A few weeks ago we had a wet, heavy snow here in Rochester (NY). Lots of it. 15″ reported at the airport. I shoveled for more than 3 hours, and it wasn’t easy. Or fun. I talked to a few people about changing my mind and considering buying a snowblower. A friend suggested I consider a cordless electric machine – no gas engine to maintain and easy on the environment.
I did some online research, and ended up at my local Ace hardware. I bought an Ego that uses 2 batteries, and then waited for the snow. Today we had a wonderful (read awful) mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow. It was time to break out the snowblower for its maiden voyage.
I live on a corner, so have lots of sidewalk. Plus my garage is detached so I have paths in my yard to get from the house to the garage. Plus the driveway and a brick walkway by the front steps.
Although I have a learning curve – what do I clear first, and where do I blow the snow efficiently – my first experience was very positive. 45 minutes and all the wet, heavy snow was removed. This included shoveling my steps and those few areas the snowblower couldn’t get into. I have no doubt that I this was no more than 1/3 of the time I would have spent shoveling, maybe only 1/4 of the time. SOOOO worth the investment to save my back! The video is only some of what I cleared.
I also dyed the green tea/modal yarn from Finger Lakes Yarn. I went for the Bijou Bounty in purples, and had some success achieving my desired colors. Warp for 3 scarves, and potential wefts for 2 of them.
Only time will tell if I use either or both of those solid weft yarns. I’ll audition them on the loom and see what I think.
Below I was trying to see which of these golds would work better for thin warp stripes. I went with the rayon (on right) even though it’s a bit heavier, thinking the silk (on left) was just a bit too yellow.
The warp is beamed and threaded, so it’s time to wind those dyed skeins into balls so I can try them out.
So happy you made such a good decision Peg… saving the wear and tear on our bodies is well worth the cost of a machine. Now lets still hope that you won’t need to use it too often this winter. Looks like a great one. And I love how your new colors turned out.
Thanks, Judy. I’ve used it twice so far. Much easier than shoveling.
I love the warp colors you ended up with. They look very similar to your inspiration. And the teal weft is my favorite color.
Thanks, Karen. I don’t know if the teal will look good with the warp…only time will tell.
It doesn’t snow here fortunately but over the past couple of years I’ve purchased a battery operated hedge trimmer and an edge trimmer – my lawn is so small that I don’t need a mower but can do it with an edge trimmer. I’ve been very happy with both of them and have found that I run out of steam before I flatten the battery. I carefully bought them with the same battery so I could move on to the second when the first was flat. They’re wonderfully efficient and it gives me more time for weaving. Hope you’re as pleased with the new snow blower
My lawn mower is about 18 years old. When it dies, I will definitely get an Ego mower – uses the same battery. Ditto with my weed wacker. I bought a Craftsman a few years ago, not looking forward enough. But the Craftsman won’t live forever, either.