# Shovelling Snow in the 21st Century **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 15, 2006, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290 "2006-12-15T15:06:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2006, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/1 "2006-12-15T15:06:03Z")
Not very often a simple invention comes along making you shake your head wondering how man can get to the moon before he invents a simple machine that improves his life immensely. You’ve all heard about global warming. Well, unfortunately for the east coast of Vancouver Island that means winters are getting colder and snowfall once rare has now become expected. Two weeks ago we had a dump and I was out shovelling my driveway. I’m now 56 and this job is now taking my breath away requiring frequent breaks. Then along comes my retired neighbour to help me. He’s already shovelled his driveway and having such a great time that he’s come over to help me. Fortunately he’s kicking my ass as he effortlessly removed about 5 tmes as much snow as me. I wanted to stop and let him finish, but I was afraid he’d move on. My neighbour had just got himself a [sleigh shovel](http://www.nicerink.com/nicestore/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=16) So yesterday we just got another dump. I went to Rona and Zellers to find this shovel but they didn’t carry it. Finally I got one at Canadian Tire for $35.00 and cleared my driveway during the halftime of the Seattle/San Francisco NFL game. No lifting, just slide scooping and sliding snow out of the way. I’m so happy. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2006, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/2 "2006-12-15T15:26:14Z")
Welcome to 1985! ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2006, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/3 "2006-12-15T15:45:21Z")
They may have changed the page ID numbers on you. The sleigh shovel is currently [here](http://65.61.29.229/nicestore/detail.aspx?ID=67). And it looks like it’d give out after a season of scraping along the concrete… for $75, I can get the neighbor kid to shovel my walk for several years. Particularly if it never freaking snows, like this year… ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2006, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/4 "2006-12-15T15:49:51Z")
Thank you for posting this. I saw a guy using it, but had not idea what to google for. I will probably get one. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2006, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/5 "2006-12-15T16:34:13Z")
[QUOTE=Lamar Mundane] Welcome to 1985! [/QUOTE] No kidding. Round here, those are called “yooper scoopers” and are widely used by those who for whatever reason don’t have a snowblower. And they’re nothing new, I remember them being around when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2006, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/6 "2006-12-15T18:16:07Z")
I used them occasionally up north when I was a kid. They were okay for certain situations, but I found them mostly kinda useless, particularly when you had to deal with a **lot** of snow at once. In any case where I found them handy, a real snowblower was a lot handier. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2006, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/7 "2006-12-15T20:04:34Z")
[QUOTE=Lamar Mundane] Welcome to 1985! [/QUOTE] That’d about right, but in fairness, folks who do not live where they get appreciable amounts of snow are not likely to have encountered them. I’ve been using them since 1984 or 1985. I would disagree with **slortar** , a little bit. I find that they are very good for heavy snows. For very light snows, I have a really cheap plastic wide blade shovel that lets me clear the light powder off my 100’ drive in about ten minutes of a repetitive sweep action, down one side and up the other. For heavier snow, the ability to walk to the edge of the drive and simply tip up the handle without serious lifting is perfect. And for the really deep and heavy stuff, it works nice because I can use it like a front-end loader, scooping into the drift, backing up and pushing it to the side, pushing down the handle to get it to toboggan over the high snow at the edge of the drive, then lifting the handle to left it fall off. (Yeah, a snow thrower would be less work, but it takes gas (money), causes pollution, and does not provide aerobic workout.) ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/8 "2006-12-15T20:41:12Z")
Ha. **Athena** , you crazy Yoopers and your fun plastic snow-removal toys… ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2006, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/9 "2006-12-15T20:47:25Z")
[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever] Ha. **Athena** , you crazy Yoopers and your fun plastic snow-removal toys… [/QUOTE] I’ve never seen a plastic one before (except for that picture), they’ve all been aluminum. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2006, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/10 "2006-12-15T20:50:41Z")
Ha. Athena, you crazy Yoopers and your fun plastic (or aluminum) snow-removal toys… ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2006, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/11 "2006-12-15T21:05:11Z")
[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever] Ha. Athena, you crazy Yoopers and your fun plastic (or aluminum) snow-removal toys… [/QUOTE] They’re all aluminum here. At least, I’ve never seen a plastic one. You think those are fun, you should see an ATV with a snow plow attachment. Now that’s the really fun way to move snow. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2006, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/12 "2006-12-15T21:08:58Z")
Shouldn’t we have snow melting lasers by now? ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/13 "2006-12-15T22:21:29Z")
You know, I’ve thought about that before, **Zebra**. Wouldn’t it be possible to make some sort of contraption on wheels that’d almost immediately zap the snow and evaporate it? Of course, then you have that pesky problem of condensation and freezing into a sheet of ice on the sidewalk. We’d have to come up with a way to dispose of this water vapor. What about better engineering? Can’t we get slightly curved sidewalks, a mini drainage ditch and a heating coil that’d bring the temperature above 33 degrees Fahrenheit? Would that be enough to stop this silliness know as “snow”? ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2006, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/14 "2006-12-15T22:22:06Z")
There is nothing new under the sun - wooden versions of this date to the 19th century. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2006, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/15 "2006-12-15T22:30:01Z")
[QUOTE=Xema] There is nothing new under the sun - wooden versions of this date to the 19th century. [/QUOTE] Leif Ericson had one made out of whale bones and Swede’s skin. In 999. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2006, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/16 "2006-12-15T23:19:40Z")
Not sure how old it is, but we have an old wooden Snowscoop, still works great, that said, when we get snow, nothing works better than our old Kubota G-5200 HST diesel garden tractor with a simple single-stage front-mount snowblower ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2006, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/17 "2006-12-16T00:44:52Z")
Flamethrower. There was a thread a year (or two) ago about a guy who imporved his snow blower by changing the stock engin to a V-8. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/18 "2006-12-16T14:18:02Z")
[QUOTE=MacTech] Not sure how old it is, but we have an old wooden Snowscoop, still works great, that said, when we get snow, nothing works better than our old Kubota G-5200 HST diesel garden tractor with a simple single-stage front-mount snowblower [/QUOTE] Single stage? Huh. I’ve got a truck with a blade on it and have thought about a blower for my old Alis Chalmers, tractor but that little old diesel tractor is a bitch in the winter. It doesn’t have a cab. I’d love to replace it with a Kabota. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2006, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/19 "2006-12-16T14:40:45Z")
There’s a store that sells nothing by ice rink supplies? You don’t see **that** in your Socialist countries! ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2006, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shovelling-snow-in-the-21st-century/384290/20 "2006-12-16T16:26:12Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi] There’s a store that sells nothing by ice rink supplies? You don’t see **that** in your Socialist countries! [/QUOTE] I’d bet they’re pretty rare in Jeddah, as well.