@Bing I hope your machine gets fixed, I have heard the snow thrower snow blower names before, but in my mind snow blower was a pretty generic term for a machine one uses to clear snow. Being a little south of you, in WI it may be like the Eskimos have 14 different terms for snow, and you probably have less, and being farther south we do not have different terminology for snow removal machines. I will try and keep my terminology straight, but no guarantees, get to meet brand new people every day!
ps, my little snow thrower threw the recent slush out like a shlushie machine on steroids and helped out the manly 2 stage owners as their machine would clog every 5 feet!
I’m sure there’s a vast difference between throwing and blowing (and I don’t even want to go there), but as long as the damn thing clears my driveway, I don’t care.
I used to think that a snow blower was for wimps. I lived out in the country when I was younger and we had a driveway that was 100 feet long. I shoveled it by hand even after 8 to 10 inch snowfalls. It took me a couple of hours. My parents moved into town and I bought my dad a snow blower for a Christmas present when he was 73 years old–I didn’t think he needed to be shoveling snow at that age. After my parents went to assisted living, I took the snow blower back and realized what a wonderful invention it was. When that snow blower wore out, I bought another one right away, even though I now live in town and have a short driveway. I figured out that at 72 I don’t like shoveling snow.
@Triedaq
I still enjoy moving snow by hand, but only if the old bod can still move the snow by hand. It is great exercise and two sides of my drive is a drop off so it’s easy to shovel. I normally only use our 6 foot wide cast iron tractor blower for the road and ditches. But, for the first time in 18 years we have lived here, last year I had to use it on the driveway. We had nearly twenty inches of heavy wet snow and even the 8 hp two stage Toro wasn’t cutting it.
The Toro is really great at close in work that a plow can never do. My neighbor with a 3/4 ton plow truck would always do his drive with his truck, but by the end of the year he had himself backed in with the accumulated snow and even me digging him out with the tractor, the packed snow was still a problem. He decided to start doing it with a blower so he could better control the spring run off that was tearing up his drive. IMHO, a blower is the very best way to do personal drives. They just take a little more time then a plow but you can put the snow exactly where you want .
I love shoveling snow… I could watch it for hours!
Seriously, I never liked shoveling snow, but as I age I like it even less. In case if my snowblower craps out, I now have an electric as a backup as well as a “Canadian snow shovel”. That’s a huge scoop with a large across-the-unit handle that I can push into the snow, tilt back and slide to a place to dump it, rock it forward to dump it, and then go back and scoop some more. Far, far easier than shoveling, and no lifting involved.
When we built in 1976, I shoveled the driveway by hand, then picked up a ten year old blower for $50 and was never happier. That lasted me for another 20 years. Of course some repairs like carb kits, bearings, new paint job, transmission chains, hand made auger shaft due to parts not available, etc.
To be honest, we don’t really “shovel” but each use an ergonomic scoop or scraper for snow under 6 inches. After that, it’s just " his" and the snow blowers
Hmmm. His and hers huh? That’s an idea. For years I’ve been trying to show the wife how to start and use the snow blower but she isn’t really interested. I said what if I wasn’t here and she just says she’d call someone. Deflated. Guys like to be useful and indispensible and independent. Maybe a pink one for her though and I’ll do my side and she can do hers? Better think hard about that one.
On the terminology front, I’ve never understood why anybody would bother distinguishing between snowblower and snow thrower. It could be worse, you could try calling it a “rotary plow” like the railroads do.
@Bing
I get these “bright” ideas too thinking I am doing her a service by being a willing teacher of proper use of hardware like snow blowers, lawn mowers etc. My wife responds with “fine, immediately after I teach you how to zig zag and hem stitch so you can hem your own pants.”
I try to show my gf things related to engines, computers, and other technology. I explained how a 3-way switch (where you can turn on/off a light from 2 or more locations) works, and she liked that. But mostly, I can’t convey how satisfying it is to hear a good engine running or the pleasure I get from understanding these things and marveling at the complexity of something electronic that does what it was designed for perfectly. Some people just don’t get it and don’t live in that world.
@oblivion I hear where you are coming from. My wife is a smart person but always amazed at what I fix. Example, this weekend some plastic nut on the kitchen sink faucet broke, it was loose, ok, nobody had the right size nut, at the hardware store, do you have the toilet nuts, sure he says, toilet nut, metal and rubber washer, water control on the sink is solid, I am not just anybodies idiot, but hers, point being she could figure it ut if she needed to, but has never gotten past if I need anything more than a screwdriver it is not my job. I hear you about a fine running engine, though the generator and snow blower, ie thrower are the only ones that I can hear, now imagine our 58 year old flathead running a welder to thaw out frozen water services, that is music!
