We still can’t get to the sugar bush with wheeled implements, snowshoeing has become an agonizing way to travel now with the uncertain footing, but the thaw is gaining momentum.
UPDATE, 3 April, 2014:
Rod vs Snow
So far it’s Snow 6, Rod 0.
The path back to the woods remains stubbornly impassable for wheeled vehicles. There’s just too much snow and with mud underneath. The task overwhelms even my larger tractors. The situation improves each day, but only by a little.
Four days ago on snowshoes I sank to the bottom so drastically that I could barely travel. In one area in the middle of the walnut field I dropped into snow above my knees. Sore muscles leave me disinclined to try that again soon.
But waiting for spring is a difficult concept even for a not-so-young fellow hardly brimming with energy, not to mention a son whose travel agenda allows only a short time in which to expose all of his friends to the joys of sugar making.
Of course the trees in the lane (now 33 buckets) have stopped running. Yesterday I tried to use the new Kubota with its large turf tires to smooth the ruts in the driveway. Nearly got the thing stuck. With a trailer attached it’s useless in mud.
Today is another day. It’s frozen quite hard outside this morning, so the sap may run. The tractor may even make it from the big walnut tree (a quarter-mile back the lane) across the 450′ of walnut seedlings to the woodlot, where more deep snow awaits. Then at least the Ranger will be able to haul people and materials back and forth to the house.
Saturday, 5 April, 2010
We’re still far from our goal of free passage to the woodlot, though it rained heavily overnight. At 6:00 a.m. on Charlie’s last weekend before he returns to Vancouver, who knows how today will unfold?
Suggested Revision to the Rules
March 25, 2014
Re: 2014 Ice-Out Contest
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Please note a suggestion from 2012 winner George Kitching:
Rod, perhaps you might consider a cut off date to ensure fairness – what do you think of 1st April?
Do I have a second for this motion?
Rod
Please offer comments on this post but continue to post your contest entries on the original page to your right.
Harper vs Supreme Court of Canada (Updated)
March 21, 2014
The Supreme Court’s rejection of Harper nominee Marc Nadon to fill an upcoming vacancy must come as a major slap in the face to a prime minister who does basic math: he has appointed five of the eight judges, and they just won’t stay bought. They voted six-to-one against his man. One recent Harper appointment recused himself. Another voted for Nadon. But the other three voted the appointment down because Nadon was not qualified according to the rules laid down in the Constitution.
Harper can’t very well cut the budget of the Supreme Court of Canada and expect Beverley McLachlin and her colleagues to fold their tents and go home. He can’t remove their charitable status, nor pack their board of directors. He can’t even change the law to qualify his personal candidates for the high court. He tried that by adding a page to the last omnibus bill. They quashed the change along with Nadon’s nomination. Damned Constitution.
Now McLachlin and the five others who voted against Nadon specified in their report that they did not judge whether Nadon could still qualify for the post if he were again to join the Quebec Bar. That was not the question they had been asked. This leaves Harper, the man who gave new life to the word “prorogation” in the Canadian lexicon, another out: all he has to do is hop through the court’s hoops and then send Nadon, hat in hand, again to attempt to gain admission to the vacant Supreme Court seat.
Under the circumstances I would do exactly that. But Stephen Harper has had eight years of power, and his growing pride in his authoritarian rule may not allow him to bend to the Court’s will.
Expect Harper to fire a blast at constitutional lawyer Rocco Galati, the Supreme Court, the Constitution, and pretty well everyone else from his favourite perch: the lectern of a press conference in Europe. This may leave the Ukrainians within earshot slack-jawed in bewilderment, but it’s not about your country’s problems, guys. When Harper speaks on the world stage, it’s about Stephen Harper.
The Death of Cursive Writing
March 18, 2014
I have just finished reading an article in the Toronto Star which bemoans the end of elementary school instruction in the fine art of cursive writing.
Personally I welcomed the advent of keyboards because every teacher in my life complained that my handwriting was the worst he/she had ever seen. I even had a prof at Queen’s haul me into his office to read my exam paper to him. He granted the paper an A, which, in comparison to earlier marks on what I considered better performances, made me wonder if the other profs had bothered to read my scribbles at all. The next year take-home exams were the rule at McArthur College, and I cruised through grad school on the strength of my keyboard skills.
