9:45 on a Tuesday..

[ICE WANDERER]

               Good morning Bud, ER's,
                         It's 39* and mostly cloudy, later today we are in a winter storm warning, with sleet and freezing rain likely.
                         Bud........It doesn't sound like a great day to be out on the water, for those in the tournament, I wish them well.
                         Marv.......I also follow the lines when filing my chains, I do have a electric sharpener if I get big nicks in a few teeth then touch it up
               with a file. A lot of people forget the rakers, I take a flat file to them with at least one stroke after each filing. I've seen some loggers file the
               rakers off as soon as they buy a new chain.
                         Eddie.......I hope all is well, we didn't see a post yesterday?
                         Yesterday the guy that bought my motorcycle came and picked it up, he had a big smile on his face when he left my yard.
                         I hope everyone has a good Saturday either at work or out fishing if the weather permits it.

              IW
           

[wallyworld]

Morning all,

IFF......sounds like a good day to NOT be on the water    you've certainly gotten your money's worth out of that roller coaster this year 

IW.....had to be tough watching the bike leave    hope the new owner gets many miles of enjoyment out of it 

WS....hope you're safe & sound and the storm hasn't been too wild 

Eddie.....did the gremlins stop by for a visit 

Have a good day whatever's on your plate. Stay safe.

[masoneddie]

Good Morning Bud, Jeff, Wally, Morning Everyone,
  42* and calm to start the day, might make it to 45 this morning before the cold front rolls in.

  Jeff...yes, an early start again yesterday and a later than usual rise, lol. Sorry to read about those pains your going through with the therapy, hope they can get that under control and quickly, dang! How's MW and his business doing? Imagine he will be full throttle again pretty soon once the nicer weather settles in...hope all is well!   
  Marv...you'll have to keep us posted on that crazy Minnysoda weather, yikes! So glad your talk with the boss and crew went well, must have been a bittersweet moment for sure after 32 years of service....Congratulat ions again!   
  Wally...most of the snow here has finally disappeared, crossing fingers it doesn't look pure white again by the end of the weekend! Weather guessers were saying it may stay (snow) further North. Any plans yet for another trip on Ontario?
  Bud...hope you get some better weather soon as well, it seems Spring is late for everyone this year! Best of luck with the new position at Gander Outdoors!   
  H2...that was a smart move by DEC stocking where they did!    Is the reservoir still holding ice or wide open now?
  Tom...I've been seeing a few turkeys around on my drive home, but no big numbers. When does your season open?
 
  Believe we only have two more sections of terrazzo to knock out and replace and that will be it for this season! Understand we replaced about 8,000sq.ft. total this year, management was happy, guess that's all that matters!   
  Off to see if the trout are hungry this morning on a local stream or two before the winds and dropping temps blow into town...cawfee's on!
  Morning Bud, see you posted while I was pecking away in between some laundry duty, lol. Some less than perfect conditions for the tournament today....keep us posted on the results and thanks for the doughnuts!!   
  Jeff...imagine that had to be tough handing over the keys...understand his smile, like a Christmas Day for him, hope he treats it well.   
Have a great day all, be safe, best of luck to those fishing!

[tomturkey]

It sounds like a nasty couple of days. The wind woke me up at 5 am. Who knows what we are going to get out of this storm. We are supposed to have a guy coming to pick up an Explorer out of the yard today with his wrecker. With what is guessed I will not blame him if he cancels. I need to go get some rain gear out of the garage to help him if he does come.

I do not know if any of you saw what happened on Lake Michigan the other day at Ludington which is 25 miles north of my property. High winds pushed an 18 inch surge of water against the shore covering the pier. 8 minutes later the water went back to normal. I had a similar thing do just the opposite years ago. The winds pushed the water out of a marsh we hunted ducks in dropping it a foot from what it was 2 days before. My cousin and I got mired in the mud at a place we crossed numeous times a couple of days before.

Hopefully WS is not with out power this morning as he has not posted yet. Maybe he is just sleeping in enjoying his retirement from a steady grind in the city. I am sure that he will pick up enough side jobs doing clean up after this storm passes through. He better get a dry erase board for his wife to put the honey do list on so he can erase the ones he wants to put off.

