Minnewaska Musings

By Paul Gremmels

The first snow of the year always brings with it a mixed bag of emotions. The main thing is to stay positive and look toward the future. 

     If you are in the minority of people who have, for example, put everything away, winterized small engines, washed windows and have your snow removal equipment at the ready – there is a sense of excitement and anticipation. If you are someone who, like me, is not at all ready for the change of season or one who works outside – there is a sense of angst and dread.

 I suppose this year’s first snow came at about the average time, around the first part of November and as usual I had neglected to top off the hydraulic fluid in the snowplow or grease the zerks. I was trying to self-analyze my procrastination while crawling around under the plow truck, on the cold, garage floor while snow piled up on my driveway. I’m really not a procrastinator by nature. However, the changing of fall into winter causes me to down-shift and sometimes throws my mental transmission into neutral. I always feel that there is more time to prepare for the coming winter than there actually is. And of course, when we have an October blizzard, most everyone is in the same boat. But the steady snowfall of last week put an end to the optimistic thoughts of sneaking in “just a couple of more nice days.” We’re in it now. Winter has arrived. 

A single snowflake weighs on average 1/1000 of an ounce. Einstein’s speculation that there are as many celestial bodies in the universe as there are grains of sand on the earth seems to apply here, as I’m guessing there were a universe’s worth of snowflakes on the driveway. I was thinking of this while I had just finished hooking up the snowplow to my pickup truck. 

There is kind of a trick to plowing a gravel driveway with a grass edge, at least after the first snow. You have to set the skids beneath your plow blade a little farther down so that the plow blade rides a little higher. Otherwise, the plow will dig into the gravel or grass. Usually the ground isn’t frozen enough to really scrape the driveway clean, so I give the plow blade an inch or so of clearance in order to plow the first snow. After that, the ground is frozen solid enough to lower the plow and scrape the driveway clear for the remainder of the winter.

I set the radio to what I thought was appropriate plowing music and threw the truck into gear. The first pass down the driveway went smoothly and threw the snow into the ditch with no hint of gravel or grass being torn up. Feeling like a pro, I lifted the plow, turned around, dropped the plow again and headed back up the driveway. A quick upward glance in the rearview mirror showed a windrow of sod and gravel on the shoulder of the driveway. Someone had forgotten to put in the lynch pins, which hold the plow skids in place.

Well, it will be nice to get out in the spring and do a little work on the driveway. As I said from the onset, it’s important to stay positive and look toward the future.

Paul Gremmels is a freelance writer, essayist and a columnist. He lives with his wife, Ann, in rural Pope County.  His column is published in the Pope County Tribune on the last week of each month.  He welcomes and responds to all correspondence. He can be contacted at:
gremmels@runestone.net