Alberta, what a wonderful province, gotta love the unreliable weather patterns that we have to deal with from day to day. One day it's plus five, and the next it's minus twenty five, then you have to factor in the wind, rain, sun, and snow issue. Last year I recall it barely snowing at all, with some mostly mild temperatures. This year, however, It has gone up and down over and over.
Right now we are in the midst of a cold spell, a balmy minus 30-35, with some epic snowfall mixed in. Along with this snow comes my eventual need to shovel and move snow from the driveway. I don't live in a cul-de-sac or near anyone, I love my acreage live but I hate pushing snow, and my driveway is a long circular tear drop shaped monster.
If you have owned an acreage and had to move snow before there is a rule of thumb that you always have to be aware of. When moving snow for the first time at the beginning of the season, you have to push it out further than you normally would need to. The reason for this is that the snow you have moved into piles will melt a bit and then harden afterwards, making them much more difficult to move in the future. When the snow flies for a second time you would push that snow against the first pile, losing some space in the process.
If you hadn't planned for a lot of snow and moved your first pile way out at the beginning of the year, you might be in some trouble if you have had a lot of snow. Which is what I am faced with currently. I use a quad with a snow blade to clear my driveway of snow, and I did follow the rule of thumb at the beginning of the year, but it seems that I did not account for the immense dump of snow we have been getting and my driveway is getting dangerously narrow.
I cannot push the snow any further out to make it wider because the snow underneath and behind it is frozen and won't budge. Get a tractor you say? Funny, I do have a tractor, with a bucket, but it is tiny, and not all that heavy. I decided one year that I was going to use the tractor to move the snow and all I got to do was spin my tires, it literally pushed snow until the bucket was full and then stopped moving, the weight of the snow in the bucket and the ice on the ground stopped me dead in my tracks and I sat there spinning (and cursing).
And then it dawned on me, there was something I was going to need if I were to get this done before I froze to death...A Bigger Tractor.
Scott Goerz