Eddie Our turkey hunting starts on the 23rd. There are two one week drawn hunts. They are followed by the rest of May being an over the counter tag. I can hunt any where in the northern part of the state where the drawn hunts are small areas and are limited to only private land. So many must not be confident with there hunting abilities that they have to hunt one of the two early seasons. With only a week to hunt the weather can totaly ruin the week for hunting. I always buy the over the counter tag which opens on the 8th of May this year. There are times when it will cover the whole month of May. I talked to my old huntng buddy last night. He said he has quite a few longbeards hanging around on his place so I can always go there to get my Thanksgiving turkey. We have hunted together since 1957. His mother adopted me into the family as I was always around their place.

[Whopper Stopper]

Good Morning Everyone

For now the snow amounts are only in the 2"-3" range however the worst is still on the way as far as the snow goes. We have had the high winds and rain-freezing rain, making all the roads shiny and pretty They say this afternoon into tomorrow the snow will be heavy. they also keep saying how all bets are off as to who will get what. For awhile we were in the 14" range and now they claim about 8". I will just measure it tomorrow

IW it had to be a sad moment watching your bike leave. Like Eddie, I hope it finds a good home

Thanks again Eddie! So many things will not be missed, but at the same time so many good memories from so many of the guys I have worked with. I am just so happy that I had the opportunity to quit on my terms and not due to injury or worse. My wife was such a big part in that from day one she had been planning this time in my life. I certainly wouldn't have able to quit yet if not for her.

WW hope you and the Mr have a good weekend. I will sound the all clear once this crap it over This morning they were already getting us prepared for another round on Wednesday

TT the board is already filling up. The wife has a white board with the title of Marv's Chores, written on it I am actually looking forward to getting a start on it once the weather cooperates. I wonder how long before I won't want to look at it

Hope you all have an excellent Saturday Stay safe!

                       WS

[tomturkey]

I just looked at the deck to see a thin layer of sleet on it. I would take snow over that any time. I have not put the blower away but my ice cleats are stored away. Only time will tell what we get just like WS said he will measure the snow after it is over. Hopefully I am not measuring inches of ice.

As I was typing it turned to snow and the ground is turning white.

[Whopper Stopper]

And it begins......with more to follow


                      WS

[wallyworld]

OOOHHHHH       I love Sequence     at least the kid's version 

[deerefishyfishy]

I usually use Stihl chains and filed to an angle of about 30° - parallel to the "service mark" that's etched on the tops of each cutter showing the proper filing angle. I have a jig that I put over the tooth to help keep the stroke level and angle close. I find that proper raker height is about as important as chain sharpness in making the chips fly.


r2l and TT Thanks for the comments and wishes

I can't wait to be done with this snow so I can start spending my time doing some outside fun things.

                       WS

Totally agree about the rakers being a critical component. Think of the chain like a block plane. If you adjust the blade out too far then it will take too big of a bite and will either be impossible to push across the wood or it will chatter and jump. If you don't set it out date enough then you will not remove any wood, or very little, in each stroke. The raker height is what determines how much of the tooth is able to bite into the wood on each tooth of the chain. Too high, not much bite and very slow, inefficient cutting. Too low and it tries to take too big of a bite and bogs the saw down and possibly stalls out the cut. Having the rakers too low also makes the saw MUCH more dangerous because it greatly increases your chances of a kickback- the chain bites too deep into the wood but can't cut through it so it forces the bar backwards out of the cut and then straight back at your head! IS, the loggers that take the rakers completely off usually have incredibly powerful saws that can power through the deeper bites of the chain. They also have a lot more experience running saws and dealing with kickbacks. To that end, a saw with no rakers will definitely outfit just about anything else but the risks aren't worth it IMHO. The sharpening angle isn't as critical as people think. The shallower the angle, the faster it will cut but also the faster it will dull- and it's far less forgiving in dirty wood. The steeper the angle, the slower the cut and the slower to dull. Depends on what kind of production you are looking for and how often you like to file your chains. Keeping the angle consistent from tooth to tooth is far more important that what that angle is. I also just stay parallel to the factory line... sorry, got a thing for chainsaws and I also teach kids chainsaw safety as part of our county's tractor safety course that I help teach each year

[Whopper Stopper]

The snow keeps coming down, oh it is pretty 

It is now supposed to last into Monday, and our area may end up with 12"-15" as they just keep feeding us different numbers. The winds have been in the 30mph range causing white outs with blizzard warnings across the state. The last report from the Highway Patrol said since midnight  there have been 340 crashes and over 400 spin outs around the state



The wood box is full, potato and ham soup for supper, may have to pop a John Wayne movie a little later

Some time tomorrow I will give the blower a work out.


