- Thread starter David G
- Start date
John Deere D
Well-known Member
The winter of 1959 was a record setter here in North Western Alberta.
The temp was at or below -40 F for more than 40 days at night. To make matters even worse, it was the winter of record snow fall. Our neighbour had a sawmill. On the way to school we would climb on the deck of his 1944 GMC 6 x 6 Army TRUCK, hunker down and ride the 1 1/2 mile to school.
The old 6 X 6 was chained up on all tires. As we pushed snow the entire time, the 6 cylinder engine sounded like it was going to explode.
My parents had cattle. We had a Kerosene lamp that was left covered over at the water supply as the ice was constantly filling in the water hole.
Our home was heated with wood.......twenty cords would see us through the winter.
I retired at age 58 1/2. I was so feed up with being on call with a major Gas Pipeline as things always failed at anything below - 25 and the locations always had young employees.
Bob....
The temp was at or below -40 F for more than 40 days at night. To make matters even worse, it was the winter of record snow fall. Our neighbour had a sawmill. On the way to school we would climb on the deck of his 1944 GMC 6 x 6 Army TRUCK, hunker down and ride the 1 1/2 mile to school.
The old 6 X 6 was chained up on all tires. As we pushed snow the entire time, the 6 cylinder engine sounded like it was going to explode.
My parents had cattle. We had a Kerosene lamp that was left covered over at the water supply as the ice was constantly filling in the water hole.
Our home was heated with wood.......twenty cords would see us through the winter.
I retired at age 58 1/2. I was so feed up with being on call with a major Gas Pipeline as things always failed at anything below - 25 and the locations always had young employees.
Bob....
olgentdc
Well-known Member
Not Really ,..we did 2 Blizzard s of 77 and 78,,. THEY were tuf, and i was just a 21 yr old kid,when nuthin should bother ya ,../, ,This Am , IT AINT BAD,.with SUNSHINE . I went out 7 degrees in house shoes,. and turned out the cows , and fed ,.. then stoked my shop furnacevfire ,.. without the wind and the mud ,. nuthin being froze vto the ground and nuthin to slip on , and no liquid to freeze a fellas feet and hands,.. even the cows seem to like it../
jon f mn
Well-known Member
I remember that year. My dad had had his first heart attack that year and I had to go home to milk his cows twice a day while trying to run my own farm. Had several blizzards that year if I remember correct as well. But more important I was in Tower Mn on this day to ride snowmobile. My ex-wife and I did go out and ride that day too. We rode all around the iron range that day. I had just bought a 94 f150 with the 300-6 and 5spd. It wouldn't start that day til I pulled the battery out and brought it into to motel and warmed it up, then it started. I had also bought a new Arctic Cat 580 snowmobilewith theoir new batteryless EFI. The guaranteed it would start on the second pull and even that day it did.
Well for the cryers, where is the global warm up stuff. I am looking at my remote weather sensor and at noon time it says 16?. Think of all of the crazy drunks tonight in Times Square and the 11? prediction. I always like to watch The Pasadena Rose Bowl Parade. Just can't get over how everything is flowers and the stellar creativity of those crews. There are always people who think it is a waste of money. I would love to go and watch. Its WARM there!
Lots of drunks tonight. I remember 11 yrs ago my Dad was in the Moncton Newbrunswick ICU recovering from scepticism. The nurse said they wanted to move everyone out of the trauma unit that didn't need to be in there New Year's Eve,it's the busiest night of the year for emerg for various reasons.
