Charlie, I only have synthetic 0w30 oil in one engine. The little 16 hp Kohler on a grain auger that I use to load trucks sometimes. It has never failed to start but I do sometimes give it a little help by blasting it with the space heater to warm up the carburetor. I don't know the price of that oil today but it was very expensive a few years ago when I last bought some. Considering that even ordinary motor oil is very high priced now I hate to think what the synthetic might be.
Snowing, sunshine and up to +10F here today so things are improving.

Ralph,

With the rising cost of petroleum oil the gap to synthetic may have narrowed a little.  Checking out WalMart, Shell Rotella full synthetic is under 22 bucks for a five quart bottle.   Mobile 1 is 25.17.  Conventional oil ranges from 12 something to over $ 17.  It seems that one to two dollars per quart difference is less than a few years ago.

Speaking of cold temperature starts, we were at minus 12.5 degrees F at sunrise today.  In my recollection, that should be a record low for March.  No wonder the polar ice cap is shrinking.  All the darn cold is down here.

Charlie

Ralph, odd you mention preheating your small engine. I have been taking advantage of the frozen ground by splitting and hauling firewood. Yesterday morning at 12 degrees, I took the splitter to the woods and being cold was reluctant to start, but finally did. This morning again at 12 degrees, I preheated the engine and oil and started it before Going to the woods. Have been using 10w40 oil in it because of high oil consumption.

I got a little more than 2 trailer loads of hickory split before the sunshine and rising temps started making the ground greasy and muddy. Temperature got up to 40 degrees by noon and dropped back to 37 now at 1:00pm.

Only things I use synthetic oil in is my chainsaw, motorcycle, golf cart and portable generator. Guess it is in my Jeep Hemi too. Like it in the chain saw mainly because it doesn't smoke.

Looks like we will be having a March thaw with temps climbing in to the 40's for the next week. Ready for that.

Gene

Have to preheat my air compressor at around 30 deg. and below or it will trip the breaker on start up, so I know how you guys feel.

Charlie

I keep heat in my shop, so I keep it about 42 degrees, so the compressor starts without a problem. That is warm enough to do most small jobs. When I am working on bigger projects, I turn it up to about 60 degrees, just a nice working temperature.

My kerosene heaters have been very handy starting the tractor, airplane and bulldozer, and this morning for the splitter. The little Case V I do most of my wood hauling will start in any temperature I am willing to work in. Little Continental flathead with 12 volts will start almost instantly at zero.

Been a good week for splitting wood. Have been getting 2 trailer loads most days and some nice size piles still in the woods. Probably have enough to get me through next year, now just have to cut for the neighbor. They will be in South Carolina till the end of March.

Gene

What a change in a week. -30F last Saturday night but closer to +25 tonight. Close to six inches of snow mid week but not much drifting. Seemed like a good day to haul a tank of water from the community well with the old GMC. Managed to get around the yard in the loose snow but got sideways on the main grid road at about 80 kph and ended up head first up to the headlights in the ditch. Lucky it was near a yard with a tractor ready to go and he pulled me back onto the road with a little bit of difficulty. Haven't been stuck that bad in quite a while.

Wow, sounds like you had a wild ride. Glad the tractor was there to pull you out. Back about 1976, I bought a new GMC pickup. I had a 550 gallon water tank that I used to haul water for spraying. At the time I lived where I had a water cistern and in winter with no runoff to fill the cistern, I would haul for our use. Other people heard I could haul water, so started doing that as a sideline. I remember times the roads were snow covered and slippery and the GMC would go anywhere with a full water tank.

No snow here now to worry about. Couple 45 degree days took care of all but the piles and drifts, and they are disappearing. Turned cold overnight with a skiff of snow this morning and 24 degrees. The ground was frozen on top just enough to get the bulldozer back to the woods and with a couple lengths of chain, I pulled down 2 trees that had fallen into other trees when they were cut. Was able to drag them out and fell to the ground. Had 2 hickory trees that had broken over several feet up and was able to drag them off of the snag so we can cut them. Had been watching a large ash tree that had broken over and fell into other trees and had planned to pull it down, but when I got to it, it had already fallen down and taken a walnut tree with it.  Took the dozer back to the barn and got the little tractor and trailer and chain saws and went back and cut up one of the hickories and the big ash tree. By the time I got these cut up it was really warming up and the mud was all melting, so had to call it a day by 2:00pm.

