6 more inches and counting

I went out early this morning and shoveled the additional 6 inches of snow that fell last night. It was still fluffy at that point, and I wanted to get to it before the changeover to sleet and rain. It is getting harder and harder to shovel now, as the piles on either side of the driveway are getting about as high as I can throw. I am now regretting that I didn't look into getting a snow blower at the start of the season. (I assume it's too late now, since everyone will be having the same idea.) I have some concerns about how well a snow blower will work for me, since I have such limited room to throw the snow, plus very limited space for storage in my garage, but I really have to at least give it a try.

Once again, the plows are slow to come, so I haven't yet tackled the plow pile, which will be huge since they will push all the snow that I shoveled the other day back into my driveway. Not to mention the two more inches of snow that came down since I shoveled two hours ago. I have no idea whether I'll be able to get to Alex's to watch the football game today.

My back has held up pretty well until now, but I think it's starting to protest...

Comments

[Geri Sullivan]

Yep and yep. Six more inches here, too. No big, strong husbands in sight.

I already did the Minnesota shoveling trick on two different piles that were too tall to throw any more snow on. I think of it as "topping the pile" (as in tree topping). It involves raising the shovel to shoulder height and pushing the snow to the far side of the pile. Then doing it again and again and again, lowering the height of the pile by another inch or two on each pass. Go too deep and the shovel gets stuck. A little on each pass does the trick.

At least I didn't have to climb up into the piles to level them. Yet.

Pooped now. I should have had your smarts and divided the shoveling into two sessions. Or at least stopped two-thirds the way through, when I recognized I'd run out of oomph.