Do you shovel, plow, pay for plowing or use a snow blower when it snows?

[Jack_Pine]

Ding-ding-ding, we have a winner!

or not.

 

[audreyh1]

Shovel? Plow? Blower? What's that?

 

[Walt34]

Snow thrower, with a bit of the shovel to get areas like the porch the snow thrower can't do. With less than a couple of inches I (or DW) just shovel. The snow thrower, an Ariens 24" with 7hp, is a beast to handle and using it is a good upper-body workout by itself but it's made of heavier metal than most. It's also a lot faster. I can do our driveway and a couple of the neighbors in 30 minutes even if the snow is a foot of heavy wet stuff.

 

[steelyman]

My neighbor let me use his snow thrower this morning. He's lucky I didn't kiss him!

 

[Gumby]

I hand shovel a 130 foot long driveway and 110 feet of sidewalk.

 

[foxfirev5]

If I'm home I try to shovel every few inches as it comes down. If I'm away and come home to a significant snowfall it's time to break out the snow blower.

 

[Walt34]

We don't have much snow here. It only snows once every few years, and the attached photo from 2007 is more than we are accustomed to. So, I don't remove snow, pay to have it removed, or travel to get away from it.

Y'know, you're making Louisiana look very attractive!

The only drawback is those danged hurricanes....

 

[KM]

Snowblower. Unless it is April. Then we flat out refuse to do anything.....

 

[Dcharles]

I have an old 1968 John Deere 110 lawn tractor that has a snow blower attachment. the drive way is over 150 feet long so here in North Dakota, that little lawn tractor/snow blower is a life saver! the problem sometimes is the high winds packing in snow drifts so hard you can almost drive over them, then you are stuck! Anyway, I shovel the walk and use a 45 year old lawn tractor to blow us out after a little blizzard.

 

[braumeister]

snow drifts so hard you can almost drive over them

About 45 years ago, I was stationed in Syracuse NY (annual snowfall around 150 inches at that time).

Often, I was one of the few able to get to work on time, because my VW Beetle was so light that it simply drove over the snow drifts.

 

[W2R]

Y'know, you're making Louisiana look very attractive!

The only drawback is those danged hurricanes....

And the crime.... We do like it here.

 

[Free To Canoe]

I shovel. I have a rock driveway so I don't think a snow blower would work very well. Besides, I actually enjoy it most of the time, not to mention the exercise benefit.

I have about 400' of rock driveway and I live on a hill. After about 4" of snow getting out is still easy but....
I use a snow blower that looks amazingly similar to Walt34s (Ariens from Home Depot). I do not manage to shear more than one or two pins in a winter. I have been doing it this way since 2007. Takes about an hour. I wanted to hire someone but couldn't find anyone when I moved in.

 

[Hermit]

I have a 1992 Ford F250 with a 7 foot Meyer plow. Its my work truck in the summer and plow truck in the winter. When you live in the middle of the mountains in Colorado, you need to be able to keep the roads open.

 

[golfnut]

My 20 yr old and I split the shoveling duties. Takes about 20 minutes when we're both doing it at one time. Of course, he acts like I am asking to give me one of his kidneys.

About 3 trs ago, I took over the grass cutting duties since he would go over anything with the mower (including rocks). Had to replace a couple of bent blades because of it.

I shudder at the thought what my father would have done to me if I pulled the same sh^t.

 

[martyb]

During the ONE winter I lived up north (Wisconsin), I shoveled once or twice, then said "screw that" & drove to Home Depot and laid down a little under $500 for a decent Toro snow blower. My driveway was 3-cars wide and maybe 60 feet long. I also had to keep the sidewalks in front of my house cleared under threat of a $200 fine from the city of Janesville. Luckily, just before I moved back down to Texas & Louisiana, I was able to sell the blower to the son of my co-worker for almost what I paid for it. I'd have never gotten rid of a snow blower in east Texas....lol. Oh...I never paid anybody to clear the snow for me.

