Never get tired of your videos. Takes a strong will to survive in those conditions. You have heart and soul of the pioneers who settled in this part of the country , can't imagine how they did it with horses, the feed, water, shelter, warmth and (no) snow-blower, really.
Did the whole horse thing for several years....feeding, breaking up frozen water tanks, etc. its a never ending battle. Glad to be animal free. Still have to carry in firewood for the wood stove, but nothing nearly as draining as taking care of animals.
“Still figuring things out” is half the fun of living the lifestyle your family wants and enjoys. You’re making a ‘plot of land’ your future for all of you. Marc and Ola, thanks for letting us share in your journey thus far. It’s been amazing to watch, (especially those vista views you give us from your property!), so far and looking forward to more as your journey continues. You’re an incredible inspiration to many of us. Thank You… 💫❤️💫✌🏻🇦🇺
Nice video Mark. Nice to see Health and his new truck he built. I am sure he will keep that until he gets board and plans his new plow truck build. You should get first dibs on it. If anyone on this channel is interested a lot of Mark;s neighbors have built their off grid community their and all have You Tube channels. Mark's close friend and neighbor Health has an entire playlist that he is putting together on his plow truck build. His Channel is Red Poppy Ranch. If any one is passing through the area my cousin is the pastor of their church. He has a church website. His church is Sandpoint Church of Christ. He has a you tube channel to of his home build which is never finished. Mark and Health are the local highway department.
I can never get enough of snow, so keep posting it please. I only discovered your channel recently, but admire what you all have achieved. I am in the UK, so please excuse my ignorance, but where are you? What state? Wherever it is, it is breathtakingly beautiful. Stay warm and safe.
Mark and Ola, I love your enthusiasm for keeping the snow cleared, y’all are beautiful souls and hard working. Thank y’all for sharing your journey with us. Much love to your family, be well and safe.
Your snowblower setup works well for you Marc, and I think it's well suited for taking care of your homestead. But your dirt road is another story. Light, dry snow is one thing, but your tractor is going to get overworked on heavy wet snow. I know you and your neighbors work within the limits of your resources, but I've been watching Heath for years now using pickup trucks for a job that requires way more weight and power. For the amount of snow you guys move you would be well served to get into a loader or farm tractor. I'm certain you are well aware of my point and suggestions. It's just difficult to watch good, hard working people struggle without wanting to help somehow. The ability to jump in the car and run to town for food or parts is taken for granted by those of us not living in the mountains. With heavy snowfall it's a major endeavor for you. Best wishes to you all. I admire your tenacity and stamina in living the way you want. And I enjoy watching.
Always love watching you guy's working in the snow an remembering the days I had to do that! It used to make me mad when the the shear pins snapped off in my snow blower! God bless y'all!
A LOG SKIDDER with a V-Plow is what my buddy uses to open his private road of 3 miles plus to his Lake Home in the Wilderness of Minnesota. He is a Log Semi-Truck hauler for independent log cutters to take their cut logs to the mill. The rear winch and Big V-plow handle everything nature throws at him...even very tall snow drifts of cap height. He just wiggle steers his V-plow thru them. The oversized V-plow is difficult to reverse back up as the edges can catch snow and bring the snow in behind the plow. The Winch is used like a wrecker if the log truck gets stuck or overturned on a logging road to a landing. Log Skidders articulate in the middle and are all wheel planetary drive. Many off the grid people built with only a chain saw and a log skidder. One guy built a Stuccoed hay bales stacked between 8 pole in an Octagon shaped with a 4 pole square center that was 2 stories high. The logs were place vertical like a timber frame house to support a roof and second floor. It cost him next to nothing as straw/hay, and log were off his own property on an indian reservation. His garage was a similar built and his son's home was also. The concrete for stucco was purchased in bulk. Insulation was super great. I is a rare construction but was under permits rules as it was indian land. His main job was a dealer at the casino. He was one of many guys that work and lived on reservation land to avoid divorcee courts decrees. I picked him up on a US -200 highway when his car broke down and gave him a ride home.
Mark make sure to be careful on those hillsides with the snow concealing the edge. One slip and alot of things can go wrong for your family. Love the snow videos! I enjoy seeing the realities you guys face.
