Even My Snow Blower Is Tired of the Snow

Spring starts this Tuesday but you wouldn't know it by looking outside. Today we were receiving reports of whiteout conditions all throughout Broome County and even into Northeastern Pennsylvania.

This past Wednesday when I got home from work, my wife and I went out to take care of our driveway. We were debating on whether or not to get out the snow blowers (yes plural) so my wife went into the garage and grabbed a shovel. She took one pass in the driveway and looked at me and said; 'yeah we need to get the snow blowers out'. We have two of them because after all of the shoveling the first winter we lived in our house, we decided we would invest in a blower. So we went out and bought a 10 horsepower one in the fall of 2003. A few years later, bought a smaller snowblower (5 horsepower) to leave at her mother's house in Johnson City so we could go up there and take care of her driveway and sidewalk. After her mother passed away in 2011, we brought that snowblower to our house as well.

So my wife fired up the smaller one and I fired up the big 10 horsepower beast. Our driveway is pretty wide and long. My wife took the smaller snowblower down towards the road and I was doing the back part of our driveway.

After making five passes or so, I looked back to see how she was doing and then I started hearing this loud noise and I can feel the snow blower shaking. I looked down to see the plastic cover that protects you from sticking your hand into the pulleys go flying across the driveway. The belt had snapped and parts of the belt started flying all over as well. I shut the snow blower off and pushed it back into the garage where it will wait for my friend Dave to look at it, and hopefully fix it.

I ended up finishing up with the shovel while my wife was still going with the smaller snowblower. We usually make our way up and down our street and make sure all of our neighbor's driveways and sidewalks are clear. But, with only one snow blower running, we didn't get to help everyone we usually help.

I looked ahead and saw snow in the forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. If we get any snow, I hope it's not enough to get the snow blowers out, unless of course, I can get my other snow blower fixed by then. Is it just me or are you sick of all the snow too?