Snowmegadon UK?

[Toddy]

I've been pottering around in the garden, just filling feeders and the like, but the ground is frozen solid and standing water is solid 2" deep ice still.

Hard work's fine for so long in cold weather. After a bit though it's another level of exhaustion.
It's brambles I need to kill off. They've seeded along the burn fenceline and snarled their way in among the winter flowering jasmine and the quince.
I hate weedkiller, but I'm hoping that the paint on the leaves stuff works with these blighters.

My Spring bulbs are all up above ground now. From snowdrops trying valiantly to bloom, to leaf spikes from tulip, daffs and bluebells, the world's moving along. The longer days are a pleasure even if it is cold and icy.

M

 

[Laurentius]

I've been pottering around in the garden, just filling feeders and the like, but the ground is frozen solid and standing water is solid 2" deep ice still.

Hard work's fine for so long in cold weather. After a bit though it's another level of exhaustion.
It's brambles I need to kill off. They've seeded along the burn fenceline and snarled their way in among the winter flowering jasmine and the quince.
I hate weedkiller, but I'm hoping that the paint on the leaves stuff works with these blighters.

My Spring bulbs are all up above ground now. From snowdrops trying valiantly to bloom, to leaf spikes from tulip, daffs and bluebells, the world's moving along. The longer days are a pleasure even if it is cold and icy.

M

I have spent all too much time eliminating brambles, cutting them back and grubbing up the roots secure in the knowlege that like the terminator, they will be back. I don't know whether scorching the roots with one of those butane weed torches would work.

 

[Broch]

I have a different policy - I have a wild garden
Seriously though they are tenacious. In areas I have cleared (which isn't much) repeated cutting right down to the ground has eventually god rid - no leaf, no life.

 

[Toddy]

I've chopped back, dug up, and they still come back. The paint on the leaves stuff is supposed to be absorbed and taken down into the roots to kill the whole plant.
It needs actively growing leaves to do it though, and though there are leaves on the brambles I think it'll take a little while yet before I can confidently say they're 'actively growing'.
I've had enough of my hands full of wee thorns from them, they are being killed off and redd out some way or other.
Thing is though that I'm sure the birds just re-seed them
If I catch the seedling early enough though I can pull them out and that's an end to it. It's when I don't get to them, or they sucker their way into the garden from the lane woodland, that I find I really have to make an effort to get rid of them.

I like brambles fine, but not in my garden, it's not big enough to just let them alone.

M

 

[Janne]

I had to do the same, had the same problem.
The cure is to loosen up the soil about 20 cm from where the shoots are rooted, about half a meter from the main trunk rootball.

Gently tease them out and check if anything has been broken off and still is the ground. Go back and check periodically for shoots.

Fire will only scorch exposed ends, not the rest.

It took me 3 or 4 years to clear my garden in Mayfield and get started on a lawn. It eas a semi derelict house we bought. Derelict garden.

Hunting bramble shoots and seedlings is a Zen activity.

 

[Darryl of Sussex]

Today, I are mostly been hunting fatwood.

 

[Tengu]

Oh, thats a nice piece

Snow all gone now. (I am sure kaolin lasts longer)

 

[Robson Valley]

Go to Wilson's Promontory in Victoria, Australia. The southern-most part of the continent.
Kick off your shoes and go for a walk on "Squeaky Beach". Shut your eyes.
That's what -35C sounds like.

Only -23C this morning and the wind quit. The engine in the Burb will be as stiff as a board.
No wonder I run synthetic oil.

 

[Janne]

No electric engine heater on a timer?

 

[Darryl of Sussex]

Oh, thats a nice piece

Snow all gone now. (I am sure kaolin lasts longer)

Thank you. I got the idea to strip away

Oh, thats a nice piece

Snow all gone now. (I am sure kaolin lasts longer)

This was in Ashdown Forest today and there was still icy snow in places. I made an extra effort to stomp through it

 

[Janne]

Did you stop at The Cross in Crowborough for pints?

 

[Darryl of Sussex]

Did you stop at The Cross in Crowborough for pints?

Lol no. I was on a mission to Ashdown Forest for fat wood and chaga.... and I was driving..... and alcohol gives me a steaming headache, so for me, pub = fruit juice.

 

[petrochemicals]

Lots of fake news about winter tires out there. Misrepresentation can hurt you.
If they are not marked as such, they are not genuine alpine tires. Sipes, rubber, all of it.
I'm confident that we have a good grasp of seasonal differences here.

Today is another avalanche control day, the only highway running east is closed until about 6:30 PM.
We have no detours at all in the mountains. Forget going there.
It was dry for a couple of weeks so the slab surfaces are pretty weak.
Nobody dead yet (only 3 in January) but some biggies set off by ignorant sledders
who don't care who might be 1+ miles down slope.

