As a rule, southerners don't handle snow well. In our area we get it so seldom and it is usually a short stay anyway, that we don't have the equipment for it. Ice storms are even worse.

The Sunday night forecast for all of the Arkansas Ozarks (northwest Arkansas) is a covering of ice up to a quarter of an inch, which is actually quite a bit. A quarter inch will start stripping trees of limbs and are tough on power lines.

It's still cold here, 29 degree high today, and we have just a little snow left over from last week so I'm out today restocking the dry firewood box in the garage and on the front porch so I don't have to go slipping across the ice to get to the wood pile during the next few days. The generator and emergency kerosene heaters are all topped off. Nothing to do but hunker down.

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You hit on one of the reasons I avoided going south during the winter. when I was trucking. Most of the south is not even close to equipped for it. Roads end up really crummy, driving skills for crud weather are poor, and parking gets to be a problem when the urge to keep going is overcome by better judgment.
Freezing rain and ice are really unpleasant and other than finishing up getting to a place of relative safety, I gave up early. A foot or two of snow never bothered me, and the NE is far better set up to address it.

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NHI, 10-8.

K-1 stockpile, Firewood stockpile, Dog chow stockpile, & Beverage stockpile.

All good, bring on the excuse for going nowhere!

Ivan

Probably too late to get, but strap-on cleats for ice are just the ticket when you have to walk on that stuff. I've got a pair in the garage for the aftermath of ice storms.

(Just don't wear 'em in the house!)

Good luck!

Living in the northern climes we are well versed in ice. However, no matter how well we plan and prepare it can still turn and bite us.

Just ask Wayne and Lisa.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

This. Went out to get the mail in my slippers the other day. Did a vertical to horizontal transition midair. Luckily the ice was on top of a couple inches of snow, so it was a little bit softer. No new hurts but it sure didn't help the old ones any.

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The best I can with what I got

The metal cleats are nice. I wear them Ice fishing. Also FAULKNER I have Kubota envy. Mine is just a little BX. It does everything good enough but nothing great. What do you use that size (L series I assume) tractor for ?

Back in October 2019, I had to travel across northern Alabama thru Georgia. We had about a foot of snow.

The roads were passable, but the back roads were covered by downed trees and power poles. You needed a 4x4 to drive over/around all the debris. There was so much down, the county road crews couldn't get to all of it. Big mess!

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Death? Smile back...

Quick temporary fix: about 10- 1/4" long hex headed sheet metal screws in the lugs of outdoor boots. I've put them in snow tires also, I removed them at 100 miles of use, with over half the head left.

Ivan

So many love to make fun of the winter driving in the south, but I have to ask" Where are all the major highway pileups at the beginning of each winter? Up north, that's where. And it ain't because all the AL and GA drivers are up north for vacation. Seems northerners forget how bad their driving is each winter.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

My son lives in Branson so the ice is in his forecast too. The hills, curves and tourists don't mix well there. When he still lived here in NW Iowa, he commuted 25 miles each way to work. Said that was easier in a sub-zero snowstorm than his current 2 miles in ice/snow.

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Super Snooper

We don’t handle ice well here either,thankfully it’s rare.Hunkering down is good!

The '72 ice storm in SW MO left us with only our fireplace for heating, cooking, and melting snow for water, for more than a week.

I came across those gems a few years ago and keep a couple of pair of those in my patrol unit.


I'm a fan of Kubotas and have been running them for about 30 years. My first one was a 1992 B7100 17HP 4WD with hydrostat. I really liked it but eventually outgrew it and sold it 15 years later for what I paid for it new.

My second one is a 2001 B2710 27HP 4WD with hydrostat. It's a very good mowing and bush hogging machine and I've been pleased with it too. I run a finish mower or a 5 foot bush hog behind it, and used to grade my 1/4 mile driveway with it until I eventually got it paved.

A few years ago I bought Mrs. Faulkner a new Z27G 27 HP gasoline zero turn mower with 54 inch deck. It's a mowing machine and with it I find I do less mowing with the B2710 unless the ground is damp. The tractor does better on damp ground or any kind of incline, but on flat ground the zero turn is at least three times faster than the tractor.

A couple of years ago I decided I needed a front end loader and I caught a sales deal at the Kubota dealer on a new L3901 39 HP 4WD with hydrostat and quick disconnect bucket. I'm a big fan of the hydrostat transmission. I take the bucket off in the summer (unless I specifically need it) and mainly bush hog with it and do my mowing with the zero turn, although the L3901 did come with a 72 inch finish mower that use on occasion, but the zero turn is just so much faster to mow with. In the winter I keep the bucket on and use it to haul hay and firewood and such around the place. This spring I have some dirt work around the place I'll be doing with it.

I hadn't planned on selling my smaller B2710 because I like it so much, but a buddy of mine kept nagging at me about wanting to buy it. All my equipment is well maintained and parked in the shop. I wash and wax 'em with the same stuff I do with my Harley so they stay clean and shiny. I recently sold my 20 year old B2710 to my buddy for a little more than what I paid new for it and he was glad to get it.

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I prefer my ice with about 2 oz. of good bourbon, just sayin'

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Super Snooper

47 years ago yesterday, the Ohio River froze over in a brutal blizzard. Dad was an hour late for work. It was the first time in 11 years.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Sounds like you have everything under control. Stay warm and safe.

With that 1/4 inch of ice scenario the transformers will be blowing and the tree branches will be cracking and falling. Amazing how much damage ice can do. I have seen evergreens bent completely over and touching the ground with that much ice.

When either Hurricane Sandy or an ice storm left people around Baltimore (only 45 miles away) without power for a week I got my whole house Generac generator.