Gene

It seems we survived the blizzard of March 12, 2014.  I do recall an even bigger March storm than this, but the official snowfall yesterday was 16.1 inches.  Wind gusts were to 50+ MPH.  By looking out it seemed no snow was falling.  It was all moving longitudinally with the NE wind.  Going out today and doing the clean up I see that plenty of the stuff stayed here.  Drifted by my truck to two feed and half way up the drivers door on the SUV.  Started at 8 this AM and pretty well cleaned by 10:30.  Had breakfast, then went back out and shoveled the front walk.  Pretty good amount of sunshine today but the temp. only started at 6 degrees.  Enough wind to still be moving some snow around so we will see how long the clean up lasts.  I am hoping that will be the last for this year.

Charlie

Charlie, looks like you got what missed us yesterday. Had some heavy rain in the morning and changed to sleet and freezing rain. Ice and snow made about 2 inches, but the rain caused some minor flooding. Wind was strong enough to blow some more limbs from the trees. Was about 11 degrees overnight and only got to 30 this afternoon. Ralph is basking in 37 degrees this afternoon. Probably left his winter coat in the house. Looks like warmer weather coming for Friday and then cooler again for the weekend. Spring is coming slowly but surely. Will try to send Charlie some warmer weather.

I am sure Dean is working on his new place. Likely looking forward to making the big move.

Gene

We made it all the way up to +17 today, Gene.  Looks like Ralph is high man on the temperature totem pole.  Ours looked like this........

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Charlie

Charlie, looks as if you have more than your share of snow to shovel. I have been pushing the winter's accumulation up into piles so it can melt in the low spots and less traveled areas. And Gene you are right on the temperatures but I am not quite giving up my parka yet. Did change over to the summer weight coveralls though. Its nice but I fully expect more snow before this winter is over.
Coyotes are thriving here as seen in this trail cam shot from a few nights ago.

Those eyes sure look menacing on the coyotes. Haven't seen or heard any around here. Seeing some tracks in the woods that could be coyotes or maybe fox, not really sure how to tell them. Lots of deer, rabbits, raccoons and  squirrels.

Windy and warm here in Ohio today. Got up to about 55degrees and 55 MPH winds. Good for drying the ground but brought more limbs down in the lawn and woods. Raining now, started about 9:45pm.

Sure hope you and Charlie get some warm weather to get the snow melted and don't suffer the flooding.

Bandy is having a little difficulty getting around the last couple days. He has been going back to the woods with me and I thing he overdid it Wednesday with the soft ground and icy snow. I left him at the house today and he seems better tonight. Getting harder for him to get up on only one back leg.

Gene

Not much danger of flooding here with the amount of snow we have so far. Turned colder the last day or so and today was right cool with that south easter blowing and high humidity at maybe 15 degrees. Good day to cut firewood though and I helped my brother and family cut a load of logs into firewood length. Here we are at the end of the job with the wood all stacked up in the new wood shed. They even got Rosco the dog in the picture.

Finally making a little progress on the Massey Super 90. We picked up the head last week and got it set in place earlier this week. Now all the little accessories to install and get it together enough to run the engine and re check the head bolt torque. Its a good thing I am not a mechanic as I would never make a living considering how slow I work. :p

Glad you are finally making progress on the Massey.working on some of these machines can be daunting.. At least the weather is a little friendlier.

Have one nice day and then turns cold and windy. Had light rain yesterday and windy. Decided it was time to get the taxes done. Today was cold and windy again, so finished the taxes. Forecast for tomorrow is morning snow then warming up to 60 with rain. Ground is still wet and still frost in the ground. Too wet to do much in the woods.

Gene