I went out yesterday and plowed our driveway and the areas around our garages. It was only about 5 inches of snow, but I wanted to move it before we hit the cold spell predicted. Forecast shows the highs not even reaching 20°F for the next week, with lots of negative numbers in there.
The driveway is almost 400 yards long, has a little slope, and has a couple areas that pass along some pines and never get much sun, so those areas ice up. My tractor, with which I plow, has an 84" pivoting blade, mounted up front, and works great when I have some momentum and maintain traction. The blade is so far out front that the rear wheels don't have much weight on them. I'm going to end up getting then loaded with Rimguard, which should add about 600 pounds, and help a lot.
Aside from me not being as able to deal with the cold as long anymore, a problem that impacts my hunting too, going out to push the snow isn't too bad. I dress for it, and it's only my fingers that don't last long. I almost enjoy driving the tractor and clearing out areas for our vehicles, and my ineptitude is gradually decreasing. I still tear the hell out of the grass on either side of the driveway, and push gravel out onto it in other areas. The first couple mows in the spring are quite exciting with all that gravel getting flung around.
Heard the weather forecast for us this morning, and they said that Watertown, NY, which is at the western end of Lake Ontario, was supposed to get about four feet of snow. That rivals Buffalo, at the western end of Lake Erie. I don't know how they deal with all that lake effect snow out there.
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