                         WS

[mr.clean]

Good evening 9:45ers , relaxing after a busy Friday and Saturday morning/afternoon house cleaning . Looks like we will have to get wood flooring refinished after removing carpeting and padding from living room floor is a mess tried several cleaning products and scrubbing with poor results. Very nice weather these past two days now wind is picking up assume leading edge of storm out WS and TT way has arrived weather guessers calling for rainy Sunday and Monday.
IFF will be a challenging day for all in the tournament looking forward to your report on results. Hope you can get in some fishing before starting job with Gander outdoors.
Whopper Stopper see your prepared with the board games including your favorite cribbage( ) . May you come through the storm with no major problems.
Tom Turkey ditto comments to WS concerning weather in your area. All the best this turkey hunting season.
Eddie you and your coworkers have replaced a lot of flooring sure you looking forward to new masonry job. Best with the trout fishing.
Hunts2long nice to read DEC stocked trout where they will have a chance to spread out into lake usually it becomes a zoo at stocking sight.
Wallyworld see lots of your motorcycling brothers-sisters out enjoying the warm weather in my area these last two days. Hope things warm up in your part of NY. so you can get the bike back onto roadways.
Deerefishyfishy interesting post on chainsaw filing. thank you for your work with the youth helping next generation learn good safety habits.
Ice Wanderer may the new owner treat your former bike good and get many enjoyable years of riding from it. Hope your not in to much pain from last therapy session . Did therapist alter exercise routine after hearing pop in your shoulder.

May all of you dealing with Winter weather come through alright, same for my fellow upstate New Yorkers. Have a good evening everyone.
PS. nice photo WS.

 Steve

[masoneddie]

Good Morning Everyone,
  27* and just a trace of freezing rain at the moment, high of 31 here today with a wintry mix expected.

  Steve...good luck with the hardwood flooring, maybe someone in the crew here may have a suggestion on a cleaner/ scrubbing machine to try unless it really needs a refinishing? In any event, hope the cost is reasonable and best wishes, you must be real close now to finishing up!   
  Marv..guessing Mother Nature didnt get the memo you just retired!!  .  Thanks for sharing another great picture!      Guess we'll have to wait and see what the snow accumulation is, wow!! Crossing fingers you don't lose power, imagine there will be a lot of downed trees with those conditions. Be careful out there Sir! 
  DeereFF...X2 on Steve's reply! It's pretty amazing the things one learns on an Icefishing site....
  Tom...best of luck locating and harvesting that Thanksgiving bird at your buddies property! Congratulations to you both on such a long friendship/hunting partners, that's just awesome!!   
 
  Fishing wasn't too bad yesterday, the streams were actually in excellent shape and the weather wasn't bad early on. No big trout to report, certainly nothing even close like Wally boated lol, but it was a fun outing. Found plenty of stocked fish in the first stream willing to bite, all C/R, but couldn't find any of the larger fish willing to commit.
  Went to another spot on private property that has been good to me in the past. Ended up with a few decent trout, biggest just under 16". While looking down and rebaiting a hook, noticed two ticks on my waders after walking through some brush, called it quits shortly after and did a thorough check when I reached my truck....hate those darn things.
  Cawfee's brewing...
Have a great day all, be safe, best of luck to those fishing!
 

[IFF]

nothing to report as of this hour 

[ICE WANDERER]

               Good morning ER's,
                         It's 23*n and sleeting right now, but the ground is white, the weather cat said no when I opened the door, smart guy!
                         Steve........That's a shame that you'll have to have the floors redone, but it will add value to the home. The therapist didn't changed exercises
               as of yet, when my shoulder popped it was one of the last exercises that I did for the session.
                         Marv.......Your funny, I like your ingenuity, you should throw that on social media and I bet you'll get a million likes.
                         Eddie.......MW went to Clifton Park to check out the town homes he has to see if he could start spring clean up but found the ground to wet.
                         Not much going on here today, it is my wife's birthday and I'm going to take her out to dinner weather permitting.
                         I hope everyone has a good Sunday either at work or in church.

               IW

[masoneddie]

Happy Birthday Mrs. IceWanderer!!   

[IFF]

Happy B-day to the Mrs. Jeff

Ok I found the results First place weight was 11.31 pounds, I am assuming that was for no more than 6 legal fish of at least 18"  Good for a $1,852 .  They used my go to method ... Blade baits

looks like Marv and OG are going to stay close to the coffee pot today and watch the white stuff fall.

