A tough snow removal day - March storm pics added

We received 8 inches of snow on Sunday morning.

I used the walk behind snow blower to clear my neighbors drive. I also use it to clear a long wheelchair ramp she has. It has outdoor carpet runners.
I have been clearing this ramp since it was built 15 years ago.


Today the snow gods frowned at my efforts.


I snagged an 8 foot section of the carpet and the snow blower choked.

I used the knife in the upper LH corner of the first pic to cut the carpet out. Took me the better part of 30 minute, a few bloody knuckles and most of the cuss words I know to get the carpet out.

This is the remnants ( get it?? a carpet joke )



Once the carpet was out I took a break. Had breakfast followed by a nice cup of tea. Then out to the garage   to replace two shear pins. The blower worked fine and I finished the neighbors property no problem.

That's the pits Phil! On a bright note, that's it for the carpet for this year. Without the shear pins you'd be changing out a gearbox.

Same storm, we got maybe 3". A friend 20 miles away got 8".

I need a small snowblower for my deck. I'm getting too old to shovel anymore and I need to think ahead. But unless I'm in a heated cab I really dislike throwing snow. There is only one wind direction... the wrong way. I would rotate the chute in the right direction for the wind, and yeah, once the auger hit the snow the wind would change. I was forever changing shear pins too. I had the machinists at work making them for me.

My snowblower has been broken for a year. I meant to repair it over the summer but who thinks about snow in summer? We're having historic amounts of snow this year All I can say is thank goodness its not wet, heavy snow but does there have to be so darn much of it?

And on the bright side, its a good thing your neighbour wasn't sitting in her wheelchair at the end of the ramp watching your progress - imagine the mess that would have been?!!

And on the bright side, its a good thing your neighbour wasn't sitting in her wheelchair at the end of the ramp watching your progress - imagine the mess that would have been?!!

LOL, but that's the kicker. The ramp was for her husband who passed away last summer. She NEVER uses the front door and ramp. I kept it clear for him and now as an emergency egress route.

I'll shovel it for the rest of the season. Then talk to her about removing them. It is a long ramp!

I'm glad there was no permanent damage to the snowblower. Those things are useful especially when you have other people's snow to clear - I always seemed to damage my machine clearing other people's snow. I have some elderly neighbours and some that have back issues (so they tell me) so I have 5 people's snow to deal with, although sometimes other neighbours will get to some of those before me. One of the neighbours has rocks on the border of the driveway and I got into those once and broke the scraper bar. Cheap enough fix but its the time and trouble of getting the part. Now the engine isn't running properly, it starts fine and runs fine at idle and when I open the throttle but as soon as I engage with the snow load the engine dies. I'm not sure what to do other than put in a new spark plug and change/clean any filters it might have. I wonder if its maybe bad/old fuel? Its a 4 stroke but I did accidentally put some gas/oil fuel into it last year. It just ran a bit smelly for a bit.

Gas/oil mix shouldn't hurt it. I do it frequently if I'm out in the forest and need gas for a 4 cycle engine. Also, it's how I get rid of old mix.

Marko, you don't have any folks near you who work on small engines? I'd check the yellow pages if I didn't know of any.

Gas/oil mix shouldn't hurt it. I do it frequently if I'm out in the forest and need gas for a 4 cycle engine. Also, it's how I get rid of old mix.

Marko, you don't have any folks near you who work on small engines? I'd check the yellow pages if I didn't know of any.

Hey Brian, thanks for the tips - there was a guy who tinkered that lived up the street, his is one of the driveways I've been clearing this winter but he'd been sick with lung cancer and passed a couple of weeks ago - he was a good man, up until last winter he was clearing the driveways of some of the older people on the street and he was over 80!! The limiting factor for me right now is getting some help lifting the blower into the back of the truck. I bet I can rig something with an A frame and some pulleys....

Call a rental place and see if they have a set of ramps; unless you want to buy a set. Or check with the place that will do the work, they might have a loaner set. Or is the lay of the land such that you can back up to something and walk it into the back?

Harbor Freight has a simple set that will do what you want for $60.

https://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsea...ding+ramps

Yesterday the dooryard and driveway was rotten ice and easy to walk on. Today it was a skating rink. I tried to put last years cleats on my new boots, but no way would they fit. So tomorrow I'll try to find some that will fit. Bummer! They are some nice cleats. I won't get rid of them though, they might work on future boots.