Twenty Seven Inches!

Twenty Seven Inches!
Rosie measured Twenty Seven inches, that's a lot of snow compared to what we got for snow the last couple years (excluding Snotober 2011 of course).  

 That's my drivers side mirror you see sticking out of that pile of snow...

 That's a plastic barrel full of sand next to that shovel.

View from the house...

Snow Blowers got to Love 'em
The snow wound down here around noon, the sun came out for a few minutes,  I dug out the buried snow blower, un-tarped it, plugged it in the extension cord and started it, it fired right away imagine that.  I had to shovel a working path just to get it out.  I backed the machine up and tries the thrower mechanism, out came a pile of snow, I turned the machine and headed for the driveway.  Within six feet of blowing snow I knew something was wrong, I was having to push the machine through the snow.  I'm getting older but this is ridiculous, the machine really doesn't want to go.  I let the blades stop and went to the front of the machine, I used my boot to try and move the blades, one was fine the other spun, great, tore a shear pin in the first 6 feet of blowing snow, went back inside got the tools, Rosie found the bag of shear pins right where (they belong) we keep them in the hutch.   Outside again, I tipped the snow thrower back and spun the blade while sticking a Phillips screwdriver into the hole that the shear pin once occupied allowed me find the hole quickly.  I had to go in and retrieve a hammer, the vise grips I had just weren't a good enough hammer to coax the broken pin from the shaft.  I replaced the pin and off I go.  I am having to go over everything twice as 6+ inches of snow are going over the top of the snow blower chute leaving several inches of snow in my wake. 

Walkway down beside the cars, done.
Driveway, done.
Workshop cleared, barn cleared.
Headed back up the hill to finish in front of the Van, crap... hard to push again.

Broke the second shear pin of the day, back into the house to get the shear pins again, luckily I bought a 1/2 dozen last time we needed them.  I backed the machine down the driveway, found the hole and quickly replaced the shear pin.  Off I go up to do the front walkway, then the RPMs start dropping on the motor, that's odd.  I checked the oil before I started, checked again, it was dirty, I hadn't changed it this season, oh well, so I drained and changed the oil in the motor, fired it back up and it ran fine, though this time I noticed that it was only when I started the auger that the motor RPMs slowed down. I limped the machine around the house and parked it, I'll have to see if something got bent or if the Auger needs lubrication.  I don't know, we're done for not except the roof raking later once I warm back up again.

When they are running good there is nothing better, but when they aren't...

Yes sir, we're having fun now...