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Posted by tree68 on Saturday, November 15, 2014 1:38 PM

I filled the bird feeders yesterday, and within an hour or two there was already evidence of visitors (never mind those actually seen on the feeders):  

Looks like I need to wash the window (correction - I need to wash the window), but you might be able to pick out a couple of bluejays on the outer feeder, a goldfinch on the covered platform feeder, and a chickadee and a goldfinch on the Yankee feeder.  Note that the Yankee feeder is no longer full.  

And that wasn't even as many birds as I saw on the feeders at once.  It's tough to track the chickadees, as they'll swoop in, grab a seed, then go elsewhere to crack it and eat the good part inside...

Headed to the PBS station to run camera tonight - think I'll stop and buy some sunflower seed on the way...

Spent this morning demonstrating our old pumper for a prospective buyer.  They seemed to be happy with what they saw, as it's on the road to Tennessee even as I write this.  If you see a fire truck headed south on I-81 with the name taped over on the doors, that's it!  It was a good truck for us, and hopefully will be a good truck for the new owners.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by rvos1979 on Saturday, November 15, 2014 7:50 PM
Uh, Mookie, about that Nebraska team..........

Snowing in South Beloit, IL, so called it a day. To Albany, NY, in the morning when it quits.......

Randy Vos

"Ever have one of those days where you couldn't hit the ground with your hat??" - Waylon Jennings

"May the Lord take a liking to you and blow you up, real good" - SCTV

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Posted by Mookie on Saturday, November 15, 2014 8:36 PM

rvos1979
Uh, Mookie, about that Nebraska team..........
 

Which one - the ladies volleyball, ladies basketball, men's basketball, baseball?  We have several very good teams....(ahem)

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Posted by tree68 on Saturday, November 15, 2014 11:33 PM

rvos1979
To Albany, NY, in the morning when it quits.......

Good luck with that.  Lake effect in the forecast for the next few days...

LarryWhistling
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Posted by JoeKoh on Sunday, November 16, 2014 5:32 PM

evening

busy day.Matt and cousins helped sing happy birthday to Grandma.Going to be interesting in the morning.Hope no one has their ditchfinders turned on.

stay safe

Joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by tree68 on Sunday, November 16, 2014 11:17 PM

Winter weather advisory in place until Monday at 7 PM, then the lake effect machine is supposed to kick in until about 3 PM on Wednesday.

Forecast amounts are listed in some areas in feet, not inches.

NWS is supposed to put on a Skywarn class in our FD banquet hall Wednesday night.  They're no strangers to lake effect - Buffalo gets it's share.  Might be interesting to see if the snow has an affect on their attendance...

Antique auction is over at local PBS station.  Head of production was overheard telling someone that they had volunteers with more experience running cameras than most of the staffers....  With some 30 years of running camera for them, one of those volunteers would likely be me, along with another long-timer that worked with me tonight...

Might just put some fresh gas in the snow blower tomorrow and make sure it's gonna start on the first pull, like usual.

Heard from one of the folks who was here Saturday to inspect (and buy) our old pumper (fire truck).  They got back home (TN), apparently in one piece.

 

LarryWhistling
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Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
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Posted by The Butler on Monday, November 17, 2014 2:54 AM

First snowfall of the season here in Southeast Missouri.  It was just enough to turn things white.  It did not stick to the pavement due to the temperatures holding around thirty-two degrees.  I suspect it will only be around for a day or two with the forcasted sun and above freezing temperatures.

James


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Posted by Murphy Siding on Monday, November 17, 2014 7:10 AM

It's November.  Do you know where your snow shovel is?


     We got about 6 inches of some foreign white stuff Friday night through Saturday night.  For some reason, the street department decided to pay overtime to have the plows out all Saturday night working in my neighborhood.  The mayor must live nearby.

     The last 2 nights, we've been flirting with the wrong side of zero degrees.  The sudden snow and cold has brought out the wildlife in our neighborhood.  It looks like Santa's entire transportation crew wanders through our yard at night looking for that last apple off the tree.
    

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by samfp1943 on Monday, November 17, 2014 9:34 AM

Murphy Siding

" It's November.  Do you know where your snow shovel is?"


     We got about 6 inches of some foreign white stuff Friday night through Saturday night.  For some reason, the street department decided to pay overtime to have the plows out all Saturday night working in my neighborhood.  The mayor must live nearby.

     The last 2 nights, we've been flirting with the wrong side of zero degrees.  The sudden snow and cold has brought out the wildlife in our neighborhood.  It looks like Santa's entire transportation crew wanders through our yard at night looking for that last apple off the tree.
    

