snow shoveling arsenal

No wimpy shovels for me. I used to own a plastic snow shovel. It wasn't bad, it wasn't good. It was alright when the snow was light and fluffy, but when snow and ice begins to play hardball, plastic won't do.

Enter my trilogy of snow shovels. There is a common theme here. They are all old. All of them have wooden, metal or a combination of wooden and metal handles. All boast a metal blade.

For most shoveling in Indiana the long handled curved blade shovel handles the majority of it. The blade gets sharper every time I push it over the concrete of my driveway. It could probably sever a limb. Snow and even some ice gives way to it's powerful persuasion. I came by it in a strange way. We bought a home in Illinois and this shovel came with the home. It made the move to Indiana and I will never let it retire.

Next, is the classical aluminum snow shovel. This lightweight shovel has a sturdy wooden handle and is great when the snow needs to be lifted and thrown. This shovel came from my mother-in-law's house. No one else wanted it. It is easy to overlook the usefulness of a shovel like this in the fall when you're raking leaves, but when a heavy snow falls this is the baby you want.

Finally is the wonderful antique aluminum grain scoop. Some manufacturers have tried to mimic this by putting out the same basic design only in plastic. They don't measure up to this baby. If you have a drift in front of your driveway this is what you want to move a maximum amount of snow.

I don't need a snowblower with this three shovels. Why hassle with another gasoline engine to maintain? Why struggle to find a huge spot in the garage for a snowblower. They have so many limitations you can probably be done scooping the driveway by the time you get one of those things gassed up and started.

Where can you get a trilogy of shovels like mine? Try auctions because they would be pretty hard to find in your typical Lowe's or Menards. In most auctions tools like this don't sell for much. People have forgotten the power of a metal blade with a wooden handle.