Hubby and I have always shoveled everything by hand on the farm, and only very rarely have we hired machines to do the work that is very hard to do.. example when we had the loads of gravel delivered, we hand moved the walk way loads but hired Farmer R to come and spread the drive way.. what he could do in under a hour would have taken us way, way to long.
As you know we have had a lot of snow this winter, including having it drift badly enough that five times we have had help come to plow us out and dozen and dozen of hours spent shoveling the lane way.
We certainly will continue to shovel a lot of things by hand but Dear Hubby Got this very much on sale (as the season is ending) new Snow Blower as a gift from my mom, he also got a little party, and he might have asked his wife for a set of Throwing Ax’s that did indeed appear on his birthday.
I am looking forward to learning how to do proper maintenance of it and ideally being able to do a lot more of the snow removal with it, and I will tell the truth, I am greatly looking forward to being able to do a single up and down path from the house yard to the barn with this. However I know that from shoveling the pathway that many a time in winter we go from a open path to knee or even mid hip drifts that cover the path totally in certain spots. The drift patterns will not change so we will see how the machine handles them.
So while we still use the scythe for a lot of our cutting, we now have a lawn mower, while we still have lots of shovels, we know have a snow blower, while I do have my fire pit and cooking tray, we now have a BBQ.. Crazy I know! LOL
We will see if this proves to be a good thing or not.
Just another Day on the Farm 
Odd – I’ve read your blog for ages – and this is the first time I’ve been able to post a comment. I enjoy reading your posts 😊
Thanks for commenting and glad that the post let you.. hope it will continue to do so.. glad you enjoy my posts 🙂
Oh wow – my WordPress ran amok – that was supposed to be a response to a blog that has always seemed to have their comments turned off 😂. (You probably thought I’d suddenly lost my mind)
Now in response to ‘your’ post – we too bought a snowblower years ago, not a cheap one either. We’ve had it repaired twice under warranty and once at our own cost when the warranty ran out. I guess my best advice, is to make sure whatever trails/paths/driveway you’re going to clear, are absolutely debris free before the snow hits. And do not let anybody talk you into the tire chains you can put on the wheels. The transmission will break. We’ve actually gone back to using a shovel and calling a neighbor down the road with a tractor to clear the driveway. I got tired of listening to hubby rage about the ‘junk’ they build these days 😊
I did wonder but hey, I went with it 🙂 Good to know about the machine, that is for sure going to be a issue, I have so many trees near the lane that drop small branches.. and thanks for the heads up on the chains.. hmmm I guess we will see how it goes
thanks for the feedback
It’s all about having the right tool for the job, isn’t it? … and sometimes the right tool is a snow shovel and sometimes its a snowblower. 😀
It will be interesting to see how much snow is needed to bring it out vs the shovels, plus as hubby said, it also depends on if he feels like the workout.
Much Better to have the time saved to do other things ; )
It hopefully will mean that we will now be able to do more on our own even in the bigger storms
Blower/throwers are also much more “economical” with spreading snow than plows – means no piles blocking line-of-sight at roadways and less snow height when drifting does occur: )
interesting info, thanks Deb
Totally agree about knowing where your paths are. Reflective markers are a good investment… Both for the operator in a blowing maelstrom (and people unfamiliar with your drive; )
And, it’s a little late, now that you already have it; but there’s a big difference between one-stage(blowers) vs two-stage (throwers)… The two-stage is more temperamental (easier to mess up) and more also expensive to fix):):
J > It’s difficult to find the right balance with machinery: manual work is good for the body and soul, but there’s only so much time and energy … Some things are just best done with a machine. But some folks (particularly men, it seems), don’t need much of an excuse to buy a machine for this, and another for that, and are forever hankering after upgrades, and accessories. Particularly for a smallholding that’s for supporting the household, not being a burden on it, the cost of buying – and maintaining (or the time spent maintaining) – can be ruinous. Lawnmower : a must. Snow-blower : the limitation on depth of snow means that you’ll have to use it quickly before the snow gets too deep, and yet it’s troublesome to get it out for a small depth of snow …. I bet you continue shovelling by hand!!
Hubby already said that he will continue to do some snow removal even on the long drive just because at times he likes the work.
Hubby has had a snow blower way back that he used in his teens and early 20’s . I have never had one so its all new to me.. we will see.
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