Snow Removal Options!

Whenever possible I like to go high-tech:

Solar. It's clean, free, and effective above 32⁰ F.

The owner at a company where I had work, was really happy and he just had to tell me...... He said he got an extra $5,000.00 tax rebate. From putting in solar sidewalk heaters on his front yard

What's that--Solyndra Lite? (Some tax rebate programs may be reasonable, but not that one.)

This was in the early to mid 90's.

This guy was unbelievable, he always fell into crap like that....... he wasn't even expecting a rebate for this.

Back in the late 90's he built his house, with an indoor pool. But back in the 70's, his family (him included) had a cheese company. Until the FBI shut it down because of the ties with the Gambino Family in New York.

that would be illegal, unless it was waste heat, which would be summer, and hence, no snow. You should turn him in.

Thanks,

I don't know if it was illegal or how things are done............

initially he did not expect it, but got it anyways.

But frankly, I haven't worked there for 14 years........ and earlier this summer I got a call from an private investigator, that asked about this family's business on a different matter.

I gave this P.I. just enough information to let her know, that if she or the attorney she works for want to pursue these people, they are going to get into more that they bargained for.

But that's another story.

Frankly, myself I don't want anything to do with these people.

I believe their motto is "Do unto others,.......... before they do it to you!"

We have about 7 "kids" on our street and good luck trying to get them away from their x-boxes! I offered $20.00/hr to do our driveway/walkway and deck...not a one of them were interested!

We are doomed. :(

There is a lesson there, but I don't think most can recognize it.

Looks like you are not offering enough. In NY the going rate is $50 (hmmm... the same price as a video game) per driveway and they only do the first 15-20 ft of it and a car's width only. I remember I used to do it because I was "asked" to by dad.

asked?........

wow, I was told. Especially when I didn't take the initiative myself.....

Please note the use of quotation marks. But out of politeness all "requests" were usually phrased "how would you like to help your old man and..." Only once I responded honestly.

Oh, I remember how I used to beat my old man when we would race........ I thought I was pretty quick.

Was I surprised when I was running away from him when I did something wrong how fast he really was.

For $50 I'll shovel the driveway!! Shoot, that's good money. Tax-free too. Gov. Owe'Malley, I didn't just say that, never mind.

Years ago I lived in Grand Forks ND and I would go out and snow blow every sidewalk and driveway on my short block just to get away from the girl I lived with for a few hours.

Now I do Dads place, my brothers place, my neighbors place, my place, plus an occasional trip up and down the county road a mile or two with the tractors to get away from my wife for a few hours.

I'm sensing a pattern here.

FAIL.

You are doing this the hard way. You should send her out there to do the shoveling. :-)

I actually enjoy the workout I get from shoveling. I don't believe in gym memberships when I have a garden/snow/firewood/raking workout at no cost right in my yard. I do the widow's driveway and walk next door as well. Then when I get bored, I start on the street in front of the house to make it easier to get in and out of the driveway. We live on a cul-de-sac in a development and we always seem to be last to get any plowing or treatment because our street is not a school bus route.

Here in Maryland, we don't get much snow anyways so I don't get sick of doing it. When I lived in Taxachusetts with a big driveway, we had a venerable 1962 Snobird. My dad is still using it up in New Hampshire.

I don't like to use chemicals where the dogs have access.

This works for me!

this works.....

if too much snow than this.....

Why worry, just do it the easy automatic way.....

http://www.allwarm.com/driveway-heat.htm

White Pass & Yukon Railway, Skagway Alaska to Whitehorse Yukon. Built in1897-98.

In Use 1940's

In use a few years ago..

They don't build em like that anymore....

Amtrak could have used that in Chicago.

Melter spray? Totally useless. Why even bother with two inches of snow? We'd just drive or walk over that.

Driveway heater? Great, as long as you don't have power outages just when it snows. Especially when it snows a LOT. And if you do have power when it snows a LOT, what happens to all the water? I think my driveway would be a rink, after the poor little heater died from overwork.

Kids with shovels? Don't see them here anymore either. But you might find a kid with a snowblower. Or a man with a plow. Either way, it won't be cheap.

Yes it's true... I shovel my own. Fifty foot lane and a turnaround. The more it snows, the stronger I get. At least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I found a leaf blower works really well on the light fluffy stuff. I got everyone in our neighborhood doing it. In Florida we used leaf blowers for everything why not snow removal.

