Greetings,

Went up to the farm this weekend and found the ground covered by a few inches of snow with a hard ice layer on top. Saturday it started to drizzle and the temps hovered around freezing so things got extra slick (for a while you couldn't really walk anywhere at all -- it was all a slightly controlled slide).

So not wanting to waste the day we took out the ATVs and tested the traction. It was just slightly better than riding on a frozen lake. The tires would break through just enough to get traction but you could get a really cool slide if you wanted to.

So then we concluded that it was the perfect time to collect those locust logs (for fence posts) we had been stock piling around the place. It couldn't have gone better. They moved very easily and didn't tear up the ground, even when pullling them across the yard. The best part was swinging wide on a turn through the gate to try and swing the log out into alignment -- kind of like playing crack-the-whip with hundreds of pounds of dead weight.

Only once did the log get the better of me and slide me a bit past the gate, but the tires eventually got a grip and off we went. Overall, the ice was much more of a help to the job than it was a hindrance.

 

Sounds like a good time. I'm heading up to our property for the weekend, and part of Christmas day. Will be gathering a lot of logs and timber, this time to make more log bed frames, benches and lamp tables out of. Most of the area is either ice, or fairly deep snow, so it will be interesting to see how it goes. Should be fun though!

Mike