Snowthrowing

I think we got about two and a half feet of snow total during the last day and a half, and it's thick, heavy snow. Yesterday morning we opened the garage door to drive to work to be greeted by almost two feet in the driveway, not plowed out. Instead of going in and waiting for the plow, I fired up the snowthrower (after a few tries -- last time I forgot the on switch, this time I forgot the ignition plug). First time I ever did a whole driveway. Took about 15 minutes -- not bad at all, though by time it was done, I was chilled and sore and my hands were shaking from the vibration. Still, a very impressive run, cutting a swath through snow that deep.

We got home quite late but I went right back out to try to cut a path to the shed so I could pull snow off the roof, and I barely got it all done before it was too dark to proceed even with the outside lights on. The snow that came down from the shed roof was too heavy and dense for the snowthrower to move; I could only cut the pile down about halfway. I also carved a path to the propane tank, but it was far too dark to try working on the path around Socks's yard.

This left me soaked, chilled so bad my body was noticeably (and uncontrollably) shaking, and exhausted. Unfortunately, I barely got warm and dry before I had to go back out for a second round with a shovel trying to clear satellite dishes -- in vain, as it happens.

As exhausted as I was afterwards, the idea of doing that without a snowthrower is insane. I could have spent two hours shoveling out the driveway and not been done, but been too exhausted to keep going, and too sore to do anything else for the next few days. And the work I did in the evening wouldn't've been any better. Snowthrowers are amazing things.