I have used everything, snow plow, snow blower, snow shovel. In the end I have found that if you wait long enough it will go away by itself. But then, who knows when the next ice age will begin.

I am a personal fan of using our old Massey Ferguson 2745 tractor with our 8 foot wide two stage snow blower.

140 PTO HP and a heated cab makes moving snow rather enjoyable.

To turn the urge to move snow from enjoyable to real fun, try this....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81y9XSQ9Ru0

Move somewhere it doesn't snow. Like Phoenix AZ. Average temp 70 F.

Yeah, but then you have to remove the border jumpers. And THEY bite, I hear!

Your right we do have a lot of problems with snowbirds from Canada

Hyuk! Wrong group.

Not really having problems with Korean snowbirds we have started seeing Chines snowbirds by the Grand Canyon though. Only thing I've been bitten by around here is by some jumping cholla.

I give up. Korea isn't South of yo. But you'd surely know that already.B

Hyuk is slang for LOL in Korean. As you should know. Plus you never gave a direction. Plus plus the population of Mexico aren't vampires or cannibals at least that I've seen, so not sure why they would bite anyone???? If you don't believe me you can ask Lyn he's lived here longer than me.

Didn't know about Hyuk and Korean. I knew Hyuk as Goofy's laugh. But maybe that's where Disney got it? Or vice versa?

And it's been so far back that I wrote that stupid comment (Oh, WHY didn't I self-edit?) that I can't remember why they (or whomever) should bite, anyway.

So, my apologies to ALL for wasting this space and time, and to you, Bakerjohn, for involving you in my foolishness (hopefully only momentary, and a singular occurrence) and I'm out of here.

No problem on my part and it wasn't a waste just goofing around with you. A little reprev from my crazy day. I didn't know what hyuk was until I looked it up on wiki. I should have picked up on the goofy reference. Thanks

If you are overweight, shovel it. If you aren't, empower a younger generation with a sense of accomplishment with a job well rewarded, and if every kid on your street won't help, then perhaps there is someone on your street who is out of work who could use a few extra dollars.

We don't need to build a better mouse trap, or my personal new favorite. . . the "solar powered tanning bed." Let's not over-complicate and please drive thru.

This is an option for serious snow removal.

http://www.oshkoshairport.com/en/SnowTrucks/HSeries/XRS-Extreme-Runway-System.aspx

Maybe a few people on here are in charge of building facilities. If so, or even if you just own your own house, here's a piece of advice some people learned the hard way a few winters ago when I was working as a structural engineer in connecticut.

We had four consecutive winter storms that in some areas dropped over 48" of snow in about two and a half weeks. The minimum design snow load in ct of 30 pounds per square foot was greatly exceeded and some buildings/roofs failed due to this, but most experienced just large deflections.

A number of building owners, especially of buildings with expansive flat roofs started hiring crews to remove snow. Some of these crews unfortunately started at the center instead of outside in. They shoveled or used a snowblower to pile snow towards the edge and were creating piles sometimes more than 5' high of dense snow that eventually led to a number of building failures.

Just a word of caution. If you do have a situation like this then think first and create a snow removal plan.

Natures best

Here we get few and far between snow storms that amount to anything. Weather changes so much. With temperatures in the single digits the last few days. Next week they are calling for it to be in the mid to low 60's. Some years even the snow shovel sets in the shed unused.

I think this will work!

And here is a picture of it first trial run at it.

Certainly appears to have cleared all of the snow!

A few years back, bored by being snowed in, we took a couple magnetrons from microwave ovens to make a science experiment. Made our own waveguide, and powered them up, but didn't melt much snow. We do have 2 headed squirrels in the backyard now!

New York City uses a giant snow melter machine. Loaders put the snow in it and out it comes as water down the storm sewer. I think its mileage is very poor but maybe on a ton/gallon of fuel basis it looks better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIAvW9luwd8

Good Luck, Old Salt

They are pretty neat Philly uses them also. According to DSYN they do about 60 tons an hour and produce 240 gals of water per minute. Only problem with them is that they can only be hooked to to special connectors to there sewer system then off to a treatment center. NYC storm water in parts is still a separate system that leads to the Houston River can't have pollution going there.