Saturday, November 30, 2019

Snow as far north as the Oregon border falling right now

As of 11:00 AM PST in California. The Atmospheric River has also hit the Bay Area and to the south and is raining a lot as far south as Santa Barbara and soon will be raining further south than that at present lightly as well. The rains between Big Sur and San Francisco have been pretty heavy at times this morning and the winds are starting to pick up too.

One of my friends in Mt. Shasta was able to dig out so they can drive to town from the last storm but another friend is still snow blowing and hasn't been able to dig a road out from his property to the main street nearby which is plowed yet but probably will today or tomorrow. But, with the new storm he has a lot more snow blowing to do to keep his road on his property open so he can get vehicles in and out.

When I owned 2 1/2 acres between 1980 and 1989 and built and A-Frame and home schooled my older kids from 1980 to 1985 I had decided not to invest in a snow plow (mostly because I didn't own a 4 wheel drive vehicle to push snow in a Scout II International Harvester 1974 until about 1983. Before then I only owned a VW Rabbit 1976 and before that a 1976 Toyota long bed truck so I had to get my father or friends to haul some of the larger building materials to my land for me then in their trucks.

The Scout was likely the most amazing 4 wheel drive I ever owned. Even though it was only a 6 cylinder vehicle it could literally go anywhere I wanted it to to the point where I could be out pushing 2 feet of unplowed snow with it and realized one day if I didn't get out of there my vehicle would be stuck soon for up to 4 to 6 months because no one could tow it out from where I was. So, the danger of having the most amazing 4 wheel drive vehicle is if you actually get stuck somewhere there is literally no one that could help you get it unstuck until the snow melts which is some people have winches built into their front bumpers for this reason. At that time I didn't have a winch though on mine. The Scout was not only a really excellent 4 wheel drive with really high ground clearance but also had a locked rear end which increased your thrust forwards a lot too in bad situations. One day the drive shaft broke on it and I just had to run it off the 4 wheel drive on the front wheels for a while around town until I could get another U-joint for my drive shaft. Even doing this it was perfectly fine. Really amazing 4 wheel drive!

With a winch if you are careful you can tie the winch to a tree or rock or other vehicle and pull yourself out of most fixes you get yourself into. But, if you snap a line from too much pressure on the winch that line will cut any person in two if they are nearby when it goes. So be careful of that too.

No comments: