Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
It started snowing here a little Saturday night, and turned into a pretty good snow storm by the time Sunday morning rolled around. Kiara had gone into town early Sunday morning, and I stayed at home in dismay over the weather. I decided that it was time to put the snow blower together. I cracked open the box, drug it out from the box, and grabbed the manual. There were two fairly thick manuals in the bag, and I was worried that it would be Spring thaw before I would have it together. I was in luck. One book was how to take the engine apart, and most of the other one was maintenance and repair. The assembly instructions were about 2 1/2 pages long (with some diagrams), and the entire assembly time was about five minutes.
It took me another 10 to adjust the skid plates to a higher setting, so that I could do the gravel road without sucking up gravel, mud, and pebbles. It took me this long because I discovered that I didn’t have a set of standard sized sockets. I had metric, but not standard. I did have a full set of standard sized wrenches, though, so that got me through. My next tool purchase will be a set of Craftsman standard sockets from Sears. I just gotta get by there to make that purchase.
We had two gas cans at home (a 1 gallon and a 5 gallon) but both were empty. I called Kiara and asked her to buy a two gallon or five gallon tank and put at least two gallons of gas in it. She managed to get close to home shortly after noon. The turn-off on our road is a slight up hill ascent, and it was icy. The problem is that after the turn, you don’t have enough momentum to carry you over the icy hill. Kiara got stuck there, so I threw on my coat, and walked down the road to meet her. I met her about halfway, and carried the gas can the rest of the way.
I got the snow blower gassed up, and then showed Kiara how to operate it. The next step was to clear off our 2200 sq. ft. driveway of the 4-24 inches of snow that had gathered or drifted in the driveway. I wasn’t looking forward to the effort, but within a minute or two of doing it, I was having fun! Yep. Me. Having fun in snow. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
The snow blower has 6 forward gears, and 2 reverse gears. In anything higher than 3rd gear, the blower will actually pop a wheelie if you gas it hard. Sweet! I managed to clear the entire driveway (and a little extra around the Suburban) in 24 minutes. Not 23 minutes. Not 25 minutes. Yes. I timed it. I had to know for sure. That’s a vast improvement over the 6+ hours it took me last winter to dig out a single car width path in the snow.
The afternoon brought warmer weather, and sunlight. We waited until just before the sun went down to go get Kiara’s car from the bottom of the hill. We hopped in the Suburban, and I kicked in the four wheel drive. I drove down to her car, and waited to see if she could make it. She managed to get to the house, and I followed along. I kept a good distance between us, and on the way back to the house, I made sure to drive through the deepest parts of the snow that were on the road to see how the suburban would handle it. I manged to make it through some two foot deep drifts and the Suburban didn’t even flinch at it. Very nice!
I think that we’re finally prepared for the snow this year. So long as we don’t get another blizzard following another blizzard following another blizzard (x7), we should be in good shape. It’s nice to know that we’ll be able to make out of the snow in inclement conditions, but I’m still not going to beg for massive amounts of snow. I like a challenge, but not one that could potentially trap me in my house for days on end.
