mud season

[woodmills1]

i have school vacation week so since saturday morning I have been the full time logger and sawyer.  things have been progressing well, except for bending the back of the forwarder to the ground and the mud!  I don't think I have ever seen it so muddy so early.  slippin and slidin in the side driveway, around the mill, and coming out of the woods into the orchard. :D  With above freezing temps now at 7:00 am Wed. and 56 degrees and rain forcast for tomorrow it seems like mud season is really here.  Granted the warmer temps make for great working weather but, mud season in Feb..  Global warming, or just a strange warmer than usual year?

[Tom]

I think it must be some different kind of water. It won't dry up. It  has been a couple of weeks since we had any rain and the ground is still wet.  If you break through the upper half inch of dry stuff then you spin on the wet clay beneath.  "Slicker'n Owl ......

I have been afraid to work on the driveway because of the threat of rain on an already damp, clay road.   It has whoops on it that would make a Moto cross promoter envious.

[HORSELOGGER]

Tom, maybe you could hook on to the mill and blast down the drive while someone films the whole thing as the next episode of extreme portable milling......dude. ;)

[Bibbyman]

I was stacking miscellaneous lumber Saturday and the wind was blowing dust devils down the driveway between the sawshed and the log yard.  I looked up one time to catch the dust "contrail" of our dog chasing a rabbit across the log yard.  It was like a scene from a Roadrunner cartoon. BEEP! BEEP!  :D

It rained yesterday and now there is 2" of mud about the consistency of pudding on our log yard. :

[Corley5]

We've still got snow cover here but if the rain were to keep up like it is at the moment the snow wouldn't survive very long.  The rain's supposed to change to snow this afternoon with maybe a foot of accumulation.  It's still winter.  I'd like to thank everyone in the west for their donations of topsoil to us. ;D  The last wind storm had a lot of dirt in it.  You can see it in the fields as dirty patches on the snow.  It had to have blown in from somwhere with out snow.  The winds were from the west and we've got snow on the ground all the way to Lake Michigan.

[CHARLIE]

Corley5, in Minnesota they call that stuff Snirt. The dirt we get in the wind comes up here from Nebraska....I think. Iowa only sends Iowegians to Minnesota.

Last night I couldn't figure if it was raining snow or snowing rain. This morning we had about .3 inches of wet slop. Scared to death to step off the pavement. Might just disappear!  

[psychotic1]

It's been raining steadily for about a week up here, but the mud level isn't any worse than it always is.  It can't be, the topsoil is about two inches thick and then it's solid rock.  The streams and cricks are sure running to beat the band.  The creek down by the hospital usually burbles along at about 8 inches deep. It's pouring down so hard you can't hear yourself think, and it's about 3 feet deep where it ain't running over the rocks.  It snowed about 3 inches last night, but it's all melted off except for the stuff on the house roofs.  Ah, Spring.

Bruce

Ps. And why would they send you any good dirt Charlie?  It'd just be wasted in those "lakes" of yours.

[Tillaway]

My neighbor graded the road a week or so ago, and left a burm in front of my drive way.  My wife's car was dragging bottom crawling over it so I took the tractor out and fixed it last weekend.  It been raining ever since so now she gets to practice her mud bogging skills every time she goes to town. :

Bruce,

I was in Ketchican one year (1997ish) when the locals counted only 15 days of sunshine for the entire year.

[Jeff]

This should not be mud season yet for us but it is. Our log yard is soup, and Clare county frost laws go on tomorrow morning! This is one freaky winter. I am just afraid on how mother nature will decide on payment for such an easy winter (so far).

[Bud Man]

OK - Jeff B--I'll Nibble==I know 75% of this forum is Michigander's but some of us Southerner's ain't got a clue and are slightly curious as to" Frost Law's "- but ain't gonna come up there to find out-define Please !!

[Tarm]

Up here in the North the ground freezes. Roads are keep free of snow cover all winter by plowing. This lets the ground freeze under them to a deeper level than the surounding soil. When the ground begins to thaw water is trapped under the roadway weaking the support of the road surface. To prevent massive damage to the road network frost limits are placed on the roads. "Frost limits" are greatly reduced load limits for trucks hauling products. Usually they are so severe that all hauling stops until the frost melts from under the roads and limits are removed. Needless to say this can but a crimp into any business that relies on truck transport. Depending on the year frost limits may be on a couple weeks to a couple months.

[Bud Man]

Is it day to day, or from fixed date to date, or posted like flying (VFR-IFR) Is it commercial logging vehicle's on state roads or just logging roads ?? Apply to just logging or other industries or all trucks ??  You learn something everyday !!!!! Thanks for curing the curious !!!

[Jeff]

Bingo. Thanks Tarm

About 3 or 4 years ago, I watched a garbage truck turn down the road just before ours. Frost laws were on, and this truck was not suposed to be on this rd. They were supposed to be using a trnasfer truck to pick up and then take it to the bigger compactor trucks out on the class A rd. (Class A roads are not effected by frosat laws due to thier construction, usually a concrtes base, and usually main highways).

Any ways, this truck turned down the rd and I turned after it. I watched the pavement squish up between his rear duals just like mud would.  I got in front of him and stopped him before he made the next turn and came up our road which had been resurfaced the previous summer. (That one still pisses me off, special tax on me, 700 dollars a year for 10 years, just to have the road blackend past my house and I voted against it, ah, democracy in action).

The driver said, ah, waste management has lots of money.

[Jeff]

Its a day to day thing, based on the conditions. They may go on any time that the conditions warrant. I have never seen them go off once put on until after the actual spring thaw. Sometimes if it does get real cold for a while, you can get special permit to haul normal loads while the frost laws are on.

You gotta remember also, Michigan trucks can weigh in at 165,000 lbs. almost twice the loaded limit of most other states.

I would say the forum is about 5% Michigan.

[Bibbyman]

Ah man!  Mud, Mud, Mud.   :

I'll be glad when we can talk about grits again.

[woodmills1]

if hads me enough grits i wooda justa throwa dem ina da muda outa ina yard and then in summer scoopa dem up.  maka nice chocolata breakfast ana beenin ables ta drve nowa toos. :D :D :D :D :D i dona thinka da peas wood shore upa da driveways lika dem grits wooda.  mind yas i wood sprinkle dema grits before ida be cookin em for der soakin upa da moisture ability. :D :D :D :D its a sura muddy here now

[Bud Man]

Thanks for interpreting all those frost laws .  Think I'll just stay in the Sunny South - Ain't got such laws.  I'll visit youse guys after it hits 90 down here about May 1

[L. Wakefield]

   And now back to grits- anemic little New England grits- I can only find them in the instant packages, and there is no salt-cured ham to be had here anywhere, excpet maybe if you bought prosciutto- that's too much of a mixed metaphor for me. But anywez- make 1 pack of grits. Throw in 1/4 cup cheez. 2 fried eggs, ham done virtuously in the George Foreman grill- but then use the drippings as the anemic northern version of red-eye gravy..well, it's not bad atall. I'll take mine without the mud, please..   lw