Winter is here in Kansas !

[Young Ed]

Merle we use both too. The way I understand it is the liquid stuff is more expensive so they don't use it until its too cold to use the salt effectively. In the last few days I've been looking at aftermarket front fenders and rockers to replace the missing ones on my dakota. Damn salt!

[Plymouthy Adams]

Ed..do you have a Unique distributor in your area? They sell aftermarket collision parts at a good price and they good panels might I ad...plus if you have a distributorship the shipping is not an added cost...my local wrecking yards deals in these..Ihave called them on the phone one day and carry it home with me on the way from work the next day...

[Young Ed]

Not that I know of Tim. I tried googling it to find one but unique is too common of a word. Got lots of strange stuff back

[Norm's Coupe]

Ed,

There use to be a place that sold aftermarket parts for newer cars in Fond du lac, WI. Don't remember the name of the place though. Some insurance adjuster told me about the place back in the 90's. They use to specify the body shops go there if possible because it was cheaper than dealer parts.

[knighthawk]

this morning about 2 AM it was 60 degrees and strong south wind, then about 8 AM it rained and wind turned from the north and is just above freezing !

[bigred48]

In Fargo we got 6 inches of snow over the weekend.

[Plymouthy Adams]

I took all of last week off from work to hang about the house..was most beautiful weather..cool mornings and nice warm evenings...clear as a bell...right through Monday morning..then a bit of rain pushed through the area followed by a tad of cooling and gusty winds..down right cold this morning..put a damper on spraying my panels with primer/surfacer..fun while it lasted for sure..

[55 Fargo]

Wow, that musta put a damper on Winnipegers coming down to shop at West Acres.

We got about 2 inches here just 15 minutes north of Winnipeg on the weekedn but high winds blew it all over.

Today were looking at 2 to 4 inches here and the city is expecting 6 inches, but it is the light powdery stuff, not as bad as the heavy wet snow, thenit's supposed to be cold and sunny for the next several days, with over night lows to almost -15.

If I lived in the USA, I would seriously think of living in the warmer zones of the country, especially upon retirement, like the idea of parts of Arizona, even Tennessee or coastal Georgia.

Here in Canada we have only a few choices, you can live in the Vancouver area, weather just like Seattle, or in Southern Ontario, weather like Niagra Falls, or Detroit etc, certainly not California, but milder than the northern plains.

[PatS....]

OR, you could buy a big a$$ bus built to live in and tour the warm states in winter.

Vancouver or Ontario are not options for me.

Maybe the Okanagan, Kelowna is nice but more expensive than Calgary which is hard to do.

1 degree f here right now (9am) on the way to a balmy 10f...warming up to 17 by Friday.

Yuck

[blueskies]

Took this yesterday on one of my jobsites... after about 8" of new snow. Too bad they haven't gotten that roof dried in... Progress slows to a halt when you spend half the day shoveling snow.

If I lived in the USA, I would seriously think of living in the warmer zones of the country, especially upon retirement, like the idea of parts of Arizona, even Tennessee or coastal Georgia.

One of the beauties of living in snow country is when the snow melts, there is water... the desert areas of the country going to run out of water and return to dust at some point...

Pete

[knighthawk]

Rocky: regarding retirement, half the people from the 'northern' states all go to Florida, Texas, or Arizona for the winter. Just buy a motor home and hit the road ! Maybe we should ( someone ) start a thread on retirement options......

[PatS....]

For anyone considering fulltiming it in a bus, this blog by a couple who volunteer all over the US for the Red Cross(recent Cali fires, Catrina) and live full time in a very unique 2 story bus is very entertaining and informative. Some good video's aof a train in Mexico where they load the RV's on and tour the Copper Canyon.

http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com/

[knighthawk]

last couple days it has been 50 to 60 degrees , lite wind from the south. Todat it all changed , wing strong from the north, about 40 degrees, freezing tonite !

[wilmot andy]

We just got 8" of snow. 9 degrees tonight. No heat or insulation in my garage.

[55 Fargo]

Hey Larry, that ain't bad, remember those Minnesota winters and northern Minnesota is as cold as Manitoba, heck man it was down to -12 here on Tuesday night, not bad here today it's about 15 degrees.

Yah, you don't have Cal or Fla weather but, I would love to have 50s here in December and going down to 30 at night, thats semi-tropical for Canada for winter..........Fred

[55 Fargo]

Insulate and put up a plastic vapor barrier, then heat with a small construction heater or woodstove. Mine is heavily insulated, with 2 -220 volt electric forced fan heaters, when its -20 I can make it 65 inside, if I need to...............Fred ps electricity is only 6 cents a Kwh here in Manitoba though

[Norm's Coupe]

Hey Larry, that ain't bad, remember those Minnesota winters and northern Minnesota is as cold as Manitoba, heck man it was down to -12 here on Tuesday night, not bad here today it's about 15 degrees.

