PREPARING OUR FARM FOR WINTER STORM DIEGO!!

hey folks this is Josh Stoney Ridge farmer welcome to the farm vlog today today we are doing storm prep so we're getting ready to get hit with a significant snowstorm we don't get this kind of weather around here and this kind of weather shuts down the entire planet for the south so in other words if we go to the grocery store right now there'll be no bread there'll be no milk there'll be no eggs good thing we have all that stuff already and we're prepared but we have to do a few things here in order to be prepared for a snow storm of this significance so come along today on the farm vlog I'm going to walk you around show you what I do to get prepared for snowstorms so that we're not left out in the cold all right so what's the difference you might say what's the difference in a storm here versus a storm in Utah so we are about ten minutes away from the North Carolina Virginia border near the biggest town I guess in Virginia is Martinsville where the racetrack is we are on the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in other words this way is flat and this way is Mountain so we're right on that western facing or northern Northwest facing slope that's going to get pounded with this snowstorm that's coming in we're supposed to get a significant amount of snow somewhere in a neighborhood of 8 to 13 inches we don't get that kind of snow around here that kind of snow load on buildings and on barns is a very very big concern so we've got to do some things in order to be prepared so that we're not screwed first thing we got to do is make sure our vehicles are full of fuel in case we got to get out of here in case we run in a ditch or in case we get into a situation where you have to sit in the truck or the car and wait for somebody for a significant amount of time you want to be full of fuel we also need to fill every fuel can that we have or gas can that we have here on the farm to make sure we can keep fuel in the tractors and we can keep fuel in the generator so the first order of business fill the Gator up with fuel fill the tractors up with fuel fill the trucks up with fuel and the generator up with fuel had the generator out back set out ready to rock and roll so all I've got to do is push a button start it up and we're running on generator power so that's what we're gonna do today preparations first thing we're going to do is get our generator out of the shop here this is our generator this is a little troy-bilt generator that we've had for a number of years it's done a great job it is a 7,000 watt generator with 10,500 watts of cranking power which means it will run the heating and we'll run the air conditioner it won't run the heat strips for the emergency heat but it will run the heat pump now in case you guys are new to the channel we live in a fourteen by eighty mobile home right now while we're building our farm in our dream home so we didn't need a huge huge generator the biggest most important thing is that ten thousand five hundred cranking amps that will also run our well pump and our water heater all important stuff normally I keep this thing all the way full all of the time make sure there's nothing I can contaminate this guy with it's pretty full I think we could top it off just a little bit so I'll set this guy to the side and top it off this gas can filler you can get this kit I'll post a link down below this is a water spout for your gas can but a lot better than those sloped or restricted gas filler necks get this guy topped off he'll probably take I think the thing holds about six gallons there we go good to go so I just want to make sure we're all topped off everything needs to be topped off we never know we might have days and days without power ok next thing I want to do is get down here and check the oil make sure it looks good too I like to change it all in this thing about every eight hours so if we're looking to black we may go long and change it everything looks pretty good we'll tip it up a little bit so I can see what the oil looks like oh yeah she's still fairly clear looking good I do a full synthetic oil change on this so I don't have to worry about it so much the lifespan of these little engines is the motor oil that you put in them so we should be good to go this thing has a reminder system right here on the side that tells me everything I need to know it tells me how much load I'm pulling and tells me basically all the information I need to know how many hours since last oil change all that cool stuff we're going to fire it up do a test run real quick to make sure it's going to run properly so we can just go back and pull the cord it has a push button power source with a starter on it but the battery's dead right now and I don't have really the time or don't want to put the effort into charging it up right now so let's get her fired up well reach back here and turn on the gas I always turn the gas off every time I use this so in other words when I shut it down I shut it down by turning the gas off not by turning the power off so we'll make sure everything's turned on here all the breakers are on on good to go we'll give it a full choke pull the choke lever give her a tug radar fired right up like a charm