Its like everything in britian. We had propper snow a few years ago, but on the whole its only on the hill tops in winter with any regularity and staying power. Do not winter tyres come studdied anyway. If you do not put sand tyres in a 4x4 they are knackered, so are they in the snow. You will know sand tyres, mud tyres if you see them, and i bet they are crap at anything over 10mph ! The sort of snow tyres that are sold are like dunlop radials, without the water drain with good teeth.

There is a road literally straight down on brown clee hill, must be a mile plus easy. I always wish to ride a sled down that.there is also a gate at the bottom and then a road and then a hedge !

 

[Robson Valley]

The alpine (genuine winter) tires are drilled for studs but nobody asks for them any more. I can't be bothered.
There's "traction compound" in the softer rubber which does not skate around like studs and gives superior traction on ice. Facts.
Mud isn't a winter concept here. Very high fine sipe count also makes a big difference in wet snow.

I don't think more than the top 30-50cm of the ground actually freezes here.
60-100cm snow is a pretty good insulator against colder air.

All of the highways are plowed, sanded and maybe brined as needs on a constant basis.
Most cities snowplow both the major travel roads and all the residential areas.

That means that most of the time, we drive on hard, compact snow with icy places.
Might take a couple of days to get plowed out, but the snow only rarely slows down our traffic.
Somebody "breaks trail" and that's all that's needed most times.

 

[Janne]

Scandis like studs on the winter tyres.

In UK I would just go with proven quality winter tyres without studs.
Nokia.
I had that for every car shile I lived in UK. Never missed work, never visited a ditch.
Helps if you drive slow and gentle too!

Buying steel rims is cheap. Swapping wheels is easy. The only extra cost is in fact only the extra rims, as you either wear summer tyres, or the winter tyres.

 

[Paul_B]

Just been looking at tyres .the highly rated ones are the Michelin cross season + tyres. One site described them as winter legal summer tyres.

Go to Wilson's Promontory in Victoria, Australia. The southern-most part of the continent.
Kick off your shoes and go for a walk on "Squeaky Beach". Shut your eyes.
That's what -35C sounds like.

Only -23C this morning and the wind quit. The engine in the Burb will be as stiff as a board.
No wonder I run synthetic oil.

There's a squeaky beach in Cornwall too. It's something to do with grain size, shape and the purity of the sand. Pretty rare but there's probably a lot of these beaches around.

 

[Paul_B]

Looked at getting the winter tyres yesterday but read too busy to sort it out. Then saw a new vehicle that we're looking at getting. No point shelling it £305 on four winter tyres if the car is gone in a week or so. At least that's the theory.

Today we went fur a sledging trip into the lakes. Driving near to our chosen spot we worried there wouldn't be enough snow. Then the snow started falling heavily It was a bit warm and we got more wet than you get in a snow shower if it's cold enough to stick. So we had a couple of hours sledging before we left. Cue settled snow on top of patches if ice.

That gave us a scary drive out of here until we hit a main road. Just why do 4x4 cars try to force you into the ditch just to stay in the nearly clear tyre tracks? Well it's because they have summer tyres on as well so are a likely to slip as we were in front wheel drive car. The only difference is they're bigger.

So this week we'll be getting winter tyres fir possibly the last month and half of winter. Unlikely to hit snow again but we're sick of the stress of driving in winter on summer tyres.

 

[Robson Valley]

Squeeky Beach, Vic. was hard to believe my ears. Bare feet, didn't even feel like walking in snow.
The sound was right but my T-shirt & shorts just did not fit into the mental picture!

Summer and winter tires for Canada are very different from eachother. No hybrids.
Everybody I know has 2 sets on rims for eash seasonal change-over.
You probably don't have any legal requirements but we do =
I would be off the road until such time as I am legally complyent.
There must be M+S in the sidewalls, certainly the 3-peak mountain + snowflake symbol, usually both.

I think we are done with the snow for a while but damn, it is cold.
I read the BBC online news every day. I see some UK places really got hammered.
January here was 6 months long.

 

[Janne]

Tyres with a Snowflake symbol....
Do they have an upside down Maori symbol on the side?

I know tyres are dark coloured, just waiting yo see multi coloured tyres soon......
( just joking!)

Dad had a winter tyre, studless, with a weird, blue, sticky compound on. (1970’)
Worked almost ok, but got worn away after a few weeks driving on bare tarmacadam. Were very expensive too.
After those he used studded tyres until he passed away 2 years ago.

 

[Darryl of Sussex]

Ya cannae break the laws of fizzicks!

Road tyres on any car driven on snow are subject to the same forces as any other car, 4x4 or not.

The contact area of a tyre is around the same size as a CD. That’s all that holds you on a road... and gravity but you take my point.

Never skimp on rubber! Learn skid control/ limit handling. Update your knowledge and improve skills by taking an Advanced Driving course.

Message ends...


“In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees”