As I mentioned in my last post, my Wovel snow shovel died while I was working to clear snow and ice. A few hours later, as the sleet kept coming down, my wife went out for round two. She managed okay but the plastic pan of the snow shovel she was using started to crack.
Today I went out to deal with about one inch of ice on the walkway to our front door and in the driveway. I used a garden spade to chop the ice one foot at a time. First, I’d chop across the walkway creating a one foot wide swath. Then I’d chop into the swath 90 degrees from the first cut to make squares I could easily remove.
I thought this was going to take an hour at most but after an hour I managed only to make it to the driveway. I kept hacking away using the same method until I noticed that the nail that held the handle to the wooden shaft of the spade had fallen out. I spotted it on the driveway and went into the basement to find a replacement. I found two slightly longer nails and put one on each side of the handle.
Back outside everything was going great. I had my wife’s car dug out when I noticed that both nails had fallen out. I search everywhere but came to the conclusion that they must have been cast onto the lawn. Ugh. The spade was useful as long as I didn’t pull up on the handle. So I continued scraping and cutting away and found that now the rest of the driveway was easier to clear, probably because of the sun’s rays. I had about 15 yards of pavement until I reached the cleared lane in the street. The ice was starting to come up in big heavy slabs. I loosened the ice with the spade then used our one remaining snow shovel to clear it away. After three hours I broke through the plowman’s barrier in the street. My shoveling form had gone to hell but I kept slogging away. My lower back was now very unhappy but I was nearly done.
After making a clear path for my wife’s car I quit. My car was parked at the curb. I had freed it yesterday but it was now encased in ice and plowed snow. Freeing it will have to wait until later in the week when hopefully the temperature rises above freezing and my arms and back recover.
The weatherman is talking about more snow Saturday night into Sunday morning. Ugh.
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 