How many of you guys spent this weekend doing winter prep?

Cleaned two chimneys,last of the gutter debris and winterized the boat..Just finished treating myself to a good rib eye,fixins and a cold Oct fest ...

Yesterday I checked the anti-freeze in all the tractors and the truck. It won't be long now until we have a freeze. Moved all the liquid herbicide into the heated garage too. I've already used my spot sprayer for the last time and put RV anti-freeze in it. Need to get some wood in before long.

I've got all my wood in and a couple of bottles of scamper juice stashed away. I'm ready.

Also worth noting.....I actually bought a big pack of D-Cells and replaced the batteries in all the flashlights whether they needed it or not.
I try to do this every year but I usually forget until the power goes out and I realize they're all near death if not completely dead.

We started in a week or two ago.

Draining our irrigation pipelines and pulling pumps out of the river. Running RV antifreeze through the old Spra Coupes. Plug in all the waterers. Filled my bulk tank with #1 diesel this morning. Had 3 loads of crushed gravel hauled in and spruced up some low spots in the 'roads'.

Dozing manure and moving dirt back into our little feedlot. Hay is all hauled off the fields. The next two weeks is basically the mad dash to get everything ready for Winter and bringing all the cows/calves home.

Chopping corn tomorrow.

I'll probably get around to cutting wood when there is 2' of snow on the ground......grin

Your winter prep sounds a bit more involved than mine Sam.

Boy am I glad I'm retired.

Nowhere have I ever heard that retirement was ever over-rated...

Been working on the place the last 10 days or so, about done, got the wood in did cut a nice dead ash that fell next to the road the other day, Ill get the easy ones when I can! even got a buck in the freezer, need 2 more deer tho!

I think I 'prepped' yesterday.......

Turned the A/C off, opened the windows and sliding doors and went to bed!

Apologies to my northern friends.

run down the tractor to get ready for winter mix fuel, clean chimney, get saws ready to cut next years wood, antifreeze in sprayers, repair tire chains, unhook and store hoses from hydrants, get heated waters out, clean out wood trailer, straw in berries, and the list goes on

I aint ready for fall yet!

What is this winter you guys speak of?

Barry, in NW Ontario, it gets so cold, ice forms on the surface of the lakes, but only about the top three feet!

Hell, it was 90* here last week. It finally cooled off and we got our first frost yesterday. Maybe I'll go out and shoot a deer tomorrow.

When we were at the place in north Idaho for the summer we cut and stacked about four cords under cover. Turned the heat tape on and should be good to go. We will be heading up in a couple of weeks for some rainbow and Mackinaw fishing and the wood stoves will be lit. I cannot wait...

Perfect timing ED......this is by far the best time of the year for No. ID.

It's the delightful opposite of what youse guys have!

winter makes wet cow piles into nasty projectiles when you back into them with a snow blower (and we ain't talking about Frostie's girl friend) on the back of a 100hp tractor

Been spending time getting firewood put up.



Cutting, splitting, stacking. I always like the way it looks all stacked up. A certain satisfaction seeing it there and knowing we will be warm later on when it really gets cold.

Cleaned the chimney and rounded up the firewood for the wife to use while Im on shift. Nice weekend.

Looks like art, Shane!

Damn nice firewood stash!

Yes, that stack of firewood is to pretty to burn. It would be like using the Mona Lisa for a drop cloth.

Impressive indeed. Here are some other pretty firewood pieces of art...



and


See others at : LINK

John

That's pretty cool.




We'll burn all of our stack up by the end of next May, or early June. Might have a little left over, or might need to cut/split a bit more before summer. Kind of a guessing game on how much to put up. We buy the logs by the logging truck load, delivered. Each truckload has been costing about $1100.00, and lasting about four winters. That works out to about $275/year for heating, but we do use propane a little bit, but mostly the propane feeds the water heater and the kitchen range.

Got the boat covered up the day before our first snow.

Firewood is supplemental heat for us, but unfortunately the 3 cords we cut off our lot is nearly gone and everyone who advertises firewood for sale on craigslist apparently doesn't know how to return calls or texts. I wouldn't mind getting a truckload of wood delivered to cut/stack myself but don't know anyone who offers that.

I winterized my little garden this morning. It ain't much of a garden but I do like fresh tomatoes and peppers so I have a few raised beds with a deer/rabbit fence around them. I pulled all the old plants, scattered a few hand full's of Sweet 16 and a couple of bags of steer manure I had left over from some grass I planted last spring. Then I covered them with about a foot of leaves from the Maple tree from hell growing out front. I love that tree when it's hot out but boy do I hate it come fall.

I took a 5 gal bucket and put it over the water hydrant in the back yard. I'm ready.

I usually sell 15-25 cords a year and talking with some of my new customers, there are some real characters selling wood. Not returning phone calls/texts, not showing up with wood when scheduled, pawning off green, wet, or punky wood definitely happens from the sounds of it.

One lady I sold a couple cords to, (real cords) showed me her first purchase of the year from somebody else and I'd be surprised if there was actually a half cord in the stack. Apparently a "cord" must be made in about the same time it takes 3 thirsty guys to polish off a 6-pack of Keystone Light. Not to mention it wasn't the type of wood she thought she was getting either. I felt sorry for the lady because she told me this was her first year buying wood since her husband had passed away and he always took care of it.