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Miss Heny
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superchemicalgirl said:
And the prius has gotten you through storms???
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Yep. We had a wicked Valentine's Day storm some years back. 28" in 12 hours. Should have left work earlier but didn't. Made it fine to a section that went downhill then back up. Lots of cars waiting at the top because people were fishtailing or just spinning trying to go back up from the bottom. Turned left, took a different road to one parallel to the first one (no big dip there). Got to the street I would have turned on from the first road but a guy in a private plow came from that direction and said "don't bother". So I turned right heading back to the first road ~1/2 mile past that big dip. Lots of cars stuck, all heavier than the Prius all with more ground clearance, all with winter tires. I had my "All season" TTs (see below).

The cross street had been plowed hours before and there were snowbanks on the road we were on. The other road hadn't been plowed for some time though, nor was the one we were on. I got stuck maybe 40' from the snowbanks after "passing" many cars. Clearance on a 2004 Prius is ~6". But as I had made more progress than anyone else people started pushing. Traction control kicked in (again see below) so I had to tell them to stop so I could back up and take another run at it. As I slowed some, they pushed more. Took maybe 15 minutes to blast through the snow banks. In the meantime the plows had done that road. I pulled over to the side of the newly plowed road and went back to help others. For some reason they all wanted to try to go forward from where they were stuck, spinning their wheels. I convinced them that if we dug some snow out from under their cars and pushed them back they could follow my tracks out. Sometimes the obvious isn't when you are freezing and frustrated.

Headed back toward home, was going to hit the interstate at exit 14. but there were a lot of stuck cars so again I turned left onto a plowed road then was going to get on the interstate at the next exit south. Nope, HUGE snowbanks blocking the entrance (and not 100' yards from the police and fire stations. You would think they would want that ramp open!). Went to the next street south, turned right onto unplowed snow, floated through a stop sign and a couple of signals (no cars coming). Got to the major road .7 miles from my house, crossed it and picked up a neighbor who had been waiting 2 hours for a tow truck a half mile away. Made it to my street which had not been plowed for some time. A foot of snow. ALMOST got to where the road headed downhill and got stuck. 6" of clearance in 12" of snow doesn't compute real well. Neighbor was half frozen and started walking to get home. A short time later wife and DD2 came up with shovels, they had been working on the driveway. Cleared about 20' of snow in front of the front wheels and headed down successfully. Took another hour to clean up the driveway (already half done and only big enough to hold 3 cars) and enough of the road before I could pull my car into the driveway.

So is a Prius the ultimate snow car? Nope, but with the right tires it can do pretty well. If I lived somewhere with steep hills and not real good snow plow service I might have another opinion. For instance if San Francisco got snow, pretty much everyone would need 4WD to get anywhere!

Beer can said:
Supervisor at work had one of those prius's, he hated it in winter. If there was a few inches of snow on the road it would take a few attempts to make each hill Lol! :-D
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Did he put REAL winter tires on it? Don't know what they are putting on the new ones now but the 2004's and at least through 2006 the OEM tire was a Goodyear (HAS NOT ONE BIT OF) Integrity. Cr@p tire on even the slightest amount of loose "stuff" on a paved road. Slid to a stop (maybe) on 1/1000" of snow. Rule 1, buy the car, get REAL tires. I put Goodyear Triple Treads on my '04 with ~2K miles on it after going up a hill that HAD BEEN PLOWED. Got nowhere from a dead stop, had to get a running start. Made some distance, then SLID back down even with the brakes on to a clear spot. Did that a LOT. Went to same hill with the TTs, still had the stickers on them. Had not been plowed, maybe 4" of snow and no one had been up before me. Started up from a DEAD stop and when the traction control stopped the car (it can't be defeated) the car held with the brakes on. Had to release them to ROLL back to a drier spot and start again. I think that happened 3 times. I used those TTs year round for 3 years then figured the tread was getting low for snow and used them only for summer for 3 more. I swear they were better snow tires than the Nokian winter tires I replaced them with.

BTW, wife's cousin had a 2005 Prius, hated it because he would lose traction on loose gravel coming out onto a paved road. I told him to get REAL tires, dump the POS OEM tires. He did, loved the car, replaced it with another Prius a couple of years ago. Frankly, Goodyear should never have sold those tires to anyone!

microchick said:
10 Degrees here. Yuk. I know winter is a fact of life but the older I get the more I hate the cold. I'm not looking forward to going out to check on the flock and make sure they have fresh water and food. I'm not letting them out till the temp comes up at least to the 20s.

They are bound to be grumpier than I am this morning.
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Sure glad I don't live there, it was mid 20's here today (and WINDY!!!!!!!!!!!!)
 
snowed a total of six inches here we had a 45 mile drive to get home
BF drives a older dodge caravan front wheel drive motored through the unpaved
did 270 turn, spin 2 miles from town stopped just before the ditch van died BF restarted it
put it in reserve took the side road into town avoiding a light on the state highway
have two roads to access our home both have grades only one has turns you need to slow or stop
to make took no turns motored up the driveway sweet as can be
 
OK, sorry, late to the squash party. LOVE butternut squash! Nice thing is they'll keep for almost a year if stored properly, so season to season. My mom always peeled it with a very sharp paring knife and Until I got older thought that was the only way... nope, if you own a heavy duty potato peeler, it will work just fine to peel it. So much easier! Still more work than just baking it skin on, but if you need it peeled, try it, it works. You will need a heavier machete like knife to split it, but any good carving knife will slice it and cube it. I always loved Hubbard too, but haven't had it in many, many years.

Sorry to hear the rats are back SCG. Might I suggest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wnNFR99xGI followed by
 
superchemicalgirl said:
No. I caught one in a trap with goober grape and almost immediately another moved in, this time under the ducks (always a popular rat spot). I started covering the rat holes then throwing the duck water down the last rat hole, but the rat shoots out of the water hole like some kind of log-flume ride at the amusement park and flies across the yard to the goat house. The next morning the rat is back under the ducks. 
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I gotta say... it would be so difficult for me to not cave into the temptation to stick small bits of TnT down every hole... and blast them all at once.


I know, I know... the yard and coops would also blow up....but so tempting!
 

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