 

In response to your highlighted question... YEAH, BUDDY!   Bang Head

Spent yesterday afternoon cleaning up the "Trace to 2"" that the Weather types predicted..Only it was in the vicinity of 4" to 5" down here.   Between the snow shovel and hauling in firewood, I have a deep empathy for that proverbial " Well Digger's...."

The coffee was hot, and the wife dug out one of her apple pies, she'd made with the apples we'd picked a couple of months back.... And I did manage to catch some recliner time, while watching the Travel Channel's " Tricked Out Trains"...until about midnight. Whistling

Woke up this morning to 15 deg. Snow still on the ground- where I did not shovel it off... 

Everyone have a safe day.

 

 

 


 

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Posted by JoeKoh on Monday, November 17, 2014 3:10 PM

snows going to stay here awhile.Ma nature is opening the freezer. Some people had their ditch finders on last night.Ns still had a frieght in the siding.the local was working with a gp 60 uptown.Chores to do.

stay safe

joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by rvos1979 on Monday, November 17, 2014 8:36 PM
Larry, from the way the forecasts sound, I think the man above took the lake effect machine and hooked up a 20-645 EMD to power it, then played with the fuel rack for good measure.........

Picked up a light load in Fulton, NY, this evening, headed for the Cincinnati area. I'm going to drop south first, though, pick up and run 80 west and run around it all. I may be crazy, but I'm not suicidal.........

Randy Vos

"Ever have one of those days where you couldn't hit the ground with your hat??" - Waylon Jennings

"May the Lord take a liking to you and blow you up, real good" - SCTV

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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 1:45 AM

Randy - based on what I'm seeing on the radar, you made the right choice...  We aren't seeing any snow to speak of at my house, but the southern part of our county is starting to get hit, and Buffalo (and hence the Thruway) looks to be getting hammered already.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
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Come ride the rails with me!
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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 11:48 AM

One hundred miles of the NYS Thruway is closed around Buffalo....  They are now estimating that "persistant squall areas" will see upwards of six FEET of snow from this event...

Our lake effect band is running further north than usual right now, making roads that don't usually have problems really problematic.  There's a "no unnecessary travel" advisory on for the county, and everyone chiming in on-line seems to agree.

Interesting visitor today.  I was out putting up a couple of storm windows (long story) and filling the bird feeders when I noticed a hawk perched in a tree just outside my back yard.  I figure the poor thing was simply "grounded" by the snow:

I should add that it stayed there despite several trips around the back of the house with windows, bird seed, and suet.  Can't be more than 40 yards away.  Normally I'd expect a hawk to scram if it saw me in the back yard at all.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by Mookie on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 12:17 PM

Driver sez "he was waiting for lunch to land at the birdseed".

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 1:27 PM

Mookie

Driver sez "he was waiting for lunch to land at the birdseed".

 

   Driver and I think alike.  Why go chasing after dinner if it will come to you?  Makes me think of the Farside cartoon where deer hunters set up a blind near the deer restrooms.

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 3:36 PM

Mookie

Driver sez "he was waiting for lunch to land at the birdseed".

While we have had that happen here, I think this guy (or gal) was just waiting out the storm.  It was snowing very hard at the time.  

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by Mookie on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 4:16 PM

And I just passed the downstairs tv that was saying that "Buffalo area was getting heavy snow and closing everything down".  Gonna be hard to shuffle in that!

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by JoeKoh on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 4:32 PM

Randy hope you can keep rolling.Wonder how long Ns is going to keep the train in the siding.Might have to pump some major air to get it to move.Saw our local maintence guy.He's been un freezing water pipes all day and was ready to go home and warm up.

stay safe

Joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 4:41 PM

Mookie

And I just passed the downstairs tv that was saying that "Buffalo area was getting heavy snow and closing everything down".  Gonna be hard to shuffle in that!

Post on FB - "Go to Buffalo for the culture, stay because you can't find your d****d car..."

Image from the NYS Thruway, courtesy of the State Police (click on icon if the picture isn't there):

Buffalo Snow

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by rvos1979 on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 5:54 PM
Missed it all today, heard from a driver that lives there that the Thruway will be closed for a few days, lots of snow to move. By the looks of the picture, they're right!!