[Old Goat]

Good Morning ER's yep Bud hanging out near the coffee pot today. I'll add a raised glove up on Marv's pic post. WI might set a new record for a late time for a temp over 60. Marv enjoy the board games sorry to hear you got all that snow. Mr. Clean the wood floors will look great when they are finished. IW happy BD to your wife. Have a great day to all.

[tomturkey]

Here goes another try at posting. I got a can't reach the page this time. speel checkis not working tis time.

It is still sleeting some this morning. Hopefully we do not have to cancel the wife's surgery tomorrow. It is about a 2 hour drive  to get there in normal driving conditions. The way they sand and salt down that way it is plain stupid as the spread it down the center line instead of down the travel portion of the road. They do not have spinners on their trucks.

IW HAPPY BIRTHDAY to your wife. Hopefully you do not get as much sleet and ice as we have preventing you from taking her out to dinner.

Eddie  My relashionship with Walt and his family goes back to when I was working with his mother at a dime store when I was in high school. I had no one to go deer hunting with so she said I could go with them up north. That relasionship has lasted to this day. Walt is more of a brother to me than my own brother.
Our smallstream trout fising starts on the last Saturday of April. The DNR  does little for small stream trout fishing. All the money goes to salmon and trout fishing on the big lake and major rivers. They are so straped of cash they are making us register canoes, kyacks and even paddle boards now. One of the residents on our lake has a half dozen kyacks for his kids and grand kids. He is not going to be a happy camper.

[Whopper Stopper]

Good morning everyone

We are up to about 13" with another 4" by tomorrow night. I finished my driveway and just finished the s-i-l's drive.

I will give it A final cleanup tomorrow afternoon.

IW send Birthday greetings to your wife from me too.

Catch you all later stay safe!

         WS

[wallyworld]

Afternoon all,

IW.....happy birthday wishes to MrsIW, hope you're able to get out for dinner tonight 

WS....those snow totals are INSANE      glad to hear you're doing ok tho   

OG.....sounds like a good day for some tv & snacks 

TT.....best wishes to MrsTT on her surgery, safe travels to & from    hope you and your hunting friend have a successful season 

Eddie....congrats on a good day of fishing    those nasty ticks are turning up everywhere 

IFF.....any idea how many boats were in the tourney   

MrC......newly refinished hardwood floors will only add value to the house, you should have no problem getting your money back and then some 

Temps have held steady at 32* here all day, everything is covered with ice and the wind is howling    Except for stoking the fire and feeding the birds I can't think of any reason to venture out   

Have a good rest of your Sunday. May the snow & ice FINALLY come to an end    Stay safe.

[deerefishyfishy]

Good luck to those of you digging out from and still battling the never ending winter. Happy birthday Mrs. IW! Hope you guys make it to dinner also. Stay warm and safe everyone

[mr.clean]

Greetings everyone big drop in temperature and windy no rain at this time. Weather guessers calling for rain tonight and Monday. My sister and brother in law were here for a few hours today little more cleaning and items removed from the house. I'm in agreement  with all of you refinishing the floors will be a good investment my siter is concerned about time it would take and if potential buyers would be turned off by any stain color we may choose she wants to buy a carpet to cover living room floor and reduce sale price of house so buyer can have floors refinished.
Ice Wanderer hope weather allows you to take wife out for her birthday. Best wishes to her .
Whopper Stopper glad your snow blower is working may storm end soon nice of you to clean sil's driveway.
Tom Turkey may you be able to make wife's doctors appointment all the best with her surgery.
IFF thank you for the tournament results . Like Wallyworld curious as to how many entered the contest.
Eddie congratulations on catching some trout nice that you have access to private property.
Old Goat like others in the Mid-West may you get through this Spring storm with no major problems.
Wallyworld guessing wood supply is kept outdoors or you have an outside wood burning furnace/boiler. Good day for some fresh baked goodies to go with the coffee or hot chocolate as you hunker down in doors.
Deerfishyfishy have a good Sunday sir.

 A safe and pleasant evening to all. May this be the last of Winter weather all of us see until late Fall/early Winter.
Steve

[IFF]

WW:  Steve:  Not sure, but think they were shooting for 60 boats.  I believe they will hold another one on Chatfield Reservoir in a couple weeks.

