Shoveling snow can be hard work. Shoveling 8 inches of snow is most likely hard work. Shoveling 8 inches of snow while it is still a blizzard condition is definately hard work. So what are the two best ways to make shoveling that snow easier? Other than lifting weights for months ahead of time in order to be physically fit enough to shovel your driveway, that is?

First, shovel the end of your driveway before the back side of it. While the shadows on your driveway and the time of day can certainly change this around, you will generally find that the snow at the end of your driveway is heavier than the snow at the back side. The dirt and grime that the snow plows shove into the snow, coupled with anybody pulling into or out of your driveway and packing it down, means that shoveling the end of the driveway is going to be more difficult than shoveling the lighter and cleaner snow that is away from the road. If you shovel the heavier snow first, then you will not be as tired when you are done because you will still have the energy to move that snow. If you save the heaviest snow for last, then you will have a much harder time as fatigue sets in and your workload increases.

Second, shovel the snow from left to right near the end of your driveway. I tend to push the snow that the plows have thrown into the driveway to the end and then with the direction of traffic, so that I am leaving it on the shoulder at the end of my driveway and off to the side. If you shovel half of the snow to the left and half of the snow to the right, then the plow trucks will just throw that snow right back onto your driveway. If you leave it on the shoulder to the right side, then the plows will carry it away from your driveway and you will have less to shovel the next day. Another advantage to this strategy is that more of the dirt and salt from the road is left closer to the road, so you will not be leaving that detriment in your yard for the spring. The street sweepers will come and pick up more of it. Unfortunately, the plow is probably going to send quite a bit into your yard anyway, but every little bit helps.

This evening when I got home from work, I raked the leaves. I have no idea how well of a job I did, but we had two days of sunshine so I had to get out there. I did promise that I would, after all. It was pitch black by the time I finished. I was wearing a small head lamp, but I’ll see how well I did tomorrow after the sun comes up.
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There are a lot of trees on my property. This time of year, that means that there are a lot of leaves in my yard. I started raking a few weeks ago, but if you look out there now you would not be able to tell. The problem is that the first snowfall is not far off, and the leaves have still not been raked.

There has not been more than two days of sunshine running for a couple weeks now. I do not really have any desire to rake wet leaves; I’d prefer that they be dry or at least damp. Every time that I get two days of sun in a row, storm clouds come up and we get three days of rain. I am starting to wonder if I am going to have a chance to rake the leaves before I leave on vacation for my next marathon.

My thinking is that I will not wait for the third day of sun to start raking next time. If I can get two days, I will be out there even if it means going out there at 10:00 at night.

It seems to me that early Spring is a great time to buy a house, because your first half of the year that you own it you get to learn about most of the animals that live around it. It certainly seems that I’ve been writing about animals a lot here, anyway.

Today, I was mowing the lawn, and I saw quite a few small frogs in it. At first, I thought I was just kicking up grass and such, but it seemed to be leaping in an odd direction based on how I was mowing. Finally, I saw a frog make a mad dash under my deck, and figured out what was going on. Well, not really, just that it was frogs.

I hope that I did not kill too many of them while I was mowing. They were only an inch or an inch and a half long each, and blended in with the grass. Most were heading from the direction of the road and in the direction of the brook. When I noticed movement in time I tried to slow down and give them an opportunity to go on their merry way, but other than once or twice I do not know if that did any good.

I enjoy mowing my lawn. I liked mowing the lawn when I was a kid, too. For some reason it relaxes me. Today I especially enjoyed the lawn mowing. I am a marathoner, and so I run a lot of miles. My training currently has me running twice a day most days. I have had some minor aches and pains that needed attention so I took the day off from running. Mowing the lawn was the only workout for the day.
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