Hello All,
Loading semi in blizzard yesterday update:

The weatherman missed the snow amounts by eight inches. Four were predicted
and we got a foot of *new snow* Which caused us numerous problems  as the
snow from Hell was supposed to quit about the time we started loading
instead of turning to white out conditions and getting triple the amount of
snow predicted.

Yesterdays snow was the largest snow amount on record for the date and the
largest single snowfall in our area in the last ten years.

We started at noon and finnished at around eight last night. The driver
which is hauling the load to California owns a fleet of trucks which
specialize in hauling bee hives all over the U.S.

His exact words:
" I have spent a lifetime hauling bees and have pulled hives out of snow
four feet deep in the Dakota's but loading a semi in a blizzard and whiteout
conditions is a first!"

Despite the miserable conditions I did not hear a single complaint from the
driver, my partner or our two helpers!

What we did and what we would do different next time:

1. We had the hives stacked and in place to load before the snow.

2. We covered the hives with plastic but although a good idea we had trouble
standing on top getting the over a foot of snow off ( four inches from
previous snow was allready on top. and the snow tended to cause the plastic
to want to fall between the skids.
We had to dig the front of each hive out to get at the skid.

3. We used a bobcat with bucket to try and keep the work area cleared of the
piling up snow.

4. We had to chain the tires of the semi at the bee farm in order to get the
semi into place and back to the main road.

What we might have done different:
1.Took the hives to California last fall

2. waited for snow to stop and then pushed snow and loaded but driver was
wanting loaded and on his way and snow was supposed to stop at noon. The
driver joked about us having to bring food and fuel for his truck to his new
home in a abandon rock quarry.

3. I would have brought my loader and we could have loaded hives  from both
sides which would have cut the load time by quite a bit.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

Ps. I took slide pictures, pictures and  digital pictures. The digital
pictures were taken with my partners camera as mine had a dead battery so I
have not seen the digital pictures yet but if all goes well we might get
Allen to put a couple at his web site or perhaps others. I may send a
picture for a front page of a bee mag and even write an article.

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