We got enough snow to justify a couple of brooming sessions, but not enough to justify hooking up the snow blower. Unlike many parts of New England, and Eastern Long Island, where my step-brother and his wife live.
The snow came in two bouts. Late Sunday night into Monday, then again Monday night into Tuesday morning. Total of about 4 inches.
I convinced my step-brother and his wife to come down because Eastern Long Island was expected to get hit hard, and there was a significant risk that they might lose power and heat. That has happened before, and it has not been fun for them.
So, they came down on Monday afternnon to ride out the storm here.
My first sweeping session was on Monday afternoon, before they arrived. After I finished, I met them at a shopping mall about 15 minutes South of here.... after dropping some stuff (waste motor oil and antifreeze, cardboard, and plastic bottles) off at the County Recycling Center.
I used my mother-in-law's mother's Honda Accord (front wheel drive, with snow tires) to make the trip.
By the time that we got back to the house, a glaze had set in on the S-curve hill, with about an inch of snow on top of that. I was able to climb the hill in the Honda without any problem, but my step-brother's and step-sister-in-law's 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid got stuck on the hill.
I warmed up the Ventrac and rode down to see if sweeping above and below where the Camry was stuck would enable the Camry to climb the hill. No. dice The glaze was a problem. A couple of times, as I was sweeping, I experienced a slight bit of sliding down the hill. This happened as I tried to cross the driveway
laterally to get in position to broom as close to the car as I could, in front and then in back. I had no problem climbing or descending the hill once I straightened
out.
We then put three 50-lb bags of ice melt on the S-curve using my walk-behind Agri-Fab broadcast spreader. Two of the bags were regular rock salt. The third was a more sophisticated ice-melting compound. The rock salt and the ice-melting compound provided sufficient melting and sufficient grit that the Camry was able to
climb the hill within a few minutes after we applied it.
Normally, I would not be trying to make lateral passes across the width of the S-curve hill. Rather, I would be going down, or going up.
My tentative conclusion from this experience is that I may well be able to do what needs to be done without chains. I think that the Ventrac itself would be able to climb or descend the hill with no sliding at all, , even under the worst conditions, with -- if need be -- the prior application of grit or melting compound or a mixture of both.
I swept our elderly neighbors' driveway twice... the first time at 9 P.M. Monday evening ,after getting the Camry up the hill, and having dinner, and then again Tuesday morning.
My step-brother and sister-in-law left several hours ago to go back home. There will be 21 inches of snow on their driveway.
Before they left, they each took a spin on The Machine.
They loved it.