Yah, you don't have Cal or Fla weather but, I would love to have 50s here in December and going down to 30 at night, thats semi-tropical for Canada for winter..........Fred

Fred, 50 degree days are great weather for us in winter too. Was 2 degrees this morning at my house. Now have about a foot of snow on the ground just since Saturday and expecting 3 more inches tonight. Another snow storm due on Saturday evening. Ran out of gas for the snowblower yesterday. Have to get some more mixed for the 3 inches we're supposed to get tonight.

[55 Fargo]

Norm, heck that is more than we have here even, at my place there is about 8 inches of snow on the ground, expecting an inch possibly today. Winnipeg which is 15 miles south of here got 6 inches on tuesday we got maybe 2 if that, and were only 15 miles away. No more lake effect here, it is frozen over, Lake Winnipeg is huge ( size of Lake Erie), but it freezes over every winter, the commercial Walleye fisherman already are on it with there nets going under the ice..........Fred

[Norm's Coupe]

Fred,

Most people in our area got about 4" or more less than we did in the last two storms. That was because we live closer to the lake and also get lake effect snow in addition to the regular storm. We have lake effect snow almost all winter. Takes a lot of sub zero weather to freeze over lake Michigan. I can only remember one year when Lake Michigan came close to being froze over, and that was some years back. Sometimes we can get several inches of snow without a snow storm. People just a half mile away are getting sunshine while we get the snow.

[blueskies]

We just got 8" of snow. 9 degrees tonight. No heat or insulation in my garage.

Andy-

I can relate... I built my car over six years without heat or insulation in my garage. Moved to a new house a couple of weeks ago that has a garage with insulation, drywall, and heat! Can't wait to clear out all of the boxes and get started on my Plymouth interior...

Pete

[knighthawk]

well, our snow has been gone for a while now, it's freezing rain today, supposed to be warm (50's ) tommorrow, then really getting cold and wet this weekend. We do get a lot of the 'southern' weather here and some of the 'northern'......guess that's why I chose this area, but I still prefer the Texas winters ! Especially over the Wisconsin ones !

[Norm's Coupe]

well, our snow has been gone for a while now, it's freezing rain today, supposed to be warm (50's ) tommorrow, then really getting cold and wet this weekend. We do get a lot of the 'southern' weather here and some of the 'northern'......guess that's why I chose this area, but I still prefer the Texas winters ! Especially over the Wisconsin ones !

I grew up in Louisville, KY in the 40's/50's/early 60's. I can remember as a kid wearing short sleeve shirts this time of year, many years. I'm not crazy about the cold weather in Wisconsin, or cleaning up the snow every time it snows. However, I have always thought it was nice to have snow on the ground around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Gets you more in the spirit of things. Also, when the snow comes down in big flakes and covers the branches of the tree's etc., it's really a nice picture. So, the snow is sort of nice in December. After that it can stop and get warm as far as I'm concerned. That said, even with all of our snow, unlike most of the places south of us, it's cleaned off the roads most of the time within hours. So, driving really isn't a problem either. Takes a blizzard to shut things down for a day around here, and then only some of the time. Go south, and everything shuts down with just an inch of snow because they don't have the equipment to clean it up as fast. The city had 300 plows out the other night, plus private contractors clearing the roads.

[knighthawk]

I sure remember the snow plows in Minn and Wisc, In Texas the town of San Antonio shut down cause a lite snow and freezing rain couple years ago, course it all melted off by noon. Here in Kansas last year we got a foot of snow at once, all they have for snow removal here is the road grader they use in the summer to grade out gtravel roads. Course it took them three days to get to our road, then only had time to make one pass !

[1just4don]

Had 5 inches just this morning. Thats how much the news said,they are always low. Havent been out yet,still snowing BUT 7-8 looks more like it. The kicker IS we had about 3 inches of ICE last saturday. And it never melted off,,,so slick is an understatement,,,course the roads(paved) were fine before this dumping,,but gravel roads a sea of ice still. A couple MORE warmer days to break up that crap underneath the snow would have been nice. EASY to find feet flying higher than your head!!

I DID notice the highway was white with the ice melt stuff before this snow. Thought this stuff was supposed to be more friendly,,,guess NOT!! if thats what it is,,,corrosive beyond belief!! have it in tractor tires and a small seep will rust a rim clear thru!!

[55 Fargo]

Hi all you winter brothers, here in the Winnipeg Area it is -6 f, 15 miles north of the city limits at my place its -15 f. I walked my 5 YO son to the end of the driveway, so he could get on the school bus, he was dressed up good and warm, even took a picture for you guys, but it didn't turn out...............................Fred