Well, as you might have heard, it snowed a LOT yesterday … and we did not escape any of it.

I left for work at around 7am and it took me around 45 minutes to go 3 miles, so I decided to bag it and work from home (luckily that’s relatively easy for me).

Since the company holiday part was that day, I still had to leave later in the afternoon. So around 3pm I figured I would have to clear the driveway. Unfortunately, the village snow plows had come by a few times and piled a huge amount of snow on the apron of the drive way, so it was about 2 feet high.

Our little 3hp Toro snow blower was not up to the task … I had to pull out the shovel and move a bunch of it by hand. It took me an hour to clear the driveway enough to get the car out.

At that moment, I decided we need a new snow removal device. I figure a two stage snow thrower would be good. Preferably with an electric start and powered wheels.

I went over to Lowes, which had zero snow throwers or blowers, and Home Depot, which only had a single blower model left. So I drove down the street a bit to Sears. They had a few, but not many. I asked about a particular model and was told they should be getting more in this afternoon. I figured better get one now, rather than wait for another snow.

I got a Craftsman 5.5hp, 4 stroke (no gas / oil mix), two stage (grinder + thrower), electric start (no throwing my back out), snow thrower. A lot bigger than the one we have, but not too big I think. The major issue we’re going to have is where we’re going to put it. I don’t think it will fit in the garage, with both cars. We’ll probably have to store it on the front porch, chained to the post. Next spring we’ll have a shed installed.

There were a bunch of people looking at the snow removal equipment … and they were taking a lot of orders. I sure hope they go in order of purchase when allocating the merchandise they receive today … because I have the first order. The guy right behind me ordered the same one. I suspect they won’t last long.

And, since we made this purchase, we’ve just about guaranteed that there will be no more snow this year and next year will be almost snowless.

Update Sunday @ 4pm — picked up the snow thrower … turns out Sears didn’t get their truck in until 10pm Saturday evening, so I wouldn’t have been able to pick it up until today anyways. Got it home and assembled (pretty easy). It started super easily … which I like. Didn’t even need to use the electric starter. I need to make a few adjustments to it, but nothing major. Storage is still going to be a problem, but we can keep it in the garage. Might have to move the cars a bit to get it out though.

I cleared the sidewalk to make sure everything works the way it’s supposed to. No problems.

As a bonus, my sister in law Debbie has a friend who is looking for a snow blower … so we can get rid of the old one.
[tags]snow, sears, snow thrower, craftsman, weather[/tags]