I'm sure those living in snow country, or at least in the Northeast remember the blizzard of 1977. January 27th to be exact.
I had a shop running outside of Buffalo at that time. The day before the blizzard I took in 4 snowblowers. You would think that would make clean up a breeze since I had that many plus 1 of my own. Not the case. It was 2 below zero when the fun started. When all was done the snow had been packed together so hard that a snowblower would hit a drift and walk up and over it instead of digging into it. What I found would work was to take my big snow shovel and I could jam the blade into the drift from top to bottom, or at least from somewhere that was up to a place that was lower in the drift. This would let me break off huge chunks of snow which I could pick up myself and then throw. This worked great for a while. Then the thought came to me. Why not have a blower run while out of gear and I could slam the chunks of snow into the auger and bust the chunks up and let the blower throw the snow for me? I put on my snorkel parka, tied the hood so the snorkel opening was probably only about 3 inches around. There I was, breaking off chunks of snow roughly 3 feet square, slamming them on to the auger that was busting the chunks up from the force of the slam plus the mechanics of the auger doing what it was designed to do. A great feeling of accomplishment came over me after about 45 minutes because I was getting near the end of my driveway. When things go well, you just expect them to keep going well, this idea was something that I was real happy with. I chipped off another huge chunk of snow and slammed it into the auger and the biggest shock hit me all at once. The shoot had vibrated around a little at a time and suddenly it was pointed right at me. I had just tossed about 3 square feet of snow into the front and it all came out the shoot and hit me right at the opening to my snorkel... My wife was watching, through the window of course, where it was safe and warm. As the snow hit me it filled the opening in the hood and my wife said it looked like I was inflating the parka. Most of the snow in that chunk was blown inside my hood and then it filled the rest of the parka. Let me tell ya. Minus zero snow applied with much force to your face will bring you out of any day dream you are having! I stood there for a second and couldn't figure out what just happened. Once I could kind of think again, I realized I couldn't breathe. I dropped my mittens and pawed at the now frozen strings to untie the hood. That idea was wasted because the strings were not coming apart quickly. I ended up unzipping the front and pulling it over my head,. Since I had been working at this chipping and slamming project for about 45 minutes, I was sweating by now. Getting the parka open and over my head let me dig the snow off my face so I could breathe again, but the wind was so cold when it hit me I almost couldn't breathe. I made my way into the house and let my wife stop laughing and sent her out to shut off the blower and find my mittens. No damage from loose clothing, and I wasn't using anything near the size of a truck which often has 1 auger mounted over another and they work together. But it's a memory that will stick with me for ever... ----- Original Message ----- From: Lee A. Stone To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2007 7:23 PM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Snowblower and no loose clothing near that auger. I told the story here last winter agbout a county employee in Greene county who died being sucked into a very large snow blower hooked normally where a plow would be on a big truck. sadly one of that guys friends saw what happened but he was across the parking lot and by the time he took two steps his friend was blown in many directions. safety safety is a word around power equipment of any kind. Lee -- I saw Lassie. It took me four shows to figure out why the hairy kid never spoke. I mean, he could roll over and all that, but did that deserve a series? [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