Logan in SE Texas
Member
I was a 21 yr. old working on an off-shore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico in 1983. It got so cold everything froze up, even the drilling mud. The mud (think liquid slurry) was pumped from vats below deck via an 8" hose that hung down and swooped back up to drill floor. We used up all of the acetylene on board and finally was reduced to just trying to keep the drill string moving. We were drilling a directional hole and if left motionless it would get stuck down hole. The draw works had a Dynabrake or "water brake", on one side it was frozen and the other side was boiling, a 2: steel braided hose blew out spraying water on hot brake drum 6' in diameter. I was across the drill floor from the drillers shack and instantly a cloud of steam engulfed it. I didn't know if the driller was dead or alive, he had already cautioned us roughnecks to stay out from under the block as he didn't know that he could keep it swinging. I turned and ran headlong into a latched plate steel door, 3 times, before I realized I would be dead already if the block had fell. When I turned to look again I could see Drillers hand on the floor waving at me to come help. This man could have passed as John Denvers twin, down to the round glasses. He was laying on the brake handle with all of his 145#. I ran over and helped with my 240# get the brake and got the brake chained down. Toolpusher came rushing up the V-door stairs and after geting brought up to speed he sent us down to the galley to warm up and calm our nerves (smoke). Man, those were the "Good ol' days", yeah buddy!!!!
kcm.MN
Well-known Member
- Location
- NW Minnesota
Don't remember the day with most rise/drop that I've experienced, but was about 8 or 10 years ago when the temp here fell to -50.6F briefly. Seems there was a sort of T-shape almost right on the ND/MN and US/Canada borders where super-cooled air dropped down. Most areas around us didn't get below -32.
I went outside to "experience" that kind of cold. Even then, I knew I never cared to see that kind of temps anymore.
Not sure what the actual temp was, cause the outdoor hard-wired sensor was hanging next to the front door and I'm sure got some amount of heat from the somewhat-heated building. I even turned on the LP cook stove that night trying to keep the place warm! All 4 burners and the oven!
What was interesting was, it was SO still and quiet outside that I'd swear I coulda heard a mouse fart from over a mile away! :shock: Was actually kinda eerie.
I went outside to "experience" that kind of cold. Even then, I knew I never cared to see that kind of temps anymore.
Not sure what the actual temp was, cause the outdoor hard-wired sensor was hanging next to the front door and I'm sure got some amount of heat from the somewhat-heated building. I even turned on the LP cook stove that night trying to keep the place warm! All 4 burners and the oven!
What was interesting was, it was SO still and quiet outside that I'd swear I coulda heard a mouse fart from over a mile away! :shock: Was actually kinda eerie.
showcrop
Well-known Member
The winter of 1966 was cold! It was 40 below every night for at least four nights one stretch. They could not start the school buses or heat the school so there was no school. My father worked for the State DOT and commuted with a VW bug. Hw called for the night patrol truck to come tow him to get it started. They towed me for a half mile before the tranny loosened up enough to get it in gear, then it took another .2 or .3 to get it to fire and keep running. After I got chores done I went out snow shoeing.
John Deere D
Well-known Member
Sent you an e-mail rustred.........
21 miles from Dawson Creek BC.......Mile zero of the Southern terminus of the Alaska / Alcan Highway:
Bob...
21 miles from Dawson Creek BC.......Mile zero of the Southern terminus of the Alaska / Alcan Highway:
Bob...
Yup. We had to clean the barn out, the pack was just getting too high. We picked the warm day, it got up to minus 5. That was as nice as we could foresee.... I couldn't remember which year, but it was the early 80s so I would guess that was it.
I also believe that was the year I snowmobiled in minus 33 degrees weather. Only 2 laps around the yard, so I could say I did.
Paul
I also believe that was the year I snowmobiled in minus 33 degrees weather. Only 2 laps around the yard, so I could say I did.
Paul
coonie minnie
Well-known Member
I'm amazed some of them use computers...
Ultradog MN
Well-known Member
- Location
- Twin Cities
I was in Anchorage then.
It was just like here.
It was just like here.
Ellis Kinney
Well-known Member
The 77,78 winter was the worst I have ever experienced. I lived in Louisville, Ky. then. The temperature stayed around 3 to 5 below zero for many days. The Ohio River froze the barges to a stop, and people drove cars on the river at Cox's Park. On top of all that we had about 18 inches of snow. Ellis
1983 was bad but the winters of 1977-78 and 1978-79 were brutal in my area where it
doesnt ever get very much below zero....On Jan 8,1979 it was - 20 degrees,on Feb 1,1979
it was -21 degrees,and on Feb 9,1979 it was -21 degrees...The winter of 1978-79 was the
coldest in history in my area..
