When we get to this ripe old age of 87, we feels as though there are things that have been learned that we can pass on to the young. Things that may – perhaps – help those younger than we forego some of the trials and tribulations we have experienced.
If you have the good fortune to purchase a house and, if it is a house and not an apartment (I know nothing about apartment living), and IF the house is located in a place where snow will fall on the house – DO NOT, under any circumstances, purchase a house that faces north!
I live in a house, built in the 1950s, in a subdivision (we called them that, years ago), where the houses facing the streets are facing either east or west. Except mine! No! Mine faces north.
What that means is, snow accumulates on the driveway, the sidewalk, the porch, and the roof.
The roof isn’t so much trouble, although I must admit that I have a low voltage cable attached to the front of the roof because when the snow is on the roof, something needs to encourage that part of the snow to melt. What I find is that, if the snow does not melt from there, an ice dam builds up, damaging the roof – and, you know what it costs to replace a roof!
The driveway and the sidewalk need to be cleared – we have a city ordinance that requires the snow be removed from the sidewalk by six hours after the snow has stopped falling. While I agree that this ordinance is necessary, I’d like to get a little help from the sun. Where I live in Colorado, after the snowfall, the sun usually shows itself and helps to do the job. For everybody, except me!
I look across the street at the house built at the same time mine was built and see … no snow! No snow on the sidewalk. No snow on the driveway – another part of my land that will need to be cleared; falling on a snowy / icy driveway is not fun. After the snow is cleared (and, it never ever gets completely cleared), ice melt needs to be put onto the surface of the driveway and all of the sidewalks.
Daughter #1 has the same situation with the house she inherited from her grandparents. She also looks across the street at the south-facing houses – no snow on their sidewalks and driveways, either.
Living in a house with someone who knows how to repair things, we accumulated tools, machines, and gadgets. Important in snow country is the snowblower. When Larry was living, he knew how to use all of those tools, machines, and gadgets – including the snowblower. His was a gasoline-powered snowblower (as was his lawn mower used when the grass was green and growing). The snowblower was hefty enough to take care of the inches of snow that we sometimes received.
I am not fond of having a can of gasoline in my garage to power both of these machines. Neither did I ever learn to operate the snowblower. Larry and I always had an unspoken agreement. The outside of the house was his – the inside was mine. As he aged into his late 70s, that snowblower was almost too much for him to handle – I could never have done it.
When it became my responsibility to take care of the snow and shoveling was definitely not in my future, I spent money on an electric snowblower – an EGO brand. To be sure that I had enough batteries to power the thing, I bought extra. I did not want to get part of the way through the job and run out of power.
Came the time when the snow needed to be removed from the driveway and sidewalks and I went out, dressed for the weather, opened the garage, and moved the EGO out to the driveway. Again, no one had shown me how to operate the machine. But, I figured, I’m intelligent and (at that time) strong – I could figure out how to make it work.
As I was looking over the machine to see how to start it, my cell phone rang. Keith, my neighbor across the street (with no snow), asked me what I thought I was doing! I explained that I had to clear the snow. His response was quick and directive – “Go in the house. I’ll be over in a little bit.”
Keith used my EGO to clear my driveway and sidewalk snow, as well as the sidewalk snow from the properties on either side of my house – by the way, their houses face east and west, but being corner houses, they had snow on the sidewalks on the north sides of their houses.
During the winters since that first time, Keith has kept the snow at bay for me – and for other neighbors. He tells me that the EGO snowblower is very powerful and clears even deep snow with ease.
My house has grass living between the front of the building and porch and the sidewalk. After the first snowfall, the snow stays, piling up all winter long, and does not clear until spring time. The snow that fell on my grass, this year (and, that’s another story) stayed under the pfitzers and other vegetation. We had a late spring, very wet snowfall, so snow stayed on my front grass through the first part of May.
There was a time when tires had to be changed from “regular” tires to “snow” tires. With that process, the tires that were not in use had to be stored – wherever there was room for them. That has not been the case with my car’s tires for years. I am now driving all season tires that work well in summer and winter.
Having said all of this, there is no guarantee that ANYONE will listen to ANYTHING that we’ve said and take it to heart. We can only do our best to help the young, if they are willing.
Be Safe and Be Well.
The Cranky Crone
Thoughtful comments are always appreciated.
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