Ha! I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be! We've had a little bit of snow this week, came a bit early. We got two or three inches overnight on Halloween, it started just after the kiddos in the neighborhood wrapped up their trick-or-treating, so I'm glad they got that in. My snowblower has a flat tire and my son took the bike pump to college with him....I keep forgetting to get a new one!!! By the way, oceanlover, while they're terrible videos, I do have a couple of Stone Harbor, NJ beach vids posted from a couple years ago of me making sand castles, etc. I try to keep my belly out of frame....

Its an Ariens model 824. The engine is an 8HP Tecumseh, and the bay is 24". Solid performer!

I'm always happy to see it go away. When I was a kid I couldn't get enough of it, and when my kids were little I played in the snow with them, but as a tired old man...it can't melt fast enough for me.

The big difference is no moose around here.

The deflector isn't a bad idea. I saw a photo of a really old snow thrower a few years ago. Some guy shared his collection of snowblowers online. Yep. A collection of them. He wanted this old one badly, but the owner wouldn't sell it to him. However, he let him take photos for his website. It had car tires, a VW car engine, the blades were fully exposed, and the chute was ten feet long. I'd love to see it in action, but yeesh. Your thought about the extension put me in mind of that thing.

@@moosewhizzerdave2066 Ya, some people take their snowblowers *very* seriously, lol. I never saw that one, but I've seen some neat ones. The coolest factory blowers I've seen are Zaugg snowblowers. They have some neat ideas. As far as a deflector extension, you could probably mock one up out of card board. It wouldn't last long, but it would probably tell you if it would be worth it to you to make a metal one. Husqvarna uses a folded rubber "duckbill" extension on their higher end models. That's where my friend got the idea from. He just made it metal and longer for his Ariens. He had bought a Husqvarna because he likes their chainsaws, but then he found out Husqvarna contracts out their snowblowers to a third party. He probably still would have kept it, but he lives in the woods and kept breaking gear boxes on fallen tree branches, partly due to a poor design in the blower, so he sold it and bought an Ariens, and immediately started modifying that also, lol.

@@l337pwnage www.gilsonsnowblowers.com/snowvintage.html Go down the page until you see the "Rolba" snowblast. I would pay money for a chance to walk behind that thing and clear a driveway. It must sound the the end of the world.

@@moosewhizzerdave2066 Oh, ok, I remember seeing that before. That is a mean machine. :) I didn't remember it being VW powered. Gotta watch for low hanging utility lines when using that. ;)

Two comments I've had a lot. You're not wrong. The horizontal chute thing is tough, because the drifts at the end of the driveway get too high for it, and I'm basically lazy and unwilling to change the angle of the chute multiple times while I snowblow. To my own disadvantage.... With the roof.....what a pain that has been. Initially, the house had almost zero ventilation. There were a couple of ceiling vents, that's it. So, we added insulation, gable vents, soffit vents, and a ridge vent. We installed a gable fan, but that failed, and was just recently replaced. In fact what we have now is a ceiling fan up there that spins slowly, but moves the air 100% of the time, and a gable fan that runs on a timer. The house still gives off some heat that rises into the attic, that can't be fully avoided, BUT there's no way we'll enjoy a mold problem now (we did a few years ago). I keep a thermometer/humidistat in the attic and monitor that. Haven't had a significant snow since the two fans were installed, but I'm curious to see how we do. I'm not sure I have the guts to test it out to see if we still get ice dams....I have been faithfully roof-raking since 2015 when we had such terrible problems, and it scares me every time it snows.

@@moosewhizzerdave2066 Thanks for the detailed reply. We had gable vents and no soffit vents. When we resided the house they added soffit vents and a ridge vent but I had them remove the gable vents as I had read that you should have gable OR soffit. With both, the gables likely are interrupting the soffit to ridge air flow. You can look online for info. The fans sound excessive but you are the one that had the issue and it’s your call. Good luck!

@@NutmegThumper We're waaaaaay overkilling it!! But when I hear that fan at night....that's like a lullaby to me. :) Thanks very much for your comments, I do appreciate it. I blows me away that people have looked at any of my videos.

