We had waited until the cold weather was over before clearing the drive yesterday. One neighbor even called to make sure we were ok but since we are retired I am in no hurry to get out. Yesterday the wind died down and the temp got up to 10 so I cleared the drive. A neighbor who has a plow on his pickup and has a drive that drops off on one side and has trees and power poles on the other asked if I could blow snow over the the bank since he was running out of room to push it. I smiled. This morning I blew snow over the bank for him, went to my sisters to blow the snow from her mailbox and was having so much fun decided to clear her neighbor's mailbox. He also has a pickup with plow and had plowed my sisters drive Tuesday when I refused to get out due to the cold. He lives on a corner and the county had plowed snow from two directions so while the box was kind of sorta open for a carrier with long arms I thought it would be nice to open it up a bit. 15 minutes of big plumes of snow did it. This afternoon the temp shot up to 18 so I decided to clear my wife's bird feeders. Another 45 minutes of fun. As I went to put the blower away I went to push back the bank beside the door and ran in a short 2x2. Instead of a $3.35 shear pin breaking a $42.87 (plus tax) belt broke.
The biggest reason I like a blower and not a blade can be seen above.I can cut snow that deep, that was wind driven and packed, the entire width of the blower, 42 inches, in one pass and it is 15 to 20 feet away and can lay until spring. Of course with a blade nothing except maybe the 2x2 would have broke. I got the belt and may put it on tomorrow. Starting to snow. Maybe more fun tomorrow. Vern 
