It snowed last night, so naturally the first thing a responsible midwesterner does, after a shower and a cup of coffee, is shovel the sidewalk, dontchaknow.
It will only get worse in the course of the day, so I might as well get it done while the gettin' is good. There are a few sets of footprints packed down, and the crust of freezing rain on top doesn't make it any easier, but it isn't too solid yet.
The details make a difference, and I learned it all from my dad. Take a wide stance and step into each stroke, almost like swinging a bat. That way you clear a wider swath of snow with each pass of the shovel, and you save energy as your weight shifts back and forth.
If it's deep at all, common sense says to angle the shovel so the overflow spills out on the unshoveled surface rather than where you've already cleared. How wide is each stroke? Depends on depth. The deeper the snow, the more overlap with each pass. The heavier the snow, the more you have to lift and toss each shovelful, rather than just push through it like a snowplow. It's the lifting, of course, that wears out your back.
I like to alternate right and left sides. Push from right to left a few strokes - like batting right-handed - then switch and push from left to right for a while. The sidewalk ends up looking more evenly cleared, and I end up equally tired in both shoulders. I'm convinced that switch-hitting prevents overuse injuries.
I also like to stop and bend backward every once in a while, whenever my lower back says so. When the time taking breaks exceeds the time shoveling, it's time to go inside. For that reason, it's important to prioritize. I usually start at the back gate and work my way in to the back door, clearing the highest traffic path. If possible, it's nice to have a path cleared back to the woodpile.
In courtesy to America's mail carriers, it's only fair to shovel the front walk, at least up the the mailbox. And where I come from, it's a test of character to shovel the entire front walk along the street, so the neighborhood kids don't have to walk through ankle-deep snow on the way to school. It also shows the neighbors what kind of people live here, because it's the right thing to do.
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2 comments:
Ouch!
I admit that I haven't cleared out the sidewalk yet. The driveway battle of Wednesday set me back.
Yet, I did think about it yesterday . . . but didn't follow through.
I doesn't hurt that my neighbor across the street has a fancy schmancy snowblower that cuts neat lanes through the snow, mocking my feeble shoveling. AND he clears my more elderly next-door neighbor's sidewalk. I hate to admit it, but I sometimes think, "Why NOT just keep going over my portion? It's not like it's HARDER to do or anything. It would be sort of like a streeet-wide service."
I am an envious, lazy man.
Assuming, of course, that any of the little tykes walk to school, rather than getting a ride in Mom and Dad's Hummer, and assuming I'm self-conscious about what opinion the neighbors might have of me, all of which is true (where I come from).
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