It's a sort of running joke in my family that I own a snow-shovel. "A snow-shovel? In the South? What you use that for, shade?" followed by the requisite "Hardy Har har!" Yes, here in the south we do have need of the wide mouthed, light weight shovel for the scooping of snow. But sill they persist, they are jokers all.
We do get very little snow here in the south. (I am reminded that my family back in Colorado this week has had lots of snow. Yes, in May. Colorado, go figure.) But I find that owning a snow shovel is important, but just not in the snowy seasons.
Oh yes, I do use it to scoop snow, sometimes as much as three days a year! But where it truly helps to own a snow shovel is in the hot summer when I'm mowing the lawn.
After I mow the yard, I clean up the mower by tipping it on it's side and using a putty knife to scrape out all the moist, finely chopped grass (read: chopped weeds) which collects on the underside of the shroud and above the blade. Not cleaning this out in a humid environment means it will mold by the next time I get the mower out and that's no fun at all. In addition, mold leads more to rust and my handy fossil fuel powered tools don't need that.
So, I scrape out all the clogs and bunches of chopped grass (read: chopped weeds) and they form a pile there beside the mower. It is the snow-shovel I turn to to get this pile scooped up quickly and efficiently. I've used other shovels, with flat blades but I usually have to stoop too low to get things up into the scoop. With the snow shovel, I have an ergonomic handle so I don't have to stoop so much and the scoop of the snow shovel is deep and holds enough that one scoop is all I need.
I suppose I should start calling it a grass-clippings shovel, but no one would look at me right again.
Thus is the life I lead.