During my career as an English teacher and administrator I pioneered the use of computers in the classroom and made a point of having keyboards available for the calligraphy-challenged to write their examinations.
But to return to the subject of the Star article: I would suggest that cursive writing comes naturally to boys raised in Canada. Try to print your name in the snow sometime.
Mule on tracks
March 3, 2014
On Saturday Kijiji showed a photo of a 2013 Kawasaki Mule 410 Trans equipped with tracks at Weagant Farm Supply in Brockville. I resolved to have a look. Monday dawned -22C and clear. What better day to test how a Mule starts than a sub zero morning? With any luck I’d get to drive the tracked one in snow, as well. I’d read that vehicles need power steering to turn successfully with tracks mounted. The Mule 410 Trans has electric steering assist standard. That’s a thousand-dollar option on other brands.
I kidded John MacDonald about creating a “halo” Mule to improve sales: people like me would come in to see how well the thing handles deep snow, then buy a Mule on regular wheels with the mental insurance policy that they can get tracks for it if another heavy winter like this one comes along again.
With our fists we pounded the ice off the front seat. From the ground on the right side John reached over and turned the key. A quiet purr began somewhere around the rear axle. That was starting. No fuss at all with the EFI system. I stepped aboard.
The Mule backed down off its snowbank perch with only a little roughness in the driveline. This vibration went away quickly after a full turn of the tracks. Must have been a bit of ice trapped somewhere. John drove us to a nearby snow-covered lot. Progress down the shoulder of the road was quiet and slow.
The tracks reduce the drive ratio by 2:1. The 20 hp engine works best on tracks if left in low range, producing another reduction in final drive ratio. In winter mode the Mule is definitely a slow and steady machine.
But it floats over deep snow like a good pair of snowshoes.
I found some drifts to explore. The Mule slowly pushed through without hesitation. I ran it up a steep, icy bank. Same engine sound, no problem. Then it backed down easily when I realized that there was a precipice at the edge of a chain link fence on the far side of the snow pile. I couldn’t find any snow which could change the Kawasaki engine’s tone. It sounded as though it would idle along, regardless of load, for as long as I wanted to push through snow.
On my way out of the field I tried unsuccessfully to high-centre the Mule on a snowbank. Too much ground clearance with the tracks installed. That was a relief. My back is still a little tender from another belly-hang with a Ranger where I should have used a tow rope, but chose to push instead.
From what I have read online and observed, a Mule with a few hundred hours on it shows every prospect of many years of faithful service. If you need a workhorse which seats four or more people and starts very well more than you need high-speed performance, one of these Mules back off lease might be a good choice.
Bathos at the Olympics
February 23, 2014
Twenty years from now I wonder if anyone in Canada will talk about where he or she was during the gold medal hockey game at Sochi.
The experience was radically different during the 2010 medal game. The maple syrup crew had assembled in our living room, and we still remember our breathless anticipation leading up to Sydney Crosby’s climactic goal. We almost let the sap pan burn dry when the U.S. team tied it up and they went to overtime.
https://plus.google.com/photos/106258965296428632652/albums/5983655953647816593?banner=pwa
Ouch!
February 12, 2014
“The pain is disproportionate to the pathology.” That’s how the physiotherapist summed up my agony from a slightly strained back. “You’re the third one I have had this week, all snowmobile-related. The other two were from attempting to lift machines frozen into the ice.”
My miscue involved pushing a belly-hung Polaris Ranger off a snowbank while Tony rocked it back and forth from the driver’s seat. I should have simply hooked a tow rope to the thing and eased it off with my pickup truck, but egos were at work here, and on my 63rd birthday I wasn’t about to admit I was no longer 30.
Hence the phsyiotherapy sessions for the next two weeks. The real problem is that the non-prescription backache pills leave me stupid and uninterested in reading or writing. With treatments and the exercises Paul prescribed I’m likely able to quit the pills, though.
Blog entries may be a bit cranky and unkind to overweight and poorly-balanced ice augers for the next couple of days.
Update: 15 February
My back isn’t yet 100%, but I’m pain-free after six days and two treatments. Readily-available physiotherapy is very good for the aging weekend warrior.
22 February
All better, and looking forward to the fun of throwing sand around the icy lanes on the property this morning.
the Walnut Diary 