We had over 14 inches of snow over the last weekend. This was after being hit by eight inches of snow earlier in the preceeding week. Clearing the snow from our driveway from the second enterance off the Gunlflint Trail down to the lakeside apartment is no easy job. I try to blow everything before the snow depth exceeds four to five inches. With my small 5.5 Hp. snowblower it takes a little under two hours to clear the driveway. If the snow depth is over five inches it can take twice as long to clear the driveway.
When the temperature is around zero and the wind is gusting to 30 mph spending time outdoors following a showblower is not a winter sport that has anything over say ice fishing,cross country skiing or making snow angels. Over a one week period I cleared the driveway 6 times. If you add in the time spent getting dressed to work outside I have lately spend way too much time blowing snow! It has been a long winter and I was really starting to feel sorry for myself.
Just when I was getting down on Winter and having to face another 6 weeks of "snow season" our neighbor came around and told me about his snow removal problem. He has a big diesel pickup with an expensive V plow. With all of this year's snow his driveways are down to a single lane lined by snowpiles from earlier plow passes. The cast off snow is higher than his V plow and he can no longer use the plow to clear the driveway. He had start clearing his driveway with a snowblower. His expensive truck and snowplow will be useless until the snow melts!
Meanwhile, our driveway looks great. The snow from the snowblower is cast over a large area and I don't have deep piles of snow along the driveway. This keeps wind blown snow from building up along the edges which makes it easier to clear the driveway the next time it snows. Best of all, I have been getting lots of exersise.
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| Driveway between our home and our garage. Forget the exersise, we're ready for Spring! |
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