Meet my new friend, Alice. Alice Chalmers.
Yeah, the rigmarole and turtle pace of the electric company have delayed the house tear-down to the point where I’m already starting to prepare for winter. Don’t fret – There’s still a good chance we can get it down before serious freezing weather comes. Meanwhile, I’m starting to prepare for the cold. I mean, it’s July already … this is the Adirondacks!
In the midst of these chilly thoughts, I met Alice. She’s an eight horse snow blower, and a friend down the street was selling her. He’s moving South, and won’t have much need for a beast of a snow blower. Starts right up, two gears plus reverse, a nice strong pull when she’s moving, and everything looks in pretty good shape. The (horror movie-esque) auger/blades looked to be a little slow. Seemed like the belt might be slipping. Opened up the case, and the belt was indeed the culprit. No matter – I know where to get a belt.
So when the neighbor came down to the store saying he had an excellent brand monster blower in good shape for a hundred bucks, I said, “Yep. I’ll take it.”
I have to admit – Being certified lunatics, we are actually looking forward to our first Adirondack Winter. And not in a namby-pamby, couple-of-fools way. We have a bit of the adventurer in us. (And besides, if we start to go all cryogenic, we have close friends on both sides of us … close friends with bigger furnaces than ours!) So, we’re pretty excited. And besides, I now am the proud owner of a beast-of-a-snowblower.
And I’m not afraid to use it!
I’m gonna admit something.
I have never operated a power lawn mower or snow blower, ever. As a kid in Los Angeles, we always had a gardener. (Mr. Lee for a dozen years – he was like my Mr. Miyagi).
I now use a push-mower and say it is cuz of “the environment”, but really I’m scared of moving blades.
That’s a serious machine you got there, not something available at the local big-box. Have fun with that, and be careful!
Got a manual? I’ve been looking up camera info for hours and went crazy and looked up your beast…
http://www.agriconmanuals.com/allis-chalmers-snow-snow-thrower-operators-manual-p-2468.html
What year is it? Probably wayyyyyy better construction back then!
Now you have me drooling! You know how much I love snow and here you got a great toy to play too. Like I said before. You guys are having way too much fun homesteading. LOL
hee hee…. we’ll talk around March 15th 2010 and see how you feel then. Seriously, I love our four seasons. Except when I have to pay mucho bucks to get the house roof shoveled off. You’ve got the war half won with that machine. good for you,.. but i have to echo TourPro’s comment about “be careful!”
We sold our great blowing machine when we sold our double wide and went to apt. dwelling and I hope I never have to own one of those wonderful machines agaian. It about caused me to have a heart attack so many times when a snow ball went bouncing in front of it and the kid behind the snow ball followed too closely. I think the Lord was tired of hearing my prayers. lilly
If you need help on the tear down, let me know. I would love to help demolish a house.
Aahhhhh, preparing for winter in July; isn’t that some sort of blasphemy?
HDR