There's been a lot of comments like that, and I get it. I really do. There's a lot to like about the southern states, but the heat and humidity in the summer...ugh. My dad was from WV near the VA border, mom from VA near NC. WV was ok in the hot summer months, but Virginia was "I gotta get out of here" kind of hot at the height of it. Plus, depending on where you are in the south....Tornadoes and hurricanes. Thank you no. The expression we have up here regarding foul weather like this storm is "Snow melts". Plus you guys all have poisonous snakes. I can do without copperheads. Still - I did love visiting those places as a kid.

I'll share a little secret with you. I'm sure you can guess that when we see news footages of cars in Texas, on ice, gently sliding down a road with the brakes locked, cars bumper tagging each other along the way, that we call get a little chuckle out of it up here. BUT - if we didn't have the salt/road crews, and had the face a complete surface of black ice on the roads like you guys do at times, (here comes the dirty little secret) we would all be pinballing our cars around just like you guys. There's driving on snow and ice, and you learn, but then there's driving on pure, sleek, smooth ice....

Thanks Chuck - much appreciated. A few people have suggested I lower the chute. I give that a solid maybe. When the snow is real deep (at the end of the driveway), I need to shoot it up high to get over the snow banks, and I don't like spending time out there making adjustments up and down....but point taken for sure. Of course, how could I achieve the same level of dislike for clearing the driveway if I didn't get snow embalmed from time to time? :)

I don't know if I could achieve the same level of hating snow removal if I protected myself from the elements, but a number of people have suggested that....so, as we turn the corner in to spring, maybe I'll look around to see what's on sale.

If you can come up with a good reason to go out and screw around with the snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day when the wind is howling in single temps and the snow is still falling I'd be interested to know it, but I could think of no good reason to go out in that crap, especially when the plows hadn't been through, and I had nowhere to go. I don't know what the snow totals were regionally for this December storm, but as indicated in the video, the people north of us are the people who were hardest hit, as in the city of Buffalo, Amherst, Tonawanda, Grand Island, Niagara Falls. They got hammered by this storm. We were just south of the bullseye for this one, so for us it was just a heavy, nasty, wind-driven snow storm. I'm not sure anybody had six feet of snow this time, they might have in Grand Island and Niagara Falls, the storm sat on top of them forever. The problems downtown were the loss of power for an extended period in single digit temps, narrow roads that are difficult to clear especially with stranded cars all over, and having nowhere to put the snow. If snow total is your preferred measure of climate change, then you need to go to the November storm from this year when we had six feet. But fair warning, you won't like that because 1) It was November, and Orchard Park's average snowfall for November is around 4" for the entire month, and 2) you won't see six feet of snow laying on the ground. Snow totals are measured by the hour and added together, it isn't the grand total resting on the ground when the storm finally passes. Snow sinters (compresses).

Hi Simon - There have been some ski places in difficulty around here as well, which I know is hard to believe. There are electric snowblowers, but the existing generation is just not capable of handling this level of snow....at least not in one charge.

Ohhh, I dunno. I find it a pretty nice place to hang my hat. We enjoy a nearly complete absence of hurricanes, tornados, and wildfires, and I can't remember the last time we had a drought followed by a rain storm so bad that there were mudslides and widespread flooding like in California. We're also nowhere near the Mississippi which seems to lose its temper every couple of years. Bonus - no poisonous snakes.

Later in the season, when we're sick of clearing out driveways, we do the same. For this snow you'd kind of have to wait a while...

This house has been a pain in the backside with that. When we bought it, there was literally zero ventilation in the attic. I think there was a ridge vent, but the soffit vents.....the builder ran the plywood right over them, and that's just how it was for the 15 years before we bought the place. We had no appreciation for roof ventilation when we bought the place, we just always had icicles. Then 2015 came and we developed massive ice dams. Massive. I didn't see them in time, I was driving home from work at night so I never saw them until I came home from an errand during the day and saw these massive ice dams. I addressed it as best I could, but was too late. $22K and nearly a full year later the repairs were completed. So far, adding roof vents, hole-sawing through the plywood so the soffit vents can vent, adding insulation, adding gable vents, ensuring that bathroom vents are piped outside, and walking around up there with a heat gun to find and address hot spots have not done the trick. We did install a gable fan, it operated at variable speeds depending on humidity and temperature, but the electronics failed after a couple years and it stopped operating, Plus, in retrospect, the fan was useless in winter. It triggered at 80 degrees and/or at 60% humidity, and in cold weather you seldom get either of those conditions. We are currently replacing it with a direct drive gable fan that will just run X hours a day on a timer, and we've added a ceiling fan up there that runs 100% of the time, so there is constantly air flow. Hoping we will be in beautiful shape for next winter. With all that ventilation and air movement, I would be stunned if we formed an ice dam like that massive thing we had in 2015, but I'm kind of unwilling to test the theory. I'm completely paranoid about ice dams as a result of 2015 and the amount of damage we had, so I roof rake every time we get snow. I don't have the guts to let it ride and see what happens.

