Snowblower or shovel?
When there is a windy rain and sleet storm yesterday and snow on the ground this October morning, even only an inch or so, after last year it does raise the question -- do we finally buy a snow blower?
My view has always been that snow blowers are a nuisance that require maintenance and often moments of frustration with balky start-up. Then there is the storage issue. Our garage already requires precision parking on either side as it has bicycles, ladders, a refrigerator, firewood, and shelves of all kinds of stuff that we should throw out if we ever took the time to find a safe disposal area, meaning a dump for old paint, etc. One more piece of equipment in there and it will take the Dale Earnhardt of garage parking to get in and out.
Considering all of that, we still need to consider a snowblowing machine. Last year was just amazing, an amazing amount of work. Of course there are a few folks roving around with jeeps fronted with plows or my yard guy's son who for $75 or so will do the job in 15 minutes, but when it snows every other day for several weeks that can really add up, add up into a lot more money than buying a machine.
Of course, if we did buy one that would also make temperate weather for the coming winter almost a certainty. After two years of really significant snow, in 1996 I succumbed to the need for a Jeep Grand Cherokee - did a three year lease since at the time those things began to come to pieces in that amount of time(when we returned it the interior side panels were falling off and any back support in the seats had vanished, among other things). It was a lark though, a rumbling V-8, bought with the excuse that we had young children then and what if one needed to get to a doctor or be picked up from school and that was a valid thought.
Guess what, no snow of any consequence for the three years of the lease.
So what to do? At least this early snow reminded me to turn off and drain all exterior faucets and make sure that the yard guys drain the sprinker system asap.
My view has always been that snow blowers are a nuisance that require maintenance and often moments of frustration with balky start-up. Then there is the storage issue. Our garage already requires precision parking on either side as it has bicycles, ladders, a refrigerator, firewood, and shelves of all kinds of stuff that we should throw out if we ever took the time to find a safe disposal area, meaning a dump for old paint, etc. One more piece of equipment in there and it will take the Dale Earnhardt of garage parking to get in and out.
Considering all of that, we still need to consider a snowblowing machine. Last year was just amazing, an amazing amount of work. Of course there are a few folks roving around with jeeps fronted with plows or my yard guy's son who for $75 or so will do the job in 15 minutes, but when it snows every other day for several weeks that can really add up, add up into a lot more money than buying a machine.
Of course, if we did buy one that would also make temperate weather for the coming winter almost a certainty. After two years of really significant snow, in 1996 I succumbed to the need for a Jeep Grand Cherokee - did a three year lease since at the time those things began to come to pieces in that amount of time(when we returned it the interior side panels were falling off and any back support in the seats had vanished, among other things). It was a lark though, a rumbling V-8, bought with the excuse that we had young children then and what if one needed to get to a doctor or be picked up from school and that was a valid thought.
Guess what, no snow of any consequence for the three years of the lease.
So what to do? At least this early snow reminded me to turn off and drain all exterior faucets and make sure that the yard guys drain the sprinker system asap.
posted by John Borden at 5:28 PM
4 Comments:
Dear John,
Not the most important feature but let's not forget aesthetics: crunch of the shovel versus hideous roar and buzz of the blower.
Loved this article!
This comment has been removed by the author.
This comment has been removed by the author.
When the shoveled snow on the sides of our driveway and circle are as tall as me, it's the crunch of my back and knees that elude aesthetics.
Thanks for the welcome comment. Probably won't buy one of those darn contraptions and hope that I don't regret it.
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