Having lived for 30 years in a place without real seasons the business of NOT leaving things outside 12 months a year is a little tough for me to catch onto. I remember being mildly shocked to see my neighbor in San Diego had her washer hooked up to the electricity on her patio, but you know, honestly, that’s smart. The clothesline was RIGHT there. Most of us have washers and dryers side by side, right? Yesterday I decided I’d better tackle my “California” yard…
Every day I’m a neophyte. Yesterday my neophyte experience was taking the wagon attachment (which was pretty tricky to build) off my WorxAero cart and installing the snow plow attachment. The snowplow attachment is the main reason I bought this thing, but it’s a good wheelbarrow, a good dolly, a useful wagon, and, I hope, a good snowplow. My driveway is long and a pretty big job for me. I can’t count on random people coming by wanting me to hire them to shovel the snow. Last year I got lucky a couple of times, but… It could also be helpful if I find I have to shovel myself out of the alley…
Building the wagon attachment was complicated enough that I dreaded taking it off.
Wagon Attachment
BUT I learned (neophyte) that you only build it once. It comes off in seconds.
The snowplow attachment, which should have been simple enough to build, came missing two lock nuts. The directions are all pictures which isn’t that informative when you have bolts of different sizes, so in the process of building it, I switched out all the bolts once. I was lucky and found the right size lock nuts in my little nut kit (read all the entendres there, please). The plow goes on and off really easy — but if I haven’t got the plow at the right height for me, I’ll be disassembling it and moving the bolts some cold winter day.
Just when you thought this blog post couldn’t get more boring, the other thing I did yesterday was shovel (yes) the leaves off my driveway. A snow shovel is the best tool for getting leaves off concrete and into a plastic bag. HOWEVER… I also used my WorxAerocart to mulch a couple flower beds with some of the leaves.
November is a beautiful month where I live. Clear sunny days, no leaves on the trees, cold nights, comfortable daytime temps. So in spite of the frustrations caused by the missing nuts (read into that if you want) and the fact that my hip hurt a lot, it was great being out in the beautiful day and I’m glad my yard is ready for winter.
“Summer is the season of inferior sledding” - Inuit proverb 
“Just when you thought this blog post couldn’t get more boring, ” Ha! I read this over and thought, “Oh, this is interesting…..” I so enjoy your posts, Martha. Always something new and different. Never quotidian tedium…. 🙂
I’m glad you found this interesting! I think the WorxAerocart is interesting — a really brilliant idea. I think I’ve shocked and surprised and bored my neighbors expounding on its wonders, but for a little person like me it’s a really useful tool — almost like having someone around to help. I even managed to haul a giant old reclining chair from my garage out to the street with this thing (but that might also have been how I hurt my hip). 🙂
Two missing nuts, definiely made in Hong Kong. That would never happen in Switzerland unless a certain person dropped them and couldn’t find them. Your construction looks good and now you are ready for the snow.
Well, I think a certain person left everything in the box in the garage too long and by the time that certain person go around to building the thing, the box had opened and the nuts had fallen out of the box. But I don’t want to say anything since she took it upon herself to build the snowplow. 🙂
That looks like a handy gadget. We use a push-broom on snowy walkways if the snow is sugary or fluffy. The snow blower looks fairly easy, but I’ve never had to do it myself.
I like the “missing nuts” metaphor. 🙂
Ha ha — it’s only a metaphor if you see it as such… 😉 I use a broom, too when I’m lucky enough to have that kind of snow but at least twice a winter we get a huge dump. Usually by the time the snow reaches us (we’re between two mountain ranges) it’s dry and sparse, but not always.