Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss DIED and JHAP/JWHAP Status?

I just saw a TV newscast that showed that it is very cold and snowy, with many Eldorado and Placerville county residents without power. I sure hope our self described "city boy" is OK. As I recall, they don't even have power to lose.

Do we need to send a St. Bernard with a keg?

Just might have to...

Is this storm we're getting here in the east ice, sleet, snow or rain for you in WV?

We had an absolutely beautiful snow on Friday that left us with about 3 - 4 inches of cover. Today, every last bit was washed away in a fairly continual rain and temps around 40, at least in north central WV, about 2.5 hours from Ken's neck of the woods.

I'll bet JHAP will have some interesting stories when he gets back to civilization, some people just seem to attract weird events.

I'll bet that So. Ca. boy didn't pack enough warm clothes! I hope he threw chains in the vehicle!

"....some people just seem to attract weird events."

Word to Big Bird on that.

It's like a "...takes one to know one" kind of thing.

I've no experiance with that.

Anyone else see that lightening bolt?

Thank you all for thinking about DIED, DWIED, JWHAP AND JHAP.

The good news is that we are all fine.

JWHAP and I had quite an adventure. JWHAP is such a trooper, I can't even begin to express how much I admire her.

DIED and DWIED are fine. They have a great many trees down on their property. They were snowed in as well as us, worse in some ways in that power lines were down across the road that leads to their private road and until the utility company removed the power lines, DIED was stuck on his property. He will have a lot of work to do clearing trees, one 60 foot digger pine fell and just missed crushing his truck. As near as he can tell nothing hit is newly remodeled house.

I've had quite a learning experience and now know that there are some things that I need to invest in immediately, but were not in life threatening danger. We had water, we had food, and just enough heat to raise living quarters to about 40 degrees. We were not going to freeze to death but living was darned uncomfortable.

Thank you for starting this thread and thinking about us Ken. You are correct, we do not have power to lose, we are on 12V (solar charger and batteries) and fortunately the battery bank was fully charged.

This was a 20 year snow event. Normally our property will only get a dusting of snow (2 to 3 inches) once per year. This was quite different.



No. Make that two St. Bernards with two kegs. Captain Morgan and Coke please.

Jeez, don't you know it AP.

I wrote this in my incommunicado thread...



Boy did those words come back to bite me in the hind quarters....



As you can tell when Ricki took this photo I was not amused. I was tredging up to the shed for some tools. Almost knee deep in a snow drift.

Send that photo and your regards to al gore.

Like a good city boy I checked the weather on Saturday evening before we began the drive at 3 AM the next morning. It turns out that Weather.com is not a reliable report for our area. "Chance of snow", which they city boy took to be the 2-3 inch dusting, was, to say the least, not accurate.

We got to the property at 11:30 Sunday morning (after the 8 plus hour drive) and it was lightly hailing. We unloaded the 4Runner, got camp together, puttered around and then went to bed.

I woke up about 6 AM Monday morning looked out the window and saw this...

So enough with the snow pics already - how was the fishing??!!

Those pics are beautiful, even though they weren't what you were expecting.

Since we have a wood burning stove in our shop (AG building/work shop) we had made the decision to move cots into that building to sleep Sunday night. This photo is deceiving in that I am standing below a small hill so the snow level is not as high as it appears when compared to the trailer but still you get the idea.

We never had a chance to fish. We decided to get off the property when we could, which was an adventure in and of itself.

I can see why other niceties, like, say, oh, surviving, would have taken precedence! Glad you guys are back with all your fingers and toes - or least as many as you had to start with - still in place!

Monday morning we decided to get off the property. I don't have snow chains (a problem that will be rectified immediately) and didn't know how to properly operate my 4Runner in the snow (guess what, I do now!) so off the road the 4Runner went into a snow drift.

This photo was taken Tuesday morning after the snow had begun to melt.

Murphy's law never takes a holiday.

Loads of fun. Harhar. Glad you didn't ding it up. Hope that was the only adventure you had to deal with!

You guys were going to be gone a couple of weeks, weren't you? May we assume you're back home to the warm part of Cali?

JHAP, if you don't have much tire clearance on your truck these work well.
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keyword...sl_7ea4k3w7xm_b

After digging out the 4 Runner and getting it back on the road, JWHAP and I decided to hike our 1,100 foot long entrance road to see if we had any obstacles to deal with. This is what I meant about JWHAP being a trooper, she hiked up and down that road TWICE with her new knee and her hip that is need of replacement. Boys if you want hearty women, travel to Pennsylvania, the definitely grow them there.

We found two downed trees blocking the road. I hiked all the way up to the main road and found that our new neighbor (he bought the property adjacent to us) had driven out so I walked down his road to his house, he was home and graciously offered to help us get out.

We hooked up my tow strap to my 4 Runner and he began to two us out. Long story short, the strap broke but I put the pedal to the metal and was able to follow him out on my own power. I learned that driving in fluffy snow is like driving in the desert sand (which I have a lot of experience in), use the power to help you steer and keep momentum up, don't fall off the road or hit a tree and you'll be fine. If I had chains on we would have been fine getting out on Monday. Rest assured, snow chains will be aquired.

Yes, once we drove out we decided to head back to So Cal. The 4RNR is fine except a cracked windshield. We were supposed to be there until 12/20 but this storm and another storm that is moving into the area tomorrow night changed our plans.

Great stories! Glad you guys are both good to go.

Thanks AP. The 4RNR (V8, 4WD) seems to have good tire clearance. Which of those chain packages would you recommend?

I'm impressed with the 4RNR except for the loose nut behind the steering wheel. It has plenty of power, the mistake I made was using the 4 Low gearing set and then selecting low gear. Just too much power to the ground and not enough momentum. Once my neighbor (and later DIED) said probably normal 4WD (not 4 Low) would have been fine and use a higher gear for momentum. Ultimately I used 4 Low and second gear as my neighbor put it, jam the gas to the floor and let the engine scream, use the power to steer and all will be fine. He was right.