Lawn Mowing for Dummies, Pt. 2
Well, that's Colorado weather for you- the minute you pull out the lawn mower and set up the patio, you get 20" of snow! Sounds like a massive requirement change to me!
My muse spoke to me loud and clear about 'getting started', and not being able to see the end, all whilst clearing away the snow. To give you context, my driveway is about 90' long, and 30' wide. This is a perfect recipe for a snowblower, right? Wrong. Not too many snowblowers will throw the snow 15', and thus, you just make more and more work for yourself.
About 10 years ago, I stumbled onto a great tool- the "snow pusher". It's just a shovel with an inverted "U" for a handle, and a blade that is 36" wide. There is an art to using it, and once mastered- will save your back!
Okay then- getting to it. At 4" of accumulation, we decided it was time to push. Not knowing how much snow we would get- this is a great tactic. It's a horizontal slice of the job, and there is a big difference between pushing 2", pushing 4", and pushing 6". We also took vertical slices of the job by one shoveler taking on the walkway and the edges, in order to keep the wide swaths moving. (This is similar to painting a room- one person tapes and edges while the other rolls). It took about an hour to clear.
The second iteration was much easier because we knew the effort it took, as well as the bonus 1" of melt, due to the driveway's heat retention from the warmer day, the day prior. The next 3 iterations also had that bonus melt, and was significantly easier- we sent the kids out at 2". Yes, we found work that was slightly easier, but achievable for other members of our team.
Other "teams" opted to wait it out and had to tackle the 18-20" in one shot. Not an enviable position- though, they did have a complete picture of the job. They also were attacking with 'conventional' shovels. So which is more important? Getting started sooner with horizontal and vertical slices, or waiting for a complete understanding of the job ahead?
I know I shouldn't ask rhetorical questions...
In the end, everyone's driveways were cleared, some sooner than others, and everyone's backs were sore, some sorer than others.
Experienced QA Professional
8 年Kevin - very interesting perspective. Even though I do have a snowblower and 20' across for a driveway we still came out every few hours about 3" or 4" at a time to clear everything which I think made it easier even though you are doing it more often. During the blizzard with 24" of snow i did it twice but the work seemed more rigorous and took longer in my opinion. So, I now opt to do it more often as Saturday was a busy day but Sunday we were able to rest. Basically, this translates to how do you want to tackle the work overall.