Tag: shoveling

A Dollar in the Dryer and It Ain’t Dry Yet – Ice Shoveling Version

I took a couple of days off from snow and ice clearing, mostly because I was seriously sore. Yesterday my wife had trouble getting her car in the driveway; apparently someone (yours truly) had left the gap in the snow at the end of the driveway a tad two narrow for her Outback.

Today, the cleaning service came to our house so my wife and I went to a diner for breakfast. Afterwards we headed to the rec center to lift weights. Neither the rec center not the library was open so we found a parking lot and played on the phone (me) and napped (she).

At noon we headed back to the rec center to use the weight machines. I found the weight surprisingly easy to move despite, or maybe because of, my shoveling work out.

After our weight routine we headed back home. I went outside to widen the driveway gap using the garden spade that I repaired last night. The snow and ice lasagna (a term I saw online) first had to be separated from the pavement. It came up in slabs and chunks. I had to chop up the big pieces into throwable smaller chunks. After about two hours my back was aching and I quit. I opened the gap and freed up most of the back half of my ice bound Accord.

After lunch and nap, I went into the basement to ride Big Nellie for an hour. Recumbent riding always seems to set my back right, and today was no exception to the rule.

Tomorrow I go back out to try to liberate the Accord again. I need to get this done by Saturday before the next snow storm comes. Then I can spent Sunday, re-liberating my car so I can get to a doctor’s appointment on Monday.

We’re having fun now.

Back Out, Day 10: A Wovely Day

It snowed last night. At daybreak we had about 6 inches of snow on the ground. The bottom inch was very wet so this was particularly heavy stuff. As readers of this blog know, I’ve been having back spasms for about ten days now. I was little worried that my back would not be up to clearing all the snow. So I bought a Wovel.

Today, I put my contraption to the test.

Madman with Wovel
Madman with Wovel

Damned if it didn’t work like a charm. 

It took a while to get used to, but after about 15 minutes I was shoveling like a maniac. Of course, I looked a bit like a maniac but if I gave a damn about appearances I wouldn’t ride a recumbent bike. The important thing is shoveling with my Wovel didn’t hurt my back at all. My triceps and legs got a bit of a work out though.

Mrs. Rootchopper used a conventional shovel to clear the steps in front of the house and remove snow from around the perimeter of the cars. A neighbor came by and cleared a path on the sidewalk across the street with a small snow plow. I cleared the sidewalk on my side of the street with the Wovel. It probably takes twice as long to clear snow with a Wovel than my neighbor’s snow plow. (My Wovel is quieter and  won’t run out of gas.) It’s at least twice as fast as using a conventional snow shovel.

I’ll have to go back out later today and have another go when the second wave of snow comes through, but I am actually kind of looking forward to it.

Wovel on!

Here are some more pix.