 

[RE2Boys]

Usually push the snow to one side, then use the snow blower to throw it off the driveway. The lifting is the hard part. Also use the blower for what the street plows leave at the end of the driveway. My snowblower starts on the first pull. Try to push every couple of inches, pushed three times in last two days. Three lanes by 50 ft. Got the blower for my 60th birthday after a particularly brutal winter for snow, think we had about 140 inches that year.

 

[6miths]

I shovel although years ago I did go in with my next door neighbor on a snowblower. He has been ER for 15 years and is great with small engines so he keeps it at his place. I seldom get the chance to use it as he has usually blown out most of my drive before I get up or get home if I am working overnight. I have a bunch of sidewalks that the blower can't get at so I get my exercise there. I much prefer mowing the grass but any exercise is welcome in the winter.

 

[rbmrtn]

Snow it pretty much a freak event and usually is gone in a day. I don't recall seeing a snow blower, snow shovel or anything in stores. Things just come to a complete halt when it does happen.

 

[pb4uski]

Do you shovel, plow, pay for plowing or use a snow blower when it snows?

Currently I pay for plowing but I’m seriously thinking of purchasing a snow blower. I’m guessing the pay back would be 3-4 years and it could also be used for the walkways.

Yes, yes and yes. I shovel our deck, stairways and entryway. We have a plow guy who does the driveway, parking area and our private road. We have a tight property and there are some places he can't cover with the plow and I snowblow those areas and our walkways.

It sounds like a lot but it isn't too bad - took a little over an hour today for 12" of sugar snow. Good exercise.

Bought a good Craftsman 28" snowblower about 10 years ago and have had very little trouble with it. Broke a drive belt once and break a few shear pins a year. Plug it into the 110 outlet, prime it, choke it, full throttle, press the starter button, unplug it and I'm off to the races.

 

[cranberryjoe]

I have a Honda snowblower I bought in 1991 or 92, still running well. Never been in the shop. The only maintenance I do is change the oil every couple of years and lube some of the moving parts when they start sticking. It's self-propelled but it's still a workout to guide it up and down my steep driveway, 100 feet or so. I also shovel the deck, a nice workout too.

 

[davemartin88]

I clear the 1.2 mile gravel road that runs from the closest paved roads to our house. Climbs in elevation about 300 feet total over the length of the road. This year, I've already had to plow twice. I have a Bobcat with a snow blade and a heated cab. I usually plow one strip going down the hill to the main road, then one trip back up and call it good. There are only 3 houses on the road including ours so don't worry about clearing the entire width unless it looks like it is going to be a really big storm.

This is the first year with a heated cab- boy is that nice!

 

[frank]

29 inch snowblower. 360 feet of sidewalk and two driveways. only way to go except when it get a couple inches of ice underneath and I have to get the neigbor to scrape the ice off. pita any way you look at it. going south is looking better every year, but at 67, I have a hard time changing my ways.

 

[Fishingmn]

I have a 20 year old Murray 2 stage snow blower. In the Twin Cities it's really not practical to shovel every snowfall. I use the snow blower even on a couple inches - I just run the speed at 3-4 vs. the 1-2 setting on big snows. My driveway is short but 3+ cars wide so having the snow thrown a long distance is helpful.

 

[DayDreaming]

I have a 200' driveway + turnaround area. Mostly I shovel it by hand.

Except for the rare times we get a really big snowfall, like 10+ inches - then I'd get someone to plow. But in times like that, the plowers are so busy servicing their regular customers, and I might have to wait a day or 2 for them to get to me.

Last year I broke down and bought my first snow thrower. I plan on using it only for snow over 5 or 6" deep. Less than that and I'll probably still shovel it by hand. So far, I've only used the show thrower once - but nice to know it's there for times I really do need it.

 

[scrabbler1]

I live in a large co-apartment complex so we have paid staff who do the snow removal as part of their regular duties. I live over one my building's entrances so when it snows I can hear the sound of the shovels scraping against the sidewalks as they clear the snow (while I am inside my nice, warm apartment). They also make sure the parking lots and ramps to the parking garages are cleared and salted so we can get out of the complex. Their salaries come from my monthly maintenance payments so you can surely say I pay them to do this work.