The topic of snowplowing came up a few days ago in a work meeting with a client in southern California, where they were getting snow for the first time in about three or more decades. I jokingly offered to put my “snow rig” on a trailer and send it out to him. As I told that story later to some friends, they asked about my “snow rig”. Here it is.

My tractor is a 40 horsepower John Deere 4044R, a tool that I debated long and hard about buying but that has become indispensable to life here on the island. While I use it every once in a while to move something heavy on the property, about 99% of its use is to maintain the 1.7 miles of private “camp” road that leads to our house. I have a 7-foot snow blade on the front, and a 6-foot snow blower on the back. And yes, the heated cab, while a source of great internal debate before my purchase due to its cost, has been worth every penny.

It takes considerably longer to plow snow with the tractor compared to a truck with a snow blade, and it frankly beats up my aging body given that tractors aren’t known for their comfy suspensions. But I can’t use a truck to do all the other road maintenance we need every year, and I don’t want to buy and maintain and park a truck used just for plowing, so the tractor it is. It’s also nice to have the snow blower to get rid of snow in the dooryard and driveway, instead of just piling it up on the sides. I can’t do that for large areas because the rear mounting makes it a bit difficult to use for long periods, but it sure comes in handy for certain areas. I even cleared snow from the side of the road for about a quarter-mile yesterday so that I’d have someplace for the snow from the next two storms to go.

Anyway, that’s my “snow rig”. My client’s California snow lasted hours, while ours hangs on for months, so I guess I’ll just keep it here. In fact, it’s pouring snow as I write this, so it’ll get some more use later today.