doesnt ever get very much below zero....On Jan 8,1979 it was - 20 degrees,on Feb 1,1979
it was -21 degrees,and on Feb 9,1979 it was -21 degrees...The winter of 1978-79 was the
coldest in history in my area..
roaddevil49
Member
New name for the Siberian Express ?
farmallsandcoops
Member
Was working at a radio station in Wis. in 1983 and was the morning man. On the air at 6 a.m. and had to be there earlier to fire up the transmitters. One morning it my 1977 Buick Century barely started, tires never got "round" all the way through town. Got to the station and we had a thermometer that recorded the overnight low. It was -40 F. Rest of the week had lows of 32 to 38 below. Was the week before Christmas. Actually plugged in the car Christmas Eve. Kinda wondered why since it was "only" -24.
David I had over 100 sows and 1500 or so fat hogs that winter. I did not loose any to the cold but it sure made a lot of work to keep them healthy.
Those older sows had "nests" made that would be 3-4 feet deep out of the bedding. Then 3-4 of them would be down in that "hole' cuddled together. The fat hogs where in open fronted buildings. We took tarps and close the fronts on them. Their body heat kept them warm.
The biggest job was keeping them watered. Everything was freezing up. Electric heaters on those old metal waterers would not keep up with the cold. We cut fifty five gallon drums long ways and welded the one half in the other one. We cut out doors in the ends of the bottom one. I would dump a half a bag of charcoal in them and light it then stick a hose in running water into it. I bet that I made 30 of them. While I would be dumping ashes out and relighting ones my wife would be running water into the fresh lite ones.
We were living in an older farm house then. Single pane windows and no insulation. I stacked straw bales up to the windows. We put plywood over most of the windows on the north and west sides. We burnt over a 1000 gallons of fuel oil and 3 ton of coal just in December. Even then if you set pop on the kitchen floor at night the bottles would freeze/break.
My main tractor was a Ford 6000 diesel. I finally got it started by borrowing a torpedo heater and putting a tarp over it. Never shut it off other than to check the oil and fill it with fuel, for over three weeks. I had to replace the muffler when it got warmer because the old one was full of black soot/carbon from unburnt fuel from idling for hours in the cold.
Two good friends lost fingers to frost bit. Their gloves got wet from working on waterers while doing chores.
Those older sows had "nests" made that would be 3-4 feet deep out of the bedding. Then 3-4 of them would be down in that "hole' cuddled together. The fat hogs where in open fronted buildings. We took tarps and close the fronts on them. Their body heat kept them warm.
The biggest job was keeping them watered. Everything was freezing up. Electric heaters on those old metal waterers would not keep up with the cold. We cut fifty five gallon drums long ways and welded the one half in the other one. We cut out doors in the ends of the bottom one. I would dump a half a bag of charcoal in them and light it then stick a hose in running water into it. I bet that I made 30 of them. While I would be dumping ashes out and relighting ones my wife would be running water into the fresh lite ones.
We were living in an older farm house then. Single pane windows and no insulation. I stacked straw bales up to the windows. We put plywood over most of the windows on the north and west sides. We burnt over a 1000 gallons of fuel oil and 3 ton of coal just in December. Even then if you set pop on the kitchen floor at night the bottles would freeze/break.
My main tractor was a Ford 6000 diesel. I finally got it started by borrowing a torpedo heater and putting a tarp over it. Never shut it off other than to check the oil and fill it with fuel, for over three weeks. I had to replace the muffler when it got warmer because the old one was full of black soot/carbon from unburnt fuel from idling for hours in the cold.
Two good friends lost fingers to frost bit. Their gloves got wet from working on waterers while doing chores.
kcm.MN
Well-known Member
- Location
- NW Minnesota
Sounds more like a nightmare than an "experience". Wow, can't even imagine all that.
