S.O.S Rob Love: Shilo Manitoba

[r.morrison]

Dear Rob: My question tonight.....with the M.O.A.S.S. (MOTHER OF ALL SNOW STORMS) bearing down on you in the next 24 hrs., what vehicle will you drive to survive your catastrophe??? Do we need to contact Phil Waterman for superior advise on winter driving? Please let us all know, as we're all deeply concerned. Robert

[rob love]

Out of an abundance of caution, I cancelled my roadtrip to Calgary for today. At work yesterday, an email went out to all saying to use best judgement in the morning, but take some work home to do and basically see you on Tuesday. As civil servants, we already had Friday and Monday off for Easter.

There was no snow as I called it a night last night. I woke up once or twice through the night and did not hear the 70km winds necessary to call it a blizzard. As I look out on my deck now, we have a whopping 1/4 inch of snow.

The forecast is for 30 to 50 cm of snow, with 80cm possible in some spots. It had better hurry up, as it looks like I missed my trip over this. I'll be heading in to work in a couple hours, and make a judgement call through the day. The news last night said the RCMP were closing the highways in anticipation of this event, but I checked the road report and all appear to still be open.

I drive a RAM2500 with 4wheel drive and a winch. There are no trees around here, so the winch is for hooking onto other vehicles, not mine. If crap truly hits the fan, I can select one of the 6x6 trucks out in the lineup, although none are road registered. But when the weather gets bad enough, nobody will check. The tractor is already on the driveway just in case, there are 4 gas cans filled up with 2 in the garage and 2 out in the shed, some water cans filled, and extra wood brought in to the house for the woodstove. The flashlight batteries are all charged up. The generator is out in the shed, so if power does go out for an extended period, it needs to be dragged to the house and plugged into the panel.

At this point it all appears to be overkill, but we'll see what the day brings. Newspapers need to sensationalize to sell papers....like every next wave of covid, this may be one of those instances. While everyone at this point thinks we are having a major snow event, at this point it is basically what we here in Manitoba call a typical Wednseday morning.


Here is a link to a camera on the trans-Canada highway west of Brandon: https://www.manitoba511.ca/en/cameras/brandon.html
As can be seen, at this point the roads are pretty bare. Closer to Winnipeg they do have a little snow, but nothing like what was forecast at this point.

[Ed Williamson]

If you are on the way to Calgary and pass through Regina I am here and can help if you need any assistance. I have trucks and a tow bar and tools and some room to work on stuff. Eddy

[rob love]

Thanks for the offer, but I'm not going anywhere. The base has stated "essential workers only" which isn't me. So I will head out to the shop, start the fire, and work from home maintaining my welding skills.

The snow is starting to accumulate a little, and it is wet heavy snow, so at some point we could conceivably lose power. Visibility is down a little...can't see the neighbors tractor at the far end of our yard, but at this point it is still nothing unusual.

Kind of a shame. We were at the point where the few piles of snow from the winter had just a few days of life left to most of them. There was even some green starting to show up here and there. But now it is white as far as one can see.

[Gordon Yeo]

Rob

This is Canada and it is still April so Mother Nature can still have Her fun with us. And green, in April, in Manitoba is high hopes, isn't it?

Stay safe and warm.

Gord

[rob love]

The wife and I were just admiring the green starting to come up on the grain field as we were driving by it a day or two ago. I have seen the odd year where the farmers were planting already, as opposed to the old somewhat safe rule that you waited for Victoria day. I fully expected to see the crocuses pop out of the ground any day now, but I guess they will wait another week or two.

I took a drive up the road just now to fuel up the truck. I now have to concede, it's a blizzard. Not too much snow aside from a few drifts (like the 2 foot one going into my quonset), but ice and snow covered road, and very limited visibility. The visibility is bad enough that you are unsure if it is safe to pull onto the highway, as there will still be dumb-asses driving at 90 despite the road and visibility conditions.


Attached is a current photo from the same spot I showed 4 posts up.