Good neighbours are a blessing, a real blessing.the The younger generation, reared away from reality, consider themselves first, and are unreliable as a result. The future??. Glad your family knows reality. Thanks for this.
holy cow!.... You need a waaaay bigger snow blower! try using floor wax on the spinning parts and snow chute and inner housing areas .... start with drying all metal to be sprayed with ordinary garden sprayer... let dry over night.... spray your snow shovels with floor wax... make sure all dry before spraying and dry over night
Mark, I feel your pain of snow maintenance. But, so far not this year. 15 days into January touch wood just had the snowblower out once. But I know it's still coming. Snow blower looks like it's working extremely well, it's a little slow but you're putting the snow where it needs to go. Push on. Thanks again.
Always amazes me how you think you have shifted 9 inches of snow and then another 12 inches fall, about time you guys were offering winter ski holidays :-)
Myself I enjoy watching you try to do a never ending winter that setting record of snow fall. I just wonder how much that you have already got this year. Good luck and try to stay as warm and dry as possible. And be safe as you can
The reason the original settlers lived in the valleys was because of snow in the higher elevations was too difficult to deal with. Modern machinery has made it possible to live higher up but there is a cost of time, fuel and equipment
Beyond my imagination and I am sure yours!! 🤯 With all my heart I hope that this is only going to be the year that you talk about in years come! 🙏❤️ Stay safe and strong and know we are all keeping you in our prayers along with Red Poppy Ranch! 🙏🥰
I love the scenery with the snow and I used to go skiing , I really admire what you are doing and you like it ! I couldnt , I like the beach here in Australia , its nice to visit the snow without all the effort involved !! Love what you are doing with your property and your videos are great.
I have a very old snow blower that goes on the front of a tractor but its single stage and the direction is only right or left that it can blow so its limited. I've tried it over the years in sticky snow and there is no way it will work, it plugs up in the outlet as the big slow impeller doesn't have enough momentum to keep that snow from sticking and plugging and once that happens the snow just mills around in front of the blower and that is that. The unique part about the blower is that its able to ram into snow and push it when the blower is off and I use it a lot around the yard that way. I just wish I had a front wheel assist tractor to mount it on as a heavy unit out front of a two wheel drive tractor can be so useless and get stuck very easy.
Keep an eye on your antifreeze level. I have a couple size smaller Farmall and when dragging the engine down mine will start to boil off antifreeze without going into the red on the guage. Hate to see you a couple miles down the road finding that out about yours when the needle hits red and the radiator is nearly dry.
1-2 years after we got the tractor it started acting like that but I had the radiator core reconditioned, flushed the engine, and installed new coolant and new rad cap. Been perfect since.
@MOUNTAIN MAPLE RANCH I suspected you might be the rare gets things done the right way the 1st time instead of just kicking out videos! Very much appreciate you are ahead on the quirks of your equipment.
Love your video’s. It’s beautiful looking at snow from your video here in CA. The numbers count can only go up. I love Idaho..God’s country. Hard working.
As you said Mark, the view changes all the time even though the mountains stay in place. The views you have shown just thrill my heart to see the sunsets setting on the ridges of the mountains. You and Ola and the boys have a great deal of work., but you also have fun with the development of your land. Thanks so much for sharing with us and be safe.
Enjoyed your video, wow, that was a lot of work! Been there with the "Slow-Blower" with no cab, never been so cold, went to a v blade. My chute was always getting clogged, rarely had the fluffy stuff. It does get better, you'll look back say "Remember the time I did WHAT" good luck and stay warm
How do you stay warm with all of that wet snow and low temperatures? I remember growing up with 14 ft. snow drifts in Massachusetts and bundled like the kid in the movie Christmas Story - lol. We all figure out our journeys and am happy to see you all enjoying them in peace and quiet. God Bless!
Not knowing how your 3 point set-up is on your tractor,you said that there wasn't room to mount the grader blade with the pto drive for the snow blower mounted. Do the lower support arms have the ability to be extended, the ones on our Kubota are set-up that way,the arms slideout about 4 inches for different attachments mounting requirements. Perhaps you could fabricate the extensions in order to mount the grader blade,thus being able to scrape the road surface and get rid of that slushy bottom layer.
Snow blowers are great until you try and throw rocks with them LOL. I just have a snow blower for my lawn tractor and the past few years I haven't really needed it, its slow going most of the time...a plow is faster but you really need a snow blower to help clear snow from along the sides of a road, otherwise you end up with a really narrow road, and sometimes quite rapidly. I have a small tractor now, but no snow removal equipment for it really, other than a rear blade....if the snow gets deep enough that I need it, its time to stay home anyways LOL.