it always starts pretty easy probably next year I'll replace the oil and put it in your spark plug in or if we have a power outage here it's time to do a good service on it so we got the generator running back there everything's good we'll turn the fuel off and let it run out like we always do if we stick to that and stay consistent then we won't have issues with the carburetor with this fancy new type of fuel now I always burn a non ethanol fuel in my small engines but who really knows is it non ethanol I don't know is there a way I can check I don't know so I always shut it off anyway that way the carburetor doesn't get any corrosion inside of it so we're gonna take the truck we'll go fill up all of our fuel canisters another thing we have to do so this is our mobile chicken coop this mobile chicken coop is not going to be mobile in the snow especially in 12 inches of snow so what I got to do tonight is sneak out here we already went ahead and processed that's our chicken plucker we already went ahead and process the meat birds before this storm and you'll probably see that video either early next week or maybe tomorrow I'm not positive but we process the chickens already that we're going to use for meat birds and these birds need to go into the regular chicken coop so tonight after the Sun Goes Down I'll come out catch these birds and I'll take them down here to our big chicken coop where our laying hens live and they'll be just fine right there now there may be a little pecking order but that's okay we'll have a video whole video dedicated to intermingling your chickens with new chickens there is a science behind it so that they don't get pecked to death now we have the Buick Grand National and the Oldsmobile under this shed right here twelve inches of snow on one of these car ports I've seen them collapse before I worry about them collapsing on my cars I don't want them to collapse on my hotrod car for sure I definitely don't want them to collapse on the Grand National so probably what we're gonna do is pull as much as I hate to do this and let them get snowed on but I'm gonna pull out the Oldsmobile in the Grand National just in case that gives way and that way we'll be covered I'll park our attractor underneath there they won't hurt the tractor if the shed kind of gives away a little bit but it sure would tear up the car we got to get the tractor we got to put the bucket on the tractor so we can move snow and we've got to put the scrape blade on the back of the tractor so we can scrape this driveway our driveway is pretty long and as you can see we live way down a dirt road nobody's coming to scrape this thing like I said in the south when a storm like this hits the whole world shuts down we won't see snow plows for probably two days back on these rural roads they'll hit the hot spots so hit the main roads and right now they're brining all the bridges and all the roads with that salt water brine but we won't get service like that so we're back in the country way back in the country so just got to get a few things ready I'm gonna run to the store and I'll be right back so there's really nothing to do with the laying hens right here pretty simple we just make sure they've got plenty of food and water the temperature no biggie no worries there so here's what I mean by the carport so we have the Grand National parked under here in the olds and the tin runs horizontally not vertically so snow won't slide off of this and that's what I mean these things are generally used in a southern type area that doesn't get very much snow so that's why I'm worried about that building getting a little bit too much snow load on it so the rest of the buildings on the farm have this vertical type roof so snow will slide off of it now I do have a guard right here to keep it from sliding off and tearing the gutters off of the building I'll keep the woodstove fired up in here and try to keep the snow melted off of here if we get more than I'm gonna say eight maybe ten inches I'll start worrying about it don't make sure if it's a fluffy snow no biggie whatsoever if the winds blowing it'll blow it right off but if it's a wet snow and it sits there it's dangerous we're gonna go up here to the goat pin and give the goats two round bales of hay [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] not quite ideal I'd rather it be laying over like this there we go sweet buddy what are you doing buddy yeah who are you doing Lexi [Music] so anytime this tractors in motion I'm always thinking about what needs to be done also the driveway out a little bit to that a few go spots [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] alright guys so the hay that we're getting is mostly Johnson grass hay just bit for the goats but not so good for cows so using up bad hay first before we start using up good day for the goats hopefully I thought in managing the farm and advantage I'm gonna have to flip that one over to you that's alright thank you tuck so we got all the hay bales in place we're going to take the Box scrape off and put the spray plate on because that's what I need to clear snow off of the driveway and they want to put the bucket on just in case I've got to push through stuff pretty cool then we'll get some