Snow removal advice for a newbie

[RoyJackson]

This snow is miserable. I had to fight just to get the door to my house open and opening any gates is out of the question. I don't see how you northerners deal with it on a regular basis but then again I bet you wouldn't like our 115 degree days in the summer either. Hard to believe it was 70 degrees here on Christmas day.

You made a smart decision to wait until it's light to hit the roads....be more traffic, but I'd wager most folks are staying home today. Guess you never thought you'd need a block heater on your backhoe, did you?

5 or 6 inches of snow is fun to clear...when it gets much more than that, it's a PITA, especially if you have to shovel it too...but it looks pretty before it gets all dirty and such.

As far as high temperatures...yeah...anything above about 80 is tough on us up north.

 

[jgayman]

Be careful if you do any hand shoveling - it can easily overtax you and lead to a heart attack.

Hand shoveling? Isn't that an Oxymoron?

 

[chim]

Hand shoveling? Isn't that an Oxymoron?

Hand Shovels

 

[suzy]

If they aren't used to snow...make sure all their wells are marked with upright reflectors. I have a couple of tires and tall reflectors on mine. I know where they are but you never know who will pop in while you are out and have a go at plowing you out!

 

[powerscol]

Before you start spray your bucket down with cooking spray or som sort of oil. It will help keep the snow from sticking. Go slow and always have a place to back into and put the snow down wind, so it wound drift back On my concrete drive after going forward with the bucket tip up, I will back drag for the final cleaning to get down to the concrete using the bucket tip down acting as a scraper in reverse. Good luck

 

[Looking4new]

When you roll over the bucket to dump it, rattle it against the stops a couple of times to get ALL the snow out.

 

[mccash40]

Sorry to hear of your snow problems down there in Texas. We are used to it up here in the 'Dacks, but it's still a pain, even with a tractor and FEL doing most of the work. I usually push everything to the road first, then I bucket the piles away from the driveway. I may spring for that BXexpanded plow in the near future.
At least it will eventually melt for you. Good luck.

 

[Looking4new]

When you pile your snow at the road, do it on the side AFTER the driveway. The plow will come from the left as you are facing out and you want the snow on the right in the ditch if any. That way he wont be winging the snow right back into the mouth of your driveway.

 

[RoyJackson]

Haven't had any responses from bdog (the OP) since he first posted...hope everything went OK

 

[bdog]

Thanks guys. It went well. The backhoe was a beast and could push an unbelievable amount but was big and clumsy in tight areas. I did the brunt of the work with it and then used the tracked skid steer for cleanup. I got my place all dry concrete now and the same with my moms driveway. I cleared about 1/4 mile of road by my moms as well.

Along the way I pulled out some stuck people and helped two neighbors who didn't have any type of machinery. My next door neighbor was snowed in bad. Spent about two hours at his place.

It is rather amusing out here in the country we have all the roads clear and the work was done by the residents. I saw wheel loaders, farm tractors, backhoes, skid steers, etc and the county road out front you can run 70 down now but In town is chaos. It has t snowed since Sunday night and they don't even have the main streets cleared off. I went to town today and people still getting stuck everywhere and snow all in the roads. Our city is over 200,000 people and covers 120 square miles and the whole city has two plows.