Snowstorm, Snowblower & Birds

Pushing gargantuous amounts of snow.

Yesterday's massive blizzard spared us no mercy. The end of our driveway is so vulnerable to the drifting snow brought on by the nor'easters. Add to that the plows, pushing heavy mounds of snow up the slight incline and into the driveway. It's so depressing. 

As Hubs began clearing snow this morning, he was hearing a wretched clunking sound. In the video below, I said the tranny was gone but it was actually the gear that drives the wheels. Kinda good news (if there can possibly be good news to being snowed in with a failing snowblower). The snow could still be cleared but the bad part was pushing a 385 lb machine manually on a double-wide 60 ft (or longer) driveway. Factor in a stomach flu, a bad back, shoulder, hip and more.... well, you get the picture. It was a big and painful ordeal!



I have no clue who the troops might have been. It's farm country and tractors with snowblower attachments abound. We'd have figured it out but didn't have to after all. 

Tomorrow, we'll take a drive into town and purchase a new blower - a 13 hp Honda! It wasn't in our budget whatsoever but needs are needs so it must be done. One HUGE bonus is our tax refund was much more than what I figured and will cover almost half the cost. And it's 'lady' friendly, too so I can operate it. Our Ariens served us well for almost 9 winters but it's tired now. It was too much for me to handle so I was never able to go out and relieve my pain-ridden Hubs. Now that we're going to be better equipped to handle what comes, watch our next couple of winters be nearly snowless. Isn't that the way?