The Newest Member of the Family :)

The weekend was blustery, blizzardy, cozy and fun. I've kept up with the shoveling, but we've received SO much snow already I've reached what's called "bank limitations" where the snow is built so high it's hard to throw more up and over the bank. This effort is exhausting even with a couple inches of snow.

Yesterday after extrapolating how much snow we'll get (my guess is well over 200"), I succumbed to logic, efficiency and safety and bought a snow blower. It cuts through the snow like butter! I was able to snow blow 6" of snow from my 200' driveway in 15 minutes...a task which previously was taking me 2 hours!

Obviously the snow blower I had a couple years ago was no match for the Northern Michican snow, because I ended up selling it after one winter because I could shovel 8" of snow as quickly. THIS new snowblower (Craftsman Pro 357cc/13 HP, 30") is AWESOME!! It even has heated handles, which is a great feature in snowblowers so your hands don't get cold at all.

Another fabulous feature is "power steering", a welcomed option for this 245 pound titan. Power steering you may be asking...how does power steering work on a snow blower? I'm SO glad you asked :) each of the two drive wheels has a "brake" on it that can be controlled at the handles. If you want to turn right, apply the break to the right wheel and depending on how much you brake determines how quickly you can turn it. If you apply the brake hard and all the way, you can pivot back around 180 degrees into the opposite direction! How cool is that?

So far this snow blower is surpassing my expectations, from easy start (firing on the 2nd pull of the recoil), to 30" path which makes clearing the driveway a breeze! Now that I have more time, I can enjoy the snow :)