We get our share of snow in Southern Michigan. My business, the Munro House Bed and Breakfast, is located on a corner lot. I have a lot of sidewalk to clear, along with a parking lot for 9 vehicles.
It generally starts to snow around Thanksgiving and we have ground cover until St Patrick’s Day. Most of our snowfall comes in 1-2 inch increments. We may get a handful of days with 5 inches or more. When Valentine’s Day comes, it is almost a sure thing that the worst of winter snowfall is behind us–until this year.
A week after Valentine’s Day, I woke up to 8 inches of snow with more still falling. I have a little Toro snowblower, a standard snow shovel, a push shovel, and a scoop. Each has its purpose and works best under varying conditions.
I use the Toro when we get 2-5 inches. It easily blows the sidewalks and is adequate for my parking lot–but it takes a while. The standard shovel is just too much work. It is fine for digging a path from the sidewalk to the street, but involves too much lifting when doing an entire sidewalk or driveway. My favorite is the push shovel. It was designed to have no lifting involved. Just push the snow out of the way. When there is a larger accumulation of snow, the scoop is the right tool for the job. All you need is a place to dump it, because it collects too much to lift.
We ended up with 10 inches of real heavy snow. The temperature was in the high 20’s, so the snow was very wet. The village snowplows had already filled the apron of my parking lot to the point that I knew it was too much for me and my primitive tools. I had 3 vehicles to remove. I got them out, but it was a lot of work. I called my buddy with a plow on his truck to come over. He scraped it clean in about 5 minutes. I used the Toro on my sidewalks and had a clean property by the time the snow stopped in the early afternoon.
The day is coming when I will have a very powerful 2 stage snow thrower. I want one with 10 horsepower or more. Any less than that, and I will still need to call my buddy with the snowplow to clear my lot after a heavy snow. Very often, I need to throw snow 25 feet or more. The smaller horsepower machines just don’t have the throwing power.
Mike Venturini – Innkeeper
“Life is good in Jonesville”