Thank goodness for the kindness of neighbors

And to think that on Tuesday morning we had no snow on the ground.  The pictures below are from our house at the end of storm after we had cleared the driveway.

When we first moved back to Wisconsin from Florida in '98, I bought a shovel to handle snow removal.  The snow falls were actually pretty mild, nothing like I remembered as a kid, and the shovel was fine.  A few years ago we moved further north in Wisconsin, and with a larger driveway, I decided to purchase a small snow blower. 

Ha!  The past three years have shown me the folly of my ways with record snow falls in 2007 - 8.  This year I thought we might be back to light snows.  Essentially, we had no snow stay on the ground this year... until this week.  Tuesday the snow and ice began.  I cleared my driveway Tuesday night in the middle of the storm thinking this way my tiny snow blower could handle it.  Wednesday, school was canceled for my kids.  My girls came out with me to "help" clear the snow (which is code for play in the snow while dad clears the driveway).  I opened the garage door, and my 4 year old just giggled.  She raised here hand level with her nose to indicate the height of the snow, and could only manage to mutter 'Daddy' between her giggles.

Well, the snow was so high, it was well above the height of my small snow blower.  Several minutes in I had managed to clear the smallest of sections.  Fortunately for me, my neighbor took pity on me, and came over with his large Ariens snow blower.  He cleared out well over half of my driveway, and my wife and I managed to clear out the rest.  We were finally done... 2.5 hours after I had started! 

I was visiting a customer today describing my tiny snow blower, and he joked, "you deserved to be out there a long time!"  I guess large snow falls are back!  Now I know what to put on my wish list for Santa. ;-)