All but 3 years of my life have been spent here in Northwest Ohio, around 3 hours north of Rustyt1953, and so I have plenty of experience wih snow(and ice to a lesser degree). The other three years I lived in South Carolina to attend graduate school. From time to time I tell the following story about wintertime in the south to friends and acquaintances here, and it almost never fails to bring down the house.(probably will fall flat here).

I was in the seminary at school(there is also an undergraduate school there) working on an M.Div. degree, and one of the requirements was to engage in some kind of ministry to the community for a few hours each week. One semester I was responsible for leading the worship service and speaking at a nursing home/assisted living facility some distance away, which required us to take the car. There were several of us assigned to the home; the others helped wheel the residents to and from the service as I recall, and afterward we would stay and visit them for awhile.

One of the helpers was an undergraduate fellow from Savannah, with whom I would walk each Sunday across the campus to get to the car. One day, in January very likely, it was cold enough to snow, and as we walked an occasional flake or two would hit the walk/ground in front of us(here we would say it was "spitting snow"). Maybe halfway to the car the Savannah native turned to me with a sober look and said, "Man, it's really puttin' it down, isn't it?"

Regards,
Andy

It looks like you are ready. Up here in the PNW we got snow and then freezing rain on top of it. PTL the power stayed on. I was stocked up on food and had lots of wood in. My cat was very unhappy. Still a good bit of melting needed.

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No baby we aint

My daughter lives just North of Little Rock and I'm worried about her. Arkansas has some pretty extreme weather. I lived there from 1987-92, flying for the Army, and we got our share.

Metro Little Rock shouldn't be too bad, less than 20% chance of ice at this time.

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or my very "Old style" pair of golf shoes, with the metal spikes !!

That also applies to the Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, and Portland areas of the PNW. 90% of the people haven't a clue how to drive in snow & ice, and the road crews don't have half the equipment they need to deal with it.
Spokane on the other hand is different. Here people know how to drive in the snow, and the road crews have the equipment and are right on top of it as soon as the weather turns. Heck, most of the time they will spray ice-melt on the street in front of my house BEFORE it even starts snowing & freezing most of the time.

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

I remember back in the mid 90s reading a story in the Spokesman-Review comparing the snow removal there to a couple places in the east. The Toledo OH manager responsible for addressing snow removal said he would get fired if he only achieved what Spokane considers a good performance. It's all perspective. Compared to growing up in upstate NY just off Lake Ontario, I have never seen a full sized plow in Washington.

Faulkner: my brother has lived in Conway for many years now and he is completely acclimated to considering 20F cold, etc. My other brother is just outside of Buffalo. The contrast in views is hilarious. I have not been outside today (just woke up) and am hoping there is no ice on the roads here as I need to go to the pharmacy.

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NHI, 10-8.

Never liked ice stoms back in Md. Snow never bothered me...when much younger we really got some snow on the Eastern Shore. Except for some times in the 60s and 70s they got the roads clear or close 'nuff. Here in Wyoming....kinda like up in Alaska...you see someone stopped in the 20-40 below weather or the blizzards...you stop to see if they need help. otherwise most here do pretty well driving cept some of the young'uns. I came across South Pass below Lander once..the snow was really light but almost hood deep on top. came through ok...but it was as bad one way as the other. They shut the road down shortly after we got through. From Lander to home snow was only 8-12 inches deep...My wife's 2007 Ford F-250(gas) is probably the best truck I've ever driven in snow...other than my crash truck or rescue truck working the FD.
Y'all be careful down there in that ice country. Stay off the road if possible

Perspective is right - and mine is comparing Spokane to Seattle - where I lived for 29 years. Spokane does a fantastic job compared to the Puget Sound metroplex.

Based on that comment I'm not sure if I've ever seen a "full sized plow". I see 12-yard dump trucks with a plow blade maybe 12' wide and 4' high plowing in Washington, but I'm not sure if that fits your definition of a full sized plow. I've never been to upstate NY and don't know what they use for plowing.

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Send lawyers, guns & money...

Well, when I was a kid, they were 3 axle class 8 trucks with blades so big I could not reach the top of the main blade. They would drive down city streets fast enough to generate sparks for a good bit of the truck's length. Some were so big they had to have a spotter in addition to the driver.

It may well be that technology has changed and my memory no longer reflects reality. When I was trucking, if the weather was bad I stayed on the Thruway (I90, mostly) because they had their own trucks and worked like heck to keep it clear. I went to Maine in the 1993 winter hurricane and got stuck in Oneida because Indy Mack took off my good winter blades as they had no idea what it is like to run in lake effect snow. I got the last room Saturday, and the Red Cross fed us from snowmobiles. I had to work out by running laps of the hotel. 36" of snow in a day was not a record, or particularly close, and got very cold the second day (Sunday), well below zero. I ad to have a service call to get the truck running and get new wiper blades on Monday AM. Before I got back on the Thruway, the road was not only bare, but DRY.

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NHI, 10-8.

The storm is rolling through St Louis area now. Woke up with a nasty coat of ice. Main roads are good but side streets still icy. I could skate on my driveway right now. Should warm up soon to clear it all away.

Living in central Ohio we don't deal with too much snow but they do a good job clearing the roads and use the dump tucks with a blade attached.

The first time I saw heavy snow removal equipment was in Minnesota. They had center bladed earth movers pushing snow. I had never seen plows the size they use either.

One of the guys I was going to visit said that planning his snow removal from his driveway was pretty complicated. He said they often got snow hitting in November and wouldn't have a thaw till April, so if you didn't plan where to push it you had to move it twice.

If I remember correctly it 3 oz, good bourbon

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Always Stay Strong!

Here in my corner of the Ozarks we mostly dodged the bullet. Ice coated everything early but the power never went off. It has warmed some the ice is gone and it is raining. West of here it was worse