It’s very blowy and snowy outside. The worst of the wind passed us during the night, blowing down string lights and driving snow into odd corners. Now there’s tons of fresh snow everywhere. Luckily the temperature stayed just below zero, so the snow was easy to work with. The last dump of snow, earlier this week, was immediately followed by rain and a thaw, which wasn’t enough to not actually melt all of the snow – just long enough to make it really wet and heavy. And then freezing temperatures the next night, so I had one evening to clear it all away, or deal with thick clumps of ice on all the stairs and driveways.

The municipal snow ploughs have cleared the streets, but haven’t had time to remove the snow, so it’s all piled up along the sides of the streets. And since I have a sturdy retaining wall towards the street, whereas the neighbours across the street have a lilac hedge, the snow ploughs – very reasonably – push most of it to our side. Now I’m running out of space where to put the snow.

Clearing everything after a decent-sized (but not extreme) snowfall takes about an hour and a quarter. That covers the staircases (upper and lower), the landing between them, the landing towards the street, the spaces in front of the mailbox and the rubbish bins, the car, the driveway, the wooden deck, and the stairs down from the deck to the driveway. A good workout.

The snow pusher is still great – and not just for the driveway. I’ve figured out a technique to use it on the lower, concrete stairs, too. Hold it parallel with the stairs, as close to vertical as possible, and I can push the snow down from one stair to the next. Two such pushes is enough to clear an entire step in no more than twenty seconds. And then I have a pile of snow on street level, where it is easy to clear. So I replace lifting and shovelling with pushing, which is much easier on the back and arms.