Randy Vos

"Ever have one of those days where you couldn't hit the ground with your hat??" - Waylon Jennings

"May the Lord take a liking to you and blow you up, real good" - SCTV

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Posted by Norm48327 on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 7:01 PM

Not a lot of snow in southeast Michigan but the bottom has fallen out of the thermometer. Haven't seen ice on the lakes this early in some time but this morning a few of them were almost covered. I ain't ready for this. BRRRRRRR! Crying

Norm


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Posted by CShaveRR on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 7:17 PM

We, too, don't have too much snow from this one (we're on the wrong side of Lake Effect...this time!), though we might wake up to an inch or two tomorrow morning when the temperatures rise.  We are at 16 right now, and it's not supposed to get any colder.

The wind is a trifle challenging.  I was raking leaves comfortably in temperatures like this yesterday, until the wind picked up.  It's stayed up since, and the parking lots were brutal when we did our Tuesday shopping trip.  We made it a more scenic one than usual by going out to Geneva (had a yummy lunch at Cabooses Bar in the Geneva Metra station!).  We saw plenty of trains, but they were either too far away from me or (at the bar) passing by too fast.  Only later did I think of taking a slo-mo video of the trains blowing by.  Of course, they were all gone.

The tunnel project in Lombard will get really boring early next month; the boring is expected to take a week or so.

Carl

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Posted by blue streak 1 on Wednesday, November 19, 2014 3:10 AM

Tree ---  feel for those persons that got a band of snow 6 feet (?) that is un believable this early in season.  Snow birds clogging I-75 fleeing the north.  Now 18F here.  Plugged up bock jeaters to make an early trip to doctors.  Many Houses not built for this kind of cold here.!!!

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, November 19, 2014 11:11 AM

Woke to clear skies this AM, but the band of lake effect swung through again and dropped perhaps an inch before going north of the border.  We get a respite for a while, then it starts again.

There's still a lot of local businesses digging out, and some schools and businesses did close.  The roads are mostly clear, though.

A comment commonly heard about the southern states was uttered on FB about Buffalo - "they don't have the equipment to handle such a storm."  If that's true in Buffalo, it means the really got hammered.  And get hammered they did, setting a one-day snowfall total of 76".  

There are several photos and videos on-line showing just how tight the gradient can be between no snow and total white-out.

Still a lot of people who seem to have their ditchfinders on.  Maybe the towing companies will have a chance to catch up around here before the next round.

And Friday I have to head down through prime lake effect territory so I can take out the first trips of the Polar Express from Utica.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
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Posted by JoeKoh on Wednesday, November 19, 2014 5:00 PM

evening

chilly and snow flurriesd here now.Ma nature gave us a dusting today.Ns had a freight in the siding and the local was uptown too.Csx has a bad car set out at the grain elevator and the ND&W had it's engine parked west of FC.Need to take matt to confirmation class.

stay safe

joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by BOB WITHORN on Thursday, November 20, 2014 7:29 AM

Called my wife last night, she had just finished clearing the latest 8" off the drive. It was at about 18" with 8 - 10" due today and friday. I get to miss most of it, I work in SE Mich. but like on the west coast (of Michigan). Should be interesting when I get home friday.

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Posted by Mookie on Thursday, November 20, 2014 9:41 AM

BOB WITHORN

Called my wife last night, she had just finished clearing the latest 8" off the drive. It was at about 18" with 8 - 10" due today and friday. I get to miss most of it, I work in SE Mich. but like on the west coast (of Michigan). Should be interesting when I get home friday.

 

might want to give her the dozen roses before you give her the new snow shovel... Shy

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Posted by BOB WITHORN on Thursday, November 20, 2014 10:00 AM

Don't need a new shovel, SHE actually picked out HER own new snow blower!!!

After 40 1/2years married and 45 1/2 together SHE GETS ROSES !!

 

Bob

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:09 AM

More snow this AM - exercised the snowblower (again).  The shovel isn't as appealling a workout as it used to be.

A lot of resources are headed for the Buffalo area.  The USAF ANG folks at Syracuse posted video of two large snowblower departing, and I'm sure other large snowblowers are headed that way from other parts of the state as well.

We're back under a lake effect warning until noon tomorrow, which is about the time I have to leave for the railroad.  Might be an interesting drive.  Had a retirement luncheon for today cancelled, and our monthly firefighters association dinner for tonight was just cancelled.  They were serving "breakfast" with real maple syrup, too...

The pictures coming out of the Buffalo area are astounding.  One showed a driveway pretty much cleared out, leading to a street that wasn't...

Tags: snow

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by blue streak 1 on Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:14 PM

Hope that all the rail potographers have their snow shoes.  Bet you cannot find a pair within a 100 miles ?

Tree:  how heavy is the snow ?

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