Charlie;

You wouldn't believe the cost for a small parcel in the salyersville area that can be built on. Houses built into hillsides and supported by stilts. A row of houses built over a running stream with patio at lower level above the water. Most of the hills here would challenge a good pack mule, and many are still used to move timber and firewood.

Interesting names in our family history, like Ruff and Tuff and Bee Tree.

Very obvious that roads are built in creek and river channels. Also many towns strung out along the rivers. Still used a lot for navigation.

I enjoy looking at maps of different parts of the country. So much of interest in them.

Gene

Bee tree is especially interesting, Gene.  I wonder if these are birth names or "acquired" names.  It makes me think of a Peoples Court episode.  The defendant referenced his "Uncle Gangster".  Judge Judy chastised the defendant and said she wanted a real name.  Defendant responded, "Uncle gangster is all I ever knew him by".  LMAO

I am also a map looker.

Charlie V.

Guess I didn't make that very clear. I should have said "place names" in our family history.

An aunt on my mother's side had a beauty shop at the top of Bee Tree, which was a steep hill with a steep gravel approach to the top. Was not usable in wet or snowy weather, except by horse or mule.

Schools were somewhat remote in some areas and was common for students to stay with relatives who lived closer to the school in times of bad weather. My mom told of her attending school by riding 5 miles by horseback with her sisters. She and her sisters often stayed with relatives so she would not miss any school days. She would always be there if the school was open.

During my dad's short term as a teacher he would often stay at the school house to keep the fires burning. Had a bunk in the furnace room to sleep.

Gene

Western Ohio has had a very favorable change of weather. We have gone more than 10 days without rain and only a dusting of snow. Temperatures have been well avove freezing and have had very pleasant sunshine. Warm temps and gentle winds have a noticable drying affect on the soils. Still have water in low lying areas but level ground is starting to dry. Today I was actually able to walk back to the woods and view the damage from our wind storm 2 weeks ago. Trees blown over with no root support in the saturated soils. Water still standing in the trails and seasonal ponds. Was dry enough for Bandy to chase a rabbit through the woods.

Warm temp of about 50 degrees, bright sunshine and nice breeze blowing made for a very pleasant walk.

Gene

Seems like the warm weather covers most of the country from what I hear. We are still well above normal temps. Got up in the 40s one day but we are still keeping our snow cover somehow. I went out and pushed some snow earlier this week but it might have been a waste of time if this warm weather keeps up.
[video=youtube;wonDoKy70ds]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wonDoKy70ds[/video]

Nice comfortable way to plow snow, Ralph.  It appears you get a little soil grading done along with the snow plowing.  Good video and thanks for posting.

Our twenty degree above average temperature has taken leave at the moment.  We are currently at +32 F which is still a mild temp. for this time of year.  This year we are in reverse gear as we are looking for the January freeze instead of the usual January thaw.  We have a light dusting of snow on smooth surfaces in the last 1/2 hour.

Gene, it appears the views for this thread will cross the 75,000 mark sometime today.  Sure is great to be popular.

Charlie V.

As of January 13, it is now very January in WNY.  The ground is buried in a solid eight inches of settled snow.  Heavy stuff to move by hand as it followed heavy rain on Thursday that changed to snow in the wee hours.  Plenty of water puddles under the snow.  Current temperature of +7 F.  The good luck had to wear thin at some point.  The two good points:

Winter held off for a long time.
We are still above 0 degrees.

Charlie V.

Winter has finally come to western, Ohio. Temp this morning (Sunday) is 3 degrees F. had snow and 45 MPH winds on Thursday and Friday. Not a lot of snow, but blown into drifts, mostly right in front of my shop and barn door. Got the tractor out yesterday and knocked down the drifts so I can get around. Ground finally freezing making for easier snow removal. Wood fire sure feels good and taking a lot of wood to keep warm.