@@moosewhizzerdave2066 Here's a video I put up a number of years ago concerning DIY attic insulation baffles. It might be of some use to you: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kHOWZWljo8ySbrM

@@russellstephan6844 Thanks very much, Russell - that's an interesting idea. Good way to allow continued airflow up and out. We haven't had any snow since the fans went in, but if we continue having difficulty I'll definitely come back to reference this. One of my contractor friends has a story about being asked to look at a house because they had an ice dam problem. He went, it was a brand new house, and whomever did the insulation did the spray on stuff, which is great, but they did it - everywhere. "floor" of the attic, ceiling of the attic, sides of the attic, right to the sheathing. Apparently it was visible coming out of the little holes in the soffit vents. Hard to imagine. He said it was 70-80 degrees up there, of course there was no circulation and air had nowhere to go. Bonus, the furnace was in the attic for some reason.

@@moosewhizzerdave2066 This video is a *must* for anyone in need of understanding attics, attic insulation, interior conditioned air, an exterior unconditioned air. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gpWboa1_qplofJo

I broke the head off a broom during the November storm doing that, and resorted to using a hockey stick (mostly because I knew where it was). I've used a push broom before as well. My preferred tool is Spring, but that won't happen for a little while yet.

I do like that RAV4. 130K miles, just changed out the drive shaft. Hoping to get another 70K out of it.....

I bought that thing at a gas station a long time ago. I guess I'll have to go to amazon for a replacement and then give this one a nice celebration-of-life ceremony. Next time I'll be in Canada will be for an ice-out canoe trip in Algonquin. Already planning my route!

You'd prefer a night time video of clearing snow during the storm? Maybe that makes for good content, I dunno.

In 2015, we had a TON of ice damage. The roof ended up being replaced, and when it was the ice shield was run up an extra four feet. But I still clear the snow off those eaves!!!

I've gotten that comment from a number of people, and I can't argue with you, other than to say I find the fewer adjustments I have to make to the snowblower on-the-fly the faster the chore goes, and when we get a lot of snow, the chute kind of has to be high to throw the snow over the snow banks. In this case I could have lowered the chute, no doubt. Really, the wind wasn't much of a problem....until right then. It stinks because one minute the wind's coming from the east, the next it is coming from the west, it just swirls around the house unpredictably. It adds a little adventure to the operation. Hey - thanks for watching!

When there's a big snow I'll do that sometimes, in fact I did it with the big November storm we had (the one that caused the NFL to move the Bills game to Detroit). This storm happened over Christmas, and I just didn't feel like it on Christmas. Gave myself the gift of not clearing the driveway.

A couple of people have suggested an enclosure....including my wife. I dunno. I've got it solidly in the "maybe" column.

Sometimes I don't either. I had to drop my son off somewhere this morning. it was 17 degrees out. There was no wind, so it wasn't too bad really, but steering wheels do not feel great when it is that cold. Even when you're wearing gloves (which, trust me, you want to do), the cold will eventually get through.

Thank you! That wasn't a particularly difficult riddle though. I'll try to do better next time. BTW, people have commented that Enduro batteries do well in cold weather. I haven't purchased any myself yet, but I will!

Our pup went to doggy heaven a few years ago, but there were two things she loved: Leaf piles and snow. I've got some great photos of her busting through snowbanks, snow flying everywhere. We used to build snow mounds for the kids when they were little for them to sled down, sometimes with a tunnel, and Sandy was all over those things.

Cold! Thanks for taking a look!!

