Zatera Ul

We got about 6 inches of slightly wet snow yesterday. Shoveling is mostly my job, since I have the strongest back in the family. My favorite shovel is a scoop shovel, technically a grain scoop, I think. Anyway, it works well on snow–especially out in front where I have to throw it up the hill. The handle is relatively short, so scooping up big chunks of snow isn’t too hard on the back, as long as you remember to lift with your legs. The scoop shovel is short enough to fit easily in the trunk of my car, where I usually keep it during the winter.

Also, being misplaced Yoopers, we of course have a snow scoop (sometimes called a “Yooper scooper”). This is a large, flat-bottomed sheet-metal scoop with a handle; you push it along the ground and the snow goes into the scoop. Then you push down a little on the handle to raise the front edge of the scoop, and scoot it over to (and up onto, if you live in the U.P.) your snow pile to unload. There’s a picture of a snow scoop here (and check out his snow sculptures while you’re at it!). We unfortunately have the Walmart snow scoop, with a flat back–better ones have a rounded back, so they are easier to tip back and scoot around. I’ve seen homemade ones with wood sides–maybe I’ll try to make one at some point. The snow scoop works well for the driveway and sidewalks. Snow scoops come in all sizes from “toddler” to “lumberjack”; ours is in the middle and is just the right width for the sidewalks around the house. (Except on the side where the sod keeps trying to overgrow the sidewalk–the scoop is trimming that back a little.)