We got a snowblower.  I couldn’t be happier.  With Hubby having to be at work on snow days before six in the morning and facing several hours outside in the snow and cold, and   feet of feed bunks for shovel out by hand, the sidewalks at our house have become my job.  That is all okay and I’m happy to do my part but a snowblower sure would make it all easier.
We have someone come in and clean out the driveway. Â He only charges $15 to clean it out with a skid loader. Â We won’t mess with it for that price and it’s always done by the time my childcare parents start to pull in.
We came about it a “small town” barter type system way. Â Here’s the story. Â From my blogging with U.S. Cellular, occasionally they offer us promo tickets. Â We’ve gotten tickets for the State Fair…tickets to the speedway in Newton and even tickets to the Iowa Hawkeyes games.
I was given some Iowa Hawkeyes tickets this year and our son had planned on using them but then we ended up have a baby shower and get together for Carver so he couldn’t go. Â I asked a friend of ours who loves the Hawkeyes if he might be interested. Â He said sure.
I am not a sports fan so the tickets were meaningless to me….to him, the seats were awesome and worth something. Â I wanted to give him the tickets but he wanted to give me something for them. Â We went back and forth…me saying no and him saying yes. Â Finally one day he ended the argument and showed up at our house with a snowblower. Â It’s a used snowblower…nothing fancy but exactly what we could use.
He left with the tickets.
He said it was an awesome game…He sent me this text just after the game, “Thank you soooooooooo much Jo for the tickets!!! It was amazing! We beat the second best team in the country in the last 3 seconds of the game!!!!”
I was so happy that it was a good time for him.
The snowblower got put to use last weekend when we got about 5-6″ of snow. Â Here’s Hubby out giving it a try…..
As with all equipment on it’s initial test run it took a little adjustments….It sputtered a little so Hubby changed out and put in fresh gas.
Then he was and blowing snow…PERFECT!
The official report is that he’ll likely do a couple more adjustments but it blew the snow and I didn’t have to shovel…well at least not much. Â There’s always a little but of snow around the edges that the equipment can’t get to.
He likely won’t be home to run the snowblower in the morning so I’ll still have to do a little shoveling, but at least I won’t have to do all the walks…for that, I’m so thankful.
:)
Oh, I just had to comment on your story about hamburger! Hamburger gravy is so good, and hamburger stroganoff (via the old Betty Crocker cookbook) was my favorite as a young married woman, it’s still one of my go-to recipes! Back in the day when I was in my pre-teen and teen years, Mom used to cook a lot of beans, ha, times were a little tough. She’d send me to the store for twenty-five cents worth of hamburger, which in those days, was about a pound. She made absolutely the best bean soup I’ve ever tasted with those red beans and that hamburger – how I wish I had written down the recipe! Usually we think of a pot of beans with ham, but she used hamburger, oh so delicious! Your story brought a smile to my face! Thanks for the memories!