Ugh. That does not look like fun.

I do that when we get real snow. Kidding - this was real enough!. I'll do that from time to time, but this one was happening over Christmas and I had nowhere to go the 26th (couldn't have gone anywhere the 26th anyway), so I just let it go. Not using the snowblower on Christmas Day was my little gift to myself.

Thanks very much! I think I've posted something like 8 videos, and until the November storm the most views any of them had was maybe 150. When the November storm whacked us, I did one because the storm was pretty unique, plus my daughters' friends at college kept asking how it was back home. I figured my daughter and a few of her friends would view it. Then 135K views later....crazy! But fun! Go Bills! Glad #3 is back home and doing well, and I'm hoping I can find a new wooden snowbrush.....

@@moosewhizzerdave2066 Good for you Dave ride the wave of success stay warm

@@maraudermitchelli Ha! Thanks - you stay warm as well!!

This house has been a constant battle with respect to ice dams. In annoys me to no end. We've added insulation and venting, both of which should do the trick but don't. We're leaking heat somewhere. Presently we're adding a ceiling fan into the attic and are putting a gable vent in place on a timer, so we're going to keep that air moving, keep it nice and cool up there, and I think that will help prevent dams....I sure hope so. With respect to the snowblower, I would go with the wind 100% of the time except for two things. One, I don't want to encase the car in super-packed-driveway-snowblower-snow, that's really hard to remove from the car, and two, the wind swirls, so I can't always guess where it is going to come from. So the short answer is I go with the wind as I can....

Yes and no. There are some big negatives to that. One is that you'd be heating the part of the roof over the house, but the eaves that hang over the side are still very cold. So you'd melt snow down to the eaves where it would freeze again, and all of a sudden you have an ice dam, where water will build up as it melts, go under shingles, get in the house, and wreak havoc. The other is that I think you'd be inviting moisture into the attic - warm humid air - and that's a recipe for mold. So the idea is that you insulate the attic to keep it as cold as possible up there, and that you ventilate it to keep air on the move. The house will still lose heat up into the attic, but usually not at a problematic rate. I hope I've explained that well. Oh - the heat tape you see on the eaves of some houses is kind of the solution to what you're thinking. That gets placed along the roof, over the eaves, and is run in the gutters and downspouts as well. That melts the snow off the edges to prevent ice dams, and makes sure the water has a place to go in the gutters, etc. Thing is it is pricey to install, I would need extra outlets, etc.

In another vid I had a bunch of still photos and I blurred it out in the stills. I haven't any idea how to eliminate it in the videos, that's why it was still there, but yeah, I'd much prefer not to show it. At the same time, if anybody wants to come steal some snow.... Now, you guys in the midwest, with your temps and wind combined, I'm not sure I could take that.

@@moosewhizzerdave2066 I'm absolutely terrible at editing. But if you use windows movie maker there is a tab called visual effects and it has blur in there and I saw somewhere about blacking things out through text use but like I said I'm very bad at it myself. As for the snow, this past storm is the worst I can remember as far as wind. We had drifts of up to 4 feet with spots showing grass still not far away. Then it was 50 degrees like 5 days later.

@@The33rdRevolution Thanks for the tip - I'll figure that out next time. We were similar with the temps here. During that storm it was around 4 degrees, a few days later, 40.

A few people have suggested goggles, and you're the second to suggest a motorcycle helmet. I may have to rethink my headgear for next year....

Sounds perfect!

It can be very pretty, there's no doubt about it, and there can be a real silent serenity to it, but when there's this much....I'm hoping our next storm only brings six inches or so.

When I was a kid it was a blast. We'd play football in that stuff, or use a driveway to play hockey and check each other into the snowbanks. As an adult....how much longer until April/May.

That is on my list for sure. It has been for a while. There's no way I'm getting on that roof, my legs will turn to jelly, so I'd have to hire somebody. thing is, we have a lot of length to run, and I'd need to add outlets, so it is a pricey little project. Still, someday......

Sounds like the shovel is enjoying retirement. Still gets to come out now and then to stretch its legs.

Memories is right. Lived in OP on Jewett Homewood Rd across from the golf course in early 70’s. Lots of snow then too. I will take the South even if nobody can drive in 2 inches of snow down here.