After a week of weather pushing 50°F, a nice dip in temperature dumped a half foot of snow on our neighborhood.

Yesterday, I pushed some of the snow from parts of the driveway partway through the storm, just to reduce the snow the Jeeps would drag into the garage. It snowed from mid-morning until the wee hours late at night. That partway cleaning was wet, sticky snow, atop a layer of slick ice as it had been raining before the temperature dropped enough to make snow. Traffic was abysmal in the evening, and when we finished our driving around (which included a 60-minute drive to fetch the kiddo from after school stuff, just four miles away!) we stayed in for the duration.

This morning, after the storm finished, I pulled the new snowblower out to give it a go. I pushed just enough from the garage door to start the snowblower on the flat part instead of that inconveniently narrow angled bit. It dug right in and started chucking snow across the alley. It was thick, heavy snow, so I let it chew slowly. It was heavy enough that it didn't toss all the snow across the alley, so for much of the drive I just blew the snow ahead of the blower, re-throwing it as I drew closer to the end of the lane. It made a short bit of work, maybe a half-dozen passes, of my 10x40 concrete apron.

I set out to do the front walk, as I do. I let the snowblower drive along inside one of the ruts that vehicles had left until we reached the sidewalk. Another neighbor with anther large snowblower had already started, and was almost halfway down the block. I took the next bit over, sharing the labor, and met him about 3/4 of the way down, as he had turned around. I turned around and joked the only thing these beasts are bad it is turning around. He agreed and commented "still, it's a good day for a snowblower," and pushed his blower, powered off, behind me as I returned and did the half-lane left on the sidewalk.

I tucked off in the bit of sidewalk before my front steps, and he passed by making a comment about needing more gas. I finished my bits and continued back to the alley, pulling off and getting the walks between the sidewalk and other homes along the way. I reached the sidewalk and thought to get rid of the bit of berm in the middle, so I let my snowblower grind into that for a bit, but then it choked and stopped throwing snow, so I let it power back to the garage.

In the driveway again, I turned off the snowblower and tried to dig out the clog from the chute and the back of the intake. The augers are tricky to get past, but I managed to clear enough of it that it started chucking a little snow again before I brushed the snow off and put it away.

It worked much better than last time. I think the light, wispy snow during my first attempt was really not what this blower likes to toss. The deeper, heavy, wet snow this time was not tossed as far, but was tossed quite furiously. I was a touch concerned as it left a little more snow behind than my counterpart's blower did, but just noticeably, not significantly. That little layer melted off quickly and early enough for the sidewalk and driveway to dry before dusk.

I did use up almost all the juice in the single battery I have, and I didn't make it all the way to the end of the block. I imagine it wouldn't have been enough had I needed to do two full lanes, and some bits of a leftover. I still cringe at the $300 for a second battery, and another $125 or more for another charger, although I can charge in shifts, so that one is much more optional.

I do need to get a little better weather and time in the garage to shuffle a few things around. I've "touched" the snowblower with my Jeep too many times when I park. If I move a couple bags of soil and my old snowblower, I can tuck the big one in the spot right against the wall and gain two more feet to pull the Jeep in without risking contact. Plus I offered the old one to my oldest to help with his driveway. I bet he could have used it yesterday, because they don't live far enough away to have gotten much less snow.