Looks like Ralph is enjoying warmer weather than Charlie and I have this morning. Maybe lake affect snow in N.Y.? Florida has temps this morning in the high 20's and low 30's. May chill the citrus crop.

Gene

Gene, we might be "warmer" at present but it is going downhill fast. Starting to snow and the North wind is getting up strong enough to blow drifts. Forecast is not good for the rest of the week. Sounds like 0 farenheit will be the "high" temp some days.
Heres an old pic I scanned a while back. Think it was inside the cover of the operator manual for Dad's Case bush disk. My Uncle Sandy had a  Case LA like this one back about 1950.

Yep, Ralph, just like my LA. Wonder what happened to the exhaust stack? Would like to have some equipment to make mine work. The sawmill at Greenville is the only chance I
have to make it work. With the overbore kit and LP head it developes close to 90 horsepower. Seems to hold up real well.

Have read the stories about the trainloads of Case tractors sent to different parts of the country. Case would have a special deal for dealers in one part of the country and ship an entire train load to different dealers in an area.  This ad looks like they are appealing to the Florida area farmers.

Noticed the temperature difference there. Been dropping all dAY. Got to 30 here today with bright sunshine and light wind. Not a bad day to be out. 25 now at 6:00pm.

Gene

With  a heat wave like that, Gene, you may be at risk for sprouting Palm trees.  At 7.55 PM Eastern time, we are on the goose egg and dropping.  As I look at the hourly forecast, we may start warming slowly after midnight.  Hope so.  

Charlie V.

-4 at 3 AM.

Warming up in Ohio. It is 40F at 10:00am. Warming to mid 40's for today and tomorrow with rain possible. Thought about moving some ,ore of the drifts with the tractor, but decided to let it melt and the rain carry it away. Forecast to turn colder by midweek and chance of snow for Wednesday.

I have not even put the snowblower on the Case 222 this year. It is behind a non running tractor that I will have to pull out to get access to the blower. Procrastionation has worked pretty well so far this winter. At least we are finally able to get rid of some of the excess soil moisture as the tile is still working in the unfrozen ground. I was actually able to walk across the plowed ground without getting mired in the mud.

Don't know how things will work this spring as we usually get a lot of help with freezing ground to help the spring tilth. Only 3 1/2 months till planting time and days are getting longer.

Gene

Well the bottom dropped out of the thermometer here. Nearly -20F this morning. I knew those sundogs yesterday indicated cold. Actually it feels better today as the wind has dropped. Snow didn't amount to much. I put the draft arms and lift links on the three point hitch of the Cockshutt 40 last week in preparation. Always nicer working without freezing my fingers. Sometimes being prepared means you won't have to use it. I wouldn't bet on it in Sk. though. Its not up to date but this is what a sundog in the early morning looks like.

Interesting picture of the sundog. Do you often get multiple sundogs? A rarity here, but did see a triple here a couple years ago. Was very cold and lots of frozen moisture in the upper atmosphere and I believe at the time we had a near record high barometer reading nearing 31.5"

Most interesting sight I have seen was a 360 degree rainbow. Was flying across Indiana at about 7500' between 2 thunderstorms when the rainbow appeared ahead of me. Followed it around and it actually met itself before it reached the ground. No pot of gold there.

Got to 44 degrees here today with a fairly strong southeast wind. Melted a lot of snow that was still on the ground. Started raining about 5:30, just a fine mist so far. Forecast to last till tomorrow afternoon with 44F for a high, then cooling off and becoming snow for Wednesday.

Gene

-30 F when I got up this morning and I forgot to look for sundogs. The typical formation is sometimes like 3 suns in the sky on a really cold morning. Later in the day it is almost a rainbow ring around the sun. Almost always a sign of cold and wind like we had on Sunday.
A good day to look back at the hot summer of 1992 and tour a really good museum here in Sask.

[video=youtube;NJaXkSX2S_o]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJaXkSX2S_o[/video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJaXkSX2S_o