Like watching your videos and your neighbors as well, but I have to ask why you both don't use your barns to shelter your equipment ? I know both barns are not finished but you could put them in the barn and have dry snow free equipment to start with.
I'm sure working toward that. My garage door is not functional yet and I had to nail boards over my tarp to keep the wind from tearing it off... so as soon as my door is functioning, ill do just that and move it out to continue working on the building.
You need a skid steer so you can easily switch attachments. I love mine is the best tool I've ever bought but attachments are expensive. And a snowblower is about 10k so I don't have one yet. And don't really need one where I live in the utah desert.
My tractor loader has a "skid steer" style quick attach for the bucket so I have a few attachments already. A skid steer is in "THE LIST" but not for a while. When one comes into our situation, all of my front attachments will connect. I ran aux hoses from the remote couplers on my tractor to the front for a couple attachments that needed hydraulic, and its good enough for now. Not enough had on my tractor to run something like a snow blower but does well enough for a cement mixer and vibratory roller.
WOW you have been getting hit with all the snow ❄️😵💫. You need to open up a ski resort 😜. It is nice that you both are neighbors ☺️, because you help each other out.
Thanks for sharing! I think that Perhaps in time, Planet Earth will be a year around Spring ambient weather with rain but no more snow with only mild temperatures! I am not a Prophet. I read the Bible and I speculate! Much will happen before then! Time will tell all. Ron PTL USA
Unfortunately, we're only half way through the winter. From an amateur's observation, it seems as if all of the Nation's drought areas are receiving the abundance of precipitation this winter. "Thanks" for the vedios!
Truly love watching the snow videos. You likely have 2 more snow days and then maybe a week of sunshine. So this winter Tahoe has had a couple of big storms like 5 ft in 24 hrs , likely that might be too much for your blower. Have you guys talked about that? Do you have enough food and fuel to be stuck up there til March?
Its going to mostly a central area for our farm, so power room to power our house, bathhouse and shop. We will have a processing kitchen for canning, cheese making, and animal butchering. This shop will have lean to attached for covered parking or Isolation option for animals. Center of the shop is big enough to bring in our dump truck if needing maintenance or repairs, and our excavator. The location of the shop is right in the middle of our property.
Yes, traditionally it’s been Mag Chloride but in recent years they’ve moved to beet pulp since it’s almost noncorrosive. that’s what I have in all 4 tires on my tractor.
Love to watch you work you have and your wife to have good work ethics I am a retired RN Can I ask you why you do not put a tarp over your tractor save a wet butt Have a great day
The seat folds up so no snow on the butt. We will be parking the tractor in the shop when the garage door goes up. It’s all coming together. Thanks for watching. Ola
you are correct, sorry I misread your first comment. yes we definitely could do that. when we would come up in the winter months to recreate (before our water system) we would melt snow for tea sometimes. takes forever but works great with a little patience, and as long as you find the “clean snow” :)
One question . why blow snow to the uphill side ? The blower has capacity to blow snow to the downslope ? More snow on uphill side just seems like more erosion problems ? Sorry , just thinking! Let me know if im ŵrong , plz.
Great comment, In several spots, the snow was heavy enough that it didn’t seem to get across the road and off the shoulder. I didn’t want to have “processed” snow pile up and have to try re-blowing it. It doesn’t take long for it to set real hard in that situation and I’d rather have it off the road on either side, than in the road and set like ice.
@@MountainMapleRanch yes , you are right about that !!!!! You know you're area better than i . I see what utube let's me see . Just an observation my friend !!!! We really love your channel and Red Poppy Ranch !!!!! Very nice to see neighbors helping each other out !!!! Like the old days !!!! Going on 64 so i really appreciate the enthusiasm my friend !!!!!!
When I lived in Alaska it was a must. But in Idaho I think we are not allowed to have them, cause it would damage the main roads. This is an absolutely an unusual winter for us. Ola
@@MountainMapleRanch Hope this helps........Studded Snow Tires Legal in Idaho From October 1 to April 30 Montana: October 1 - May 31. Nevada: October 1 - April 30. Utah: October 15 - April 15. Oregon: November 1 - March 31. Washington: November 1 - March 31. Wyoming: Legal all year.
