Snow Removal (Hope: rent, how much, house)

[Maineah]

Snow removal is a personal thing in Maine. There are some who really like doing it and others who loathe the idea. I see old timers out doing their driveway a section at a time with an old coal shovel. It may take him half of the day but he will eventually get the job done. There are those who love the old fashioned snow scoops and skid them up and down the driveway and walks flopping the scoop up on to the bank making a nice neat pile. There are snow blower enthusiasts who seem to relish getting covered in snow as they blow the white stuff 50 feet from the drive way leaving those sculpted square edges. Some snow blowers have a plastic and fabric "tent" attached to them for the folks who would rather not look like Frosty the Snowman afterwards. There are the plow lovers who always seem to have a parking area three times the size of their actual driveway in the winter. They are the ones hauling in loam and reseeding the lawn every spring. Some folks hire plows,some hire the neighborhood kid, some use tractors (me), and some seem to ignore it completely hoping it will just go away on it's own. There are even some of the more-money-than-brains crowd who pipe hot antifreeeze under their landscape tiled driveway to melt the snow and ice in an effort to avoid scratching the $40,000 worth of brickwork. What do you do and why?

[Bydand]

Did, snowblow, but this year I hired somebody to come plow the drive. Next year I am getting a plow for the 3/4 ton Suburban I have. That way I don't get that frosty look you were talking about. After having that look for many years, this year was the one that finally broke the camels back and I am just tired of it. Time to sit down and listen to the radio and have a soda while clearing the drive.

[msina]

We have a "good kid". If it's just a little bit my DH shovels it, a bit at a time. If we have a lot I call the young man, he plows, shovels the walk and salts/sands as needed.

[AustinB]

I get to snowblow and shovel. Got that frosty thing going. The wind always blows from the direction that you are trying to throw to.

There will be a plow or old frontend loader in our future.

[Maineah]

I like the front end loader on the tractor. I can push the snow where I want it or I can move it and pile it where ever I have the room. The tractor is four wheel drive so I don't need chains on it and the hydrostatic transmission makes it as easy as driving the truck. I can back drag in front of the garage doors and float the bucket down the driveway. I can use the downpressure to break up ice if necessary too. I've had to replace some trim around the garage doors a couple of times where I got too close trying to be a hero. The wife was not impressed.

[BacktoNE]

House #1, we had a huge snowblower.

House #2, next door neighbor had always taken care of that driveway for the previous owners and practically begged us to let him continue when we took ownership. Um, okey-dokey. If you insist. (I think he liked getting away from his wife )

This house, there is no place to push snow back so we shovel it all down to the end and then, depending on how much there is, either shovel it onto the front lawn or we have a guy with a blower on-call and he comes over and gets rid of it for us. Of course, we also have to do the city-owned sidewalks here as well. grrrrrrr

[deerislesmile]

I have a friend with a new 4-wheeler with a plow, and he has been more than happy to plow my driveway this winter. And i have been more than happy to let him.

[Bydand]

Originally Posted by deerislesmile

I have a friend with a new 4-wheeler with a plow, and he has been more than happy to plow my driveway this winter. And i have been more than happy to let him.

Friend of mine started off the year with one of those, new this year as well. Just went by his place and he was out in a brand spanking new John Deere with a blower and enclosed cab. I guess the fun wore thin already with the amount of snow we have gotten this winter. LOL

[Submariner]

We have a 6.5 Hp Toro snow-blower. In Ct it was the biggest model that they stock.

It works on dry powdery snow up to 4 inches deep. If the snow gets wet, or icy, or deep then it decides not to play.

When it does not work, sometimes I drive a car up and down the driveway many times. Each time exactly four inches over, so that the entire driveway is compacted down.

This morning the snow was deep enough that each of our cars high-centered on the snow, and the snow was icy.

So today was shovel by hand day.

To finish some of our home construction we really need a back-hoe, or an excavator, or maybe I could cheat and use a dozer. Originally I did rent some equipment, but now with what we are facing I know that I will need to buy something. So we are debating, and looking and trying to decide. Hopefully next winter we will have a peice of equipment that will be capable of moving snow.

[yes I could throw money at a snow-blade, but a snow blade will not move dirt. In the winter I need to move snow, but in the summer I need to move dirt]

[Northern Maine Land Man]

I'll keep an eye open for a used tractor with back hoe for forest beekeeper. I have a 32 horse 4WD Kubota. The back hoe is a Woods 750. It is perfect for my needs. You can dig out a substantial stump with it. You just need to be patient. I have beme somewhat of an expert on stump tenacity by species. Rock maples are the worst. They have a huge root ball and tentacles that reach out to curl around every rock in the ground. No wonder they never blow over.

To move snow I have a 5 foot snow blower. I have some tight areas so a wider one would not be practical. I went with a gear drive because for heavy work like plowing a field with a double bottom plow gears work better than hydrostatic drives. I could fix a geared transmission if I had to. I can't fix a hydrostatic drive.

The lift arm on my Kubota has a bumper sticker that says, "I put snow where it belongs." That can be 50 feet out in the woods.