Re: Winter 2017-18
 

+4 and sunny here. Bit breezy though.

Re: Winter 2017-18
 

I haven't needed parka or boots for a week.

Re: Winter 2017-18
 

Bright sunshine here too. The cat is looking wistfully through the patio doors, wanting to go outside because it's sunny. The daft bint doesn't seem to understand that there is a 44-degree difference between one side of the door and the other.

Re: Winter 2017-18
 

Trying it. I see your -22 and raise it.

-24C plus some stupid wind chill. At least the sun is shining

Re: Winter 2017-18
 

The dog has started his annual 'I can walk on three legs' thing, whilst keeping the other for tucked up to defrost. I may have to give in and get him a coat. Getting it on him should be fun.

Re: Winter 2017-18
 

A cautionary tale of morning in winter. Most of this happens four or five times per winter.

The new woodstove comes today. It seemed a good idea to clear the driveway for the truck. So, at 5:30 this morning I was on tractor listening to the engine turn slower and slower until the battery died. Luckily I had one of those lithium battery jump starter machines newly purchased from Amazon. I’d selected a well-reviewed one from Amazon.com but it wasn’t available in Canada so Amazon.ca suggested a different one and I bought that. I’ve fallen for that line before, I should have driven to Buffalo and bought the good one.

The instructions said to clamp the clamps on to the battery and to plug the other end of the jumper cable into the device. OK, it was cold and dark and I’m no genius but I swear there is no hole in the device into which to plug the cable. I gave up and fetched conventional cables and that’s when things went wrong.

At the moment, the tractor, lawn tractor, commuter car and precious artifact are all in the barn and that’s tight. The cables wouldn’t reach from the Mustang to the tractor so I drove it out and in nose first needing to angle it just right so as to be close enough. In the course of that I scraped it along the snow blower. I then attached the cables, it’s fiddly, there’s little room at the tractor end. I stood up, bashing my head on the tractor bucket and cutting my forehead messily. The tractor then started and I was able to blow the driveway and be ready for dog walking and going to work.

I hope that stove comes, fits, and entails no hidden charges. I’m too tired for more trouble today.

Re: Winter 2017-18
 

Oh dear, that all sounds a bit expensive/painful.

I have a Lithium battery thingy purchased through Amazon.ca https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Helpfully it comes with a built in torch, although unhelpfully I couldn't work out how to turn that feature on last night in the dark when I needed to jump start my faux-John Deere lawn tractor. Eventually figured it out which allowed me to rearrange gas powered things in the garage to get the car in to fit snow tires & then put stuff back so that the snowblower & quad with a plow are handy by the garage door rather than buried behind lawn mowers and the UTV. That'll be handy for tomorrow when winter is forecasted to arrive with 20-30cm on the way!

Re: Winter 2017-18
 

One should not let lithium batteries get cold. It knackers them. A problem with the Tesla idea is that Li batteries lose about a third of their distance charge at minus 15. That sort of thing happens in Canada!

Ottawa had the dubious distinction this morning of being the world's coldest capital city, beating out its rival Ulaanwhatever.

It is nippy.

Re: Winter 2017-18
 

You'd probably avoid all that if you were in Brampton.

Re: Winter 2017-18
 

I did the driveway and the lane ways earlier this week with the tractor, it's a lot more fun than shovelling - although you may disagree! Had some trouble reversing until it occurred to me to put it in 4 wheel drive mode - duh.
Just waiting for some Christmas Tree purchaser to get stuck and need me to haul them out.

Re: Winter 2017-18
 

Before I moved to an acreage, I had never owned a trickle charger. I now have loads of the bloody things, attached to all manner of machines in our Quonset/garage. Trying to navigate through either in the dark is potentially lethal as there are all many of cables running in all manner of directions. This wouldn't be so bad if everyone that disconnects them/connects them would put them back in the same place in which they had found them but, alas, no one ever does.

I hate the switch from winter to spring, and from fall to winter that involves the tractor. We have a quick attach to the FEL. We don't have one for the 3 point hitch so the switching of rear bale spear to blade each time involves much gnashing of teeth, ripping of skin from fingers and, usually, at least one dropping of something heavy onto my foot.

Re: Winter 2017-18
 

That's interesting, the manual I have for the battery thingy describes the unit you have, not the one I have. I'll revisit trying to use it tonight, indoors, in the warm.

Here's a view of the crowding problem, truck now displaced, Mustang in that spot. Note the wall crinkling just ahead of the bucket, an example of my steering last year. I shall be very glad when the garage adjusting man comes and we're able to put the truck and day-to-day car in there.

Re: Winter 2017-18
 

I feel your pain.

Re: Winter 2017-18
 

I note you have an auger. Do you use that for drilling holes for fence posts? If so, how well does it work and do you have to drill hole, place post into it and then cement around post? Or do you drill a hole slightly smaller than the post and then "bash" the post in somehow?

The reason I ask is that I need to replace miles of fences and I am split between hiring a post pounder (I can't afford the $10,000 cost of buying one) and bashing them in (wooden post so when they eventually rot I can simply pull them out) or drilling/cementing (so when they eventually rot I will have to pull not only the posts out, but the concrete too).

Logic tells me that the post pounder is the preferred option but I'd be interested to hear your opinion if you have any particular knowledge.

Re: Winter 2017-18
 

Yes, we fenced the backyard for the dogs, a few dozen posts. We used square posts so as to create a semi-formal garden fence.

Yes. Mixed results with the auger, it works very well on level ground but, if there's the least slope, it's difficult to make a hole that's exactly vertical. I note that professional fencers use an auger that's mounted on a boom over a skid steer, that'd be easier to keep straight. It does work well for planting trees and bushes subject to the hook problems you've mentioned.

I know someone who operates a boarding barn with lots of paddocks. Her husband described the acquisition of his, second-hand, post pounder as life changing. "Knife through butter", "hours and hours saved". It was five grand though.

Something you haven't mentioned is the cost of the concrete. At a bag and a half per post building the dog fence wiped out five year's worth of Amex points. If you have a lot of posts that's some way toward a used pounder.