firewood put it in the back of the Gator take it down to the shop [Music] a couple of pins here and we should be loose just didn't even have a pant hold budget I had a lot of trouble with this top so Peninsula locked up subsidence and diesel [Music] like a punch to the jaw this is held on with a pin system just like that pretty cool smacked in the jaw right they're gonna have to put some be greaser on that [Music] awesome all right so I got to pull this pin right here and it's propped up on some tires right now because the rod that holds it up broke off I'm just kind of weird this is stuck seized up show you a little secret we're going to whack good to go so much shim goes right here hopefully [Music] slide that guy in slide my pin into place hopefully here we go things are working out the stars are in line perfect drop that pin in good to go we'll do that for both sides and then we'll hook up this top link right here now once we get it hooked up I'll tell you why I'm using this for scraping snow versus using the box [Music] the straight blade needs to be turned around and basically angled so it grabs the snow and it kicks it out of the driveway go one way it'll kick it this way we go back the other way to kick it out that way that's pretty simple this thing adjusts down side-to-side it swings this way and the blade itself will rotate in this direction in other words I can move the blade I can offset the blade over this direction we don't need to do that for moving snow but if we do need to make a minor adjustment it's as simple as pulling two pins well now we are quite prepared for a snowstorm with the tractor this four-wheel drive tractor kicks butt and a snowman does a great job the first time it snowed all my neighbors thought I was crazy because I was like man huh new tractor I want to try that thing out so I just ripped it up down the driveway went down my road cleaned that off went up to the blacktop road up here cleaned all that off just had a blast with it good stuff next thing we talked about was putting on the bucket so we had the hay spare on we started out with the pallet forks and then we put the hay spiro and we wouldn't got some hay now we pulled these two levers up basically two levers hold that in place and it hooks into place right here so all you do it's a skid steer quick attach I'll pull up I'll set it down I'll drop the veil spear I'll pull up root lift up and the buckets on awesome yeah it's always nice to it's been the end of the day here at the woodpile we're gonna get some firewood together me and miss the stony roots can snuggle up by the fire hole load the Gator up here take this stuff down to the shop so normally guys I just back in here with the load of wood but I want to show you a cool product that a buddy of mine makes it's called the log ox sling now you might have seen this on other people's channels that's cool if you've seen it on other people's channels I really really support what this company does they're an American company they're following the American dream it's all made in the USA a heavy duty canvas bag for carrying your wood in basically you just put it over your shoulder like so and your arm it goes through a hole right here in other words you don't have to carry firewood into the house from that care your thing you've got it right here very very easy basically we got some mail logs in here it takes all of the weight off of your back from carrying that and that's what log ox is all about the whole company is all about saving your back so this device right here just basically load it up with firewood however you want bigger logs doesn't matter long as you can get a hold of it one hand you can load it up at the other hand this is the log ox sling you can pick it up there's a link down below this is not even available to the public yet it's not mass-produced yet this is called a Kickstarter program and my buddy Austin is trying to fund this to get a Kickstarter for his business pretty cool these logs are a little bit big for me to get with one hand very very simply he just holds everything cradles everything alright and then you can take all this debris and go outside and dust it off I'll show you American company with a dream you don't see that much anymore so basically any wood shavings that might be in there you shake it off take this off hang it up on a hook good to go log ox sling there'll be a link down the video description again this is a Kickstarter program so you can preorder this and get it at a discount down below guys I hope you enjoyed this little look into my life into what goes on here on the farm to prepare for a storm if you're new to the farm vlog here be sure you pound that like button subscribe to the channel click the little bell icon down there to notify when I post a new video and we'll give you a storm update when all this storm hits so we're supposed to get somewhere in the neighborhood of three to five inches of snow tonight and tomorrow an additional 8 to 13 inches is what I'm seeing on the weather holy cow it's gonna be a challenge but we'll get out on the Gator tomorrow we'll have some fun we'll show you what's going on thanks a lot guys we'll see you next time on the Stoney Ridge farm all right yes [Music] in summer then