DFF, I'm with you on the never ending winter, The way its going, might not be able to plant anything in the garden until well after Mothers day.

[tomturkey]

It warmed up enough to clean the ice and snolete off of the car with no problem. I found a half inch of ice the  few inches of snolete off of the landing. Luckily it was warm enough that the mess came right off. ileft it all on the drive as it is guessed to be in the 50's on Wenesday.

By what the weather guesser said will be Ok to make the trip for the wife's surgery. Only guessing about an inch and the main roads down that way were OK on the 6 o'clock news. it got a lot warmer down there and they got less snolete than us.

[Whopper Stopper]

Good evening Everyone

Snow, snow,snow and it's still coming down. Best guess is it should wind down around 2am and we are currently sitting at 15". I don't know if we will see much more but the wind is still kicking it around pretty well.

Tomorrow morning I am going to blow first thing and then bring my wife to the bus. I wanted to give a report tonight because I probably won't have time in the morning.

TT best of luck to your wife with her surgery, wishing her the best. Have a safe drive Sir!

Hope everyone has a good Monday   Stay safe!

                               WS

[masoneddie]

Good Morning Everyone,
  Windy 28* with freezing rain this am, high of 46 today with rain throughout the day. Everything is covered in ice this am, hoping the Town plow comes by soon spreading some salt/sand, roads are probably going to be nasty this am.

  Marv..wow, crazy amount of snow!!  Hope it's all over with by the time you read this....take it easy out there!   
  Tom...safe travels today and best wishes to your wife with her surgery Sir! Will keep her in my thoughts and prayers today.   
  Jeff...hope your wife enjoyed her Birthday and all had safe travels last evening going to dinner!   

  Short on time this am, hoping I can get into my truck! Will check in later to see how everyone is doing...cawfee's on!
Have a great day all, be safe, best of luck to those fishing!

[IFF]

That's going to be there a while Marv,

Safe travels Tom, hope all goes well with the surgery.

I'm going back to my pillow

[tomturkey]

Eddie I hope all was well with getting in your truck. I had trouble with the seals on the doors of my van freezing the doors shut to the point I had to carefully use a crow bar to get them open. I finally sprayed them with silicone and solved the problem.

I got woke up by some one trying to get a vehicle started at 3 am. Why did they not try it yesterday instead of waiting until the middle of the night and time to go to work. I could not go back to sleep until I rolled over on my good ear so I did not hear them. That is one good thing about having bad hearing in one ear.

NE Wisconsin got hit bad with their blizzard. Up to 30 inches of snow.

The wife says thanks for all of the well wishes for her surgery today. It does not look like traveling will be to bad by the look of the radar this morning.

Got to get breakfast  so I do not  have to try eating at the cafeteria at the hospital.

Every one have a good day and hope the ice does not hit you to bad in the east.

[ICE WANDERER]

                  Good morning Eddie, Bud, ER's.
                                It's 28* here on my hill, we had a total of 3/4 of an inch of sleet/freezing rain yesterday, everything is covered with it.    
                                Marv..........You guys are really getting it out there, good luck with the snow removal.
                                Steve.........The town plows went out just before we left for dinner, we had no problems getting there but on the way home one
                  place coming up the hill my truck lost traction and I spun a little. Not to worry I was able to straighten out and put it in 4 wheel drive for
                  the rest of the ride home.
                                Eddie..........I hope you made it in to work OK.
                                Tom.........I hope all goes well with the wife's surgery.                
                                Bud.........You're lucky, when I get up and do something like get on the computer I can't get back to sleep.
                                Wally.......I don't let a little sleet stop me from going places, I just take my time and watch out for the other guy if they are out.
                  Once I got to state roads they were bare, lots of salt. How did you make out by you?
                                I hope everyone has a safe Monday either at work or cleaning up this wintry mess.

                  IW

[wallyworld]

Morning all,

TT.....hope all is going well with today's surgery 

IW....glad to hear you made it out for dinner ok  sleet's not so bad it's the freezing rain that really hampers getting around 

WS.....hope the clean up is coming along ok yet again      keeping my fingers crossed you are doing the very last snow removal for this season 

Eddie....hope you were able to make it to work safely    hopefully the temps climb above freezing today & get rid of all this ice 

IFF....maybe the next tourney will be on a better day weather wise 

Winds are CRAZY this morning    Surprised the power is still on (Knock on wood)     heavy rain beginning shortly what a mess 

Have a good day at work or play. Stay safe.