whats the weather like in your area?

irishh_bob wrote: »

one can loose count of the number of things that can go wrong with scrapers , they are without doubt the most tempremental machines ive ever seen on a farm , i hate them with a passion :mad:

you do seem to have a fierce hatred of them alright Bob mine is only in it 2nd season and I have to say I love it, was a right old b4stard of a job with a hand scraper twice a day, now set the timer timer and forget about it. the little bar sticking is the only issue ive had so far so and in fairness everything else is frozen so its not doing too bad

-14 this morning. All water frozen except the kitchen tap. Spent till 11 last night filling IBC tank from it and bringing it to cattle. District heating pipe between house and garage frozen and its well insulated. Must have frozen where it rises from the ground to go into the house. Luckily we have a range that will keep the house warm. N4 at crawling pace this morning, lorries coming sideways down hills, a number of jackknifes. Brought the tractor to the train station so that I can get to work. 40k is faster than any car can travel in this weather.

Snowed another bit last night, and for a while again in the late morning/early afternoon. There's a small thaw on though, lots of water drops on trees/furze and I can hear drips off the house roof.

irishh_bob wrote: »

slats are superior to scrapers in every possible way

their cheaper no matter what anyone says
once you put them in , you need not worry about them for 25 years
frost has no effect on them
no moving parts need replacing

Cheaper alright. Except where you have to bring in a rockbreaker to dig down after 6in. I am still trying to forget that bill for the reception tank:(. The crap at the end of the scraper line going solid is my biggest problem in the frost alright. And as a previous poster has said, the bar gets frozen solid to the track bars but with a bit of dung on them or a tip of a sledge and they move in a few minutes. If they are not moving at all then you might have blown a hydraulic pipe but fairly easy to replace. This global warming is freezing my ass off though

pakalasa wrote: »

No mains water this morning!
Just looked at the forcast on Met Eireann, looks like freeze here till Christmass day at least. Oh Man!:(

yikes bad news there, so far water still coming to house here and have a tap up the yard running thats keeping troughs going, we have had no snow really in n clare but i think the last 2 nights have been the coldest yet, even this morning upto maybe 11 was absolutely bitter, its just nice at the moment but expecting another v cold night, have noticed the cows not eating much yest and today, have plenty of water but maybe the water is too cold for them at this stage?? they dont seem to be taking much of it anyway, you may just have a leak pak? noticed my pressure drop off big time yest evening but found a burst pipe between our entrance and yard/house

dar31 wrote: »

Parlour washings?, i think!

IrishBob, ya mightnt like scrapers, but they are so handy. every second day 15 mins to push in silage/scrape cubicles, then another few checkin the cows. then at end of year 2/3 hours with a powerwasher can't beat it. Few hours service then over autumn. And sher labour is your biggest cost of all.

Dupont wrote: »

-17 this morning at 730. diesel had froze in van and could hardly get door open

I remember reading about how well the Germans were doing invading the Soviet Union in WW2 until winter struck. There's tales of them lighting fires under their tanks to unfreeze the fuel, I bet that was a little hairy, who's gonna get us first the Russians or our own vehicles exploding

johngalway wrote: »

I remember reading about how well the Germans were doing invading the Soviet Union in WW2 until winter struck. There's tales of them lighting fires under their tanks to unfreeze the fuel, I bet that was a little hairy, who's gonna get us first the Russians or our own vehicles exploding

:eek: !! hope they were special German fires:D, sher diesel il go by its self at bout 200 degree, and most fires i would a thaught can get a wee bit hotter

irishh_bob wrote: »

and what use is one weeks storage , even you were willing to spread once a week , your not allowed

Ah boys. Overground storage costs half the price per gallon of slurry. It is also extendable and can be covered. Most farmers have agitators and one with an adaptor to allow pumping to overground store is less than 1k onto the cost of a new agitator if i remember correctly. And a small store to hold 1 to 2 weeks storage outside the cubicle house is recommended to prevent having to pump every day. When i build again it will probably be an overground tank. Look this is off topic so if someone wants to discuss it then start a new thread

johngalway wrote: »

I remember reading about how well the Germans were doing invading the Soviet Union in WW2 until winter struck. There's tales of them lighting fires under their tanks to unfreeze the fuel, I bet that was a little hairy, who's gonna get us first the Russians or our own vehicles exploding

The uncle worked for a fella years ago john. They had a digger and 2 other machines i cant remember. One day the boss (old man, just keeping an eye on things) grabbed a stunned rabbit that ran from cover. They used to light a fire under the machines in the morning to start them. They had rabbit the next morning on the fire under the machine!!!

When i was working on the bypass, we thought the dozer was been syphoned for 2 days until we noticed some diesel on the ground. Komatsu man came, diesel tank was cracked. The diesel froze and expanded cracking the tank. Not sure was it covered as the Komatsu man said it will more than likely be an act of god!

whelan1 wrote: »

dropped phone in drinker , full of water and got a puncture on the motorway ... not a good day

:eek:
not a nice day at all

I left water in my kettle for defrosting tap and the kettle is burst, it split right down the side.. -9 at the moment... It really is relentless.

The interesting thing is that the weather front coming in from the SW will probably fall as snow, it'll be interesting to see how much snow before it actually turns to rain... The lads over in the weather forum have doubts if it will beat back the cold at all and in fairness they have been better than Met Eireann so far...

-12.4 last night here in Cavan, -6 now.
Just perfect for the sleigh

BeeDI wrote: »

Last night was minus 14. Unreal. Very hard to start tractor today for first time this year

I know that feeling. 2 litres of kerosene in the tank and 6 silage wraps and 5 bales of hay around the engine and fuel tank yesterday and she started no bother. Think i may have got the last of the summer diesel:o. Never went above -4 today and -9 in the car at 6pm. Rain will be welcome just for the warmth

1 drinker working

blue skies here this morning

Lovely day here so far, even a bit warm in shelter.