After the Snow Is Over

[billroper]

We were, might I say, not as prepared for this little blizzard than I would normally like to be. Mostly, this means that I had been out of town and had not acquired fresh gas and oil for the snowblower. And when it turned out that the predictions for depth of snow had been correct, this produced a pretty miserable result.

We turned out the girls to help me shovel the driveway and sidewalks, but with the depth and weight of this snow, it was a less than satisfactory solution. I had managed to clear about an eighth of the driveway, while Julie improved (not exactly "cleared", but got things so they were passable) the front walk and porch and Katie cleared off the small section of snow in front of Gretchen's van.

But this just wasn't working.

I found a sealed bottle of questionably old 2-cycle oil. Maybe I could muscle my car out of the driveway and go get some fresh gas.

Or...

Although I'd burned the gas out of the snowblower last year, there was most of last year's gallon of fuel sitting on the shelf. It was time to see if it was good.

I decanted enough in to fill the tank of the snowblower, hooked up the power to the electronic ignition, and pushed the button. The snowblower burst to life.

I was much happier as I cleared the rest of the driveway with the snowblower, humming one pirated line from "Lies" ("Maybe last year's winter gas will serve us one more time...).

I will work on better planning in the future.

Comments

[rinioth]

The 2-cycle oil should last at least 5 years in an unopened sealed bottle and a part used bottle should certainly last 2 years as long as the cap was screwed on tight.

The gas is a different matter, at least if it contains much ethanol, maybe 2 years max.

Assuming you are using normal gas and mixing it with the oil yourself then why not empty the left overs into your car in the spring and make a diary entry to refill it around October?