I'm at a conundrum Scott, the Toro snowblower that we bought when still at the last place has a tremendous throwing distance. That is one of the reasons I ended up with the Toro. We had a 4-wheel drive Polaris ATV with a 48" blade on it for about 22 years at the old house but the problem was with a heavy snowfall event I would run out of places to "push" the snow. I would have these large piles or berms at the end of the yard and then in a few days there would be grass showing for much of the yard and these huge piles would take months to melt. I would find myself out in the yard clear into March and sometimes even April trying to break up and disperse these large piles of snow that had turned to ice and throwing them out onto the lawn to melt. I opted to go with a snowblower so I could blow the snow evenly throughout the yard and avoid having these large piles of snow well into spring. It worked great and piles were no longer a worry. At my last place I only had to throw the back yard twice to get around the house and to the shop's approach.
When we moved and built the new shop due to the wide concrete drive and approach it now requires three sections. I've thought about selling the Toro ZTR mower and replacing it with a smaller John Deere riding tractor that I could attach a blower attachment to but here is the conundrum, I don't think I'd gain anything. My neighbor down the street has a similar setup to what I was considering but his blower attachment doesn't even throw the snow as far as my Toro blower. My next door neighbor has a Bobcat with a bucket and he does our cul-de-sac after the plows go through which is greatly appreciated and there have been times he has seen me out there for 2+ hours blowing snow and has come over to offer to clear my drive with his Bobcat but I'm afraid he'll hit my fence or gate and I'd rather not have that damage so I would just as soon do it myself.
As for a larger tractor with a blade or blower, I'm just not willing to spend that kind of money for the 6-12 times a year (average) that I have to clear snow. Granted there are some years that I am clearing snow much more than I care to and there are other years where I only start the blower once or twice. Last year was a good example, as we had a few storms that were rain in the valley and the snow stayed in the mountains. Personally, I think those are the perfect winter storms. However, this year we've already had about 6 snow storms that have resulted in snow on the valley floor and required clearing.
It's just the nature of the beast. Although I want snow in the mountains so we can get our of our drought situation, I just don't want to have to deal with it on the valley floor.
Yesterday we had temps in the low 40's and a little rain. It had quit by bedtime and wasn't supposed to continue. However, we woke up this morning to about 1.5 inches of wet heavy snow that was unexpected. Evidently we had lake effect snow overnight. I cleared just the front steps and the drive where the three bay garage doors are before work and will have to clear the remainder when I get home tonight.
The only downside to having a north facing property, is snow. My neighbor across the street seldom has to shovel his drive once the temperature rises a bit and the sun comes out because his south facing drive will melt off. It's a good thing to because he doesn't shovel it anyways, even when it doesn't melt off. My north facing property is heaven about 350+ days of the year but those 6-15 days of snow we get here along the Wasatch Front make me question it.
As I was finishing up Friday night I went into the house to find my lovely wife had a pot of coffee on for me but then she had to ruin it by saying "do you still like your 10k square feet of concrete?"
I was fine until she had to rub it in....
