Snow Blower

If there's one thing I hate about winter, it's shoveling the driveway. I don't say this lightly. The driveway here at ranchero indebto is two cars wide and approximately 100 feet long. Buried in a foot of snow on a zero degree day (with a thirty-five MPH wind), it seems like it's 1000 feet long when I'm out there shoveling away. On those days, I pine for the right technology to pack in my shed ...

No doubt I'll get gnotes from gnomies who have driveways twice as long, that get dumped with twice as much snow, and in sub-zero temperatures, no less. But I'll bet those very same gnomies have snow blowers or 4x4s with plows (or know someone with said blessed implements of winter salvation).

I start dreaming of my own snowblower every year, just before Thanksgiving. That when they magically appear at our hardware store and the big box home improvement centers. Every year, I linger longingly over the snowblower display ... drooling over the biggest baddest two-stage machines.

The single-stage snow throwers aren't given a second look. We get plowed in big-time and need something rough and tough to cut through the ten feet of muck that the town snowplows can leave in front of our driveway and mailbox. A single-stage machine just won't cut it.

I tend to be snobby about lawn and garden equipment brands. I won't mess with YardMan, YardMachines, MTD, or Murray. I've been leaning towards a Troy-Bilt, as my tiller's been a workhorse over the years. I'd go with a Honda, but they're off the top of my price scale ...

Speaking of the biggest baddest two-stage machines ... the 10 horsepower Troy-Bilt Storm Tracker 10028 is a track drive two-stage unit that cuts a 28" swath. The Tecumseh "Snow King" engine (woo hoo!) looks mighty enough to conquer the drive at our monster house. A push-button electric start, built-in halogen headlight, "touch 'n turn steering, "and heated handles look to make this beast one I could handle well into old age. The Storm Tracker's price tag of $1399 seems reasonable when compared to a comparable Honda unit (at nearly a grand more).