Rethinking Lifestyle

As the snow starts to melt, and I’m thinking about hanging up the shovel, I was musing over whether it would have been worthwhile having a snowblower to clear our drive.

We have a 60 foot long drive, and we have shovelled it many times this winter. After the last blizzard 2 weeks ago, it took the two of us an hour to clear the drive.

However, I think there are many advantages to the shovel such as:

• Shovelling can be a family affair – we do it together, and our neighbours kids did theirs with their Dad;
• It entertains the dog, who thinks anything on a stick is a threat to be growled at and rushed at;
• It’s quiet – just the sound of the shovel on the snow, our footsteps and the odd huff and puff;
• It doesn’t need any gas;
• It doesn’t have parts to go wrong;
• It doesn’t take up too much space in the garage.

Of course, it does take less time to clear the drive with a snowblower – our neighbour cleared his in the same time it took the two of us to do ours, and you probably get a more thorough job done – or at least neater edges. But it is very noisy, takes gas, and when it goes wrong your expensive toy is even more useless than a shovel.

Then there’s the really big toys – the snowblower attachments for ATV’s and tractors. Well I can see the point of those if you live on a rural property and have a long drive to clear, or if you are clearing the drives of your neighbours. We watched as a tractor blew the the snow from our neighbours drive in less than 5 minutes – very efficient, and they could then get in their car to drive to the gym!

But do we need to rush? When the last big snowfall hit, it was 2 days before the road was ploughed and trucks were getting stuck. The roads were in no condition to go anywhere, so why did we need to hurry to clear our drives? Fact is, we didn’t and when you have to stay home for a snow day it’s quite nice to get outside for a bit of physical exercise when the sun comes out. Shovelling is a good work out for the legs, abdomen, back and arms, and depending on how hard you work gives you an aerobic workout too. And when we had done, we felt we had earned that cup of hot chocolate and piece of cake.

I have no intention of buying a gas-guzzling, CO2 emitting, snow-blower. I’ll stick with my trusty shovel. And if a big storm hits, then I might call in my neighbour’s tractor to help.