Don't exactly remember 83, seems like 6 or 8 winters around that time were bad. In 83 my wife would have been working 30 miles west in Finley Hospital in Dubuque Iowa and I worked 30 miles east, she always drove my El Camino and I drove her Chevette, don't remember having trouble starting them or getting stuck although I wouldn't want to do it again. Middle of January 1979 one of my brothers had a heart attk: first thing in the morning of a blizzard, ambulance couldn't get down the 2 tenths of a mile road, neighbor a mile away came down with a big yellow end loader and opened the road and around the farm buildings. There was cows to milk, a confinement building full of hogs, sows, calves, waterers frozen, just a complete disaster. I lived 6 or 8 miles away down a mile long dead end road covered with 4 foot of snow, neighbor came across the pasture and creek with a JD 4440 I think it was and hauled us over to the highway. The township opened that dead end road with a dozer about a week later. But any of those winters driving RT 20 was like going through a tunnel.
1370pwr in ne
Member
Maybe I'm just spoiled from the 40's and 50degree days we enjoyed earlier this month. this whole year has been from one extreme too another. Too hot to too cold, too dry to too wet all year!This below zero makes for allot more work and expense on our cow calf operation.Hope the cold is short lived. I dealt with the winter of 83 also. I worked for a standard gas station that did AAA insurance. Calls started coming in at 4pm to start vehicles. Don't miss that at all.
Never forget that winter, graduated from U of N mid term my pickup so cold wouldn?t start, parents had to come get me, so cold out could only stay out for 15 min with all the clothes on we could possibly wear, chores amounted to carrying water to cows and hogs,water would freeze as soon as it splashed up on us, for you southerners we had winter livestock advisories, if I?m not mistaken wind chills were between -50 and -60. Don?t know that I?ve ever been that cold
olgentdc
Well-known Member
that was a co9ld for us southern IND folx ,, my wife to be got stranded at my parents farm for 3 glorious nites ,,.We actually could not go home to her place because they lost Electric Power ,,. her brothers stayed there and burned firewood and had thetime of their life ,,her sisters and mother went to live with her aunt ,./.? lucky me,., my sisters kept my wife to be in their room up stairs, i slept in the far end near the stairwell . ,,.my sisters never let on , that their bed partner was missing most of the nite ,.,.
K Effective
Well-known Member
We're in the lake effect zone off Lake Michigan, the winters of 77-78 and 78-79 were awesome to be 12-14. Huge snowfall amount followed by blizzard winds- we had drifts up to house eves throughout the neighborhood. Lots of tunnels dug and forts built, no school for two weeks straight.
By 82-83 I was in college, driving a 1973 Toyota LandCruiser FJ40, soft top only. I bought it from my Uncle when he retired from The Corps and he had it shipped directly to me from Kaneohe Bay Marine Base, HI. NOT a great Winter vehicle for comfort, but would go through any snow.
My Uncle on Dad's side was local cop, he called us on Christmas Eve and said the only vehicle that would make it to the farm that night was going to be my Toyota, so we all piled in. Mom was scraping the frost off the inside of the windshield as I drove and ruined my WMU parking sticker- cost me $30. Got so cold that next week the radiator froze solid since the Toy sat outside. I did not know until then that more antifreeze wasn't always better.
By 82-83 I was in college, driving a 1973 Toyota LandCruiser FJ40, soft top only. I bought it from my Uncle when he retired from The Corps and he had it shipped directly to me from Kaneohe Bay Marine Base, HI. NOT a great Winter vehicle for comfort, but would go through any snow.
My Uncle on Dad's side was local cop, he called us on Christmas Eve and said the only vehicle that would make it to the farm that night was going to be my Toyota, so we all piled in. Mom was scraping the frost off the inside of the windshield as I drove and ruined my WMU parking sticker- cost me $30. Got so cold that next week the radiator froze solid since the Toy sat outside. I did not know until then that more antifreeze wasn't always better.
i remember a winter early 80's, could be 82-83 we had 3 consecutive weeks where we had a blizzard during the week and got down to 30-35* below with a 30mph wind, remerber -90 below windchill. i remember the road was drifted in front of our house, the drifts were so hard you could drive over them with a car. had a side road couple miles from home, drifted in 5-6 ft deep with cars stuck in there, didnt get it cleared out for week.had a neighbor come over with steiger and dozer blade to plow a path out to field to spread manure, got out there with spreader drifting in got stuck had to call him back to plow out again. didnt seem so cold then, now get cold at 0*
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