How do you get around your homestead in the deep snow?

Silly question for someone from WI....  But we have rather a lot of snow right now.  I clear the driveway with a garden tractor mounted snowblower.  We shovel to the chicken coop and around to the front door with a shovel.  But I also need to get to the shop and greenhouse which are 100'+ from the house.  The path is too uneven for the tractor and it would certainly get stuck.  

Currently I just put on the tall boots and snow pants and break a trail.  Then after about 6 trips down the path it gets tromped down enough to be a reasonable path.  After yesterday's snowstorm, it was a struggle.  Mid thigh at times and that was when walking in the path that had already been tromped down.

I don't want to get a walk behind snowblower just to make trails around the property.  I don't have a 4 wheeler to put a plow on.  I don't really want to shovel a path that far.  Currently we have about 3' of snow on the ground.  I have snowshoes but I don't want to put them on to get to the shop, then take them off to get a board, then put them back on to get to the greenhouse, then off, etc.

Am I missing an obvious way to make paths in the snow?

Snowshoes.

For ice, I wear boot spikes.

Mike Jay wrote:
I don't want to get a walk behind snowblower just to make trails around the property.

So being a virtual stones throw to your west and dealing with similar issues, we've somewhat divided this into priorities.   We need open paths to buildings similar to what you've provided in the photos....all for animal feeding and maintenance.  For those, a walk-behind snowblower has been invaluable.  For the record, we have a 5 hp and 8 hp and both MTD brand, the cheapest I could find at the time at Fleet Farm.  That was 20 years ago and they are miraculously still kicking.....I don't even know if Tecumseh is still around who was the engine manufacturer, but they've been remarkably robust.   [The past 10 years have seem much reduced snowfall up until the present, so they only got used a few times each winter during those years which may be contributing to their longevity. MTD may have gone the way of many others and just having generic import engines on their current equipment.]   Importantly, both have a 24 inch cut and while the 8 hp does 'kick it' a bit more on power, the lighter weight and maneuverability of the 5 hp makes it the unit that my wife and I fight over when "Mr Snowman" has visited the night before.  The 5 horse is more efficient on fuel, yet throws snow like a champ.  And even with our northern Midwest cycling of blizzard to -20 to +40 all within a 24 hr period, which can turn fluffy snow to mashed potatoes in a hurry, just waiting for the temperature to drop in to the 20s or teens renders the white nuisance sufficiently powdery to blow on out.  I realize that many of the tools we discuss on this forum are not exactly "permie", but I do feel that things like walk behind snowblowers, rototillers, chainsaws, etc. may be, for as long as power can be contrived for them, "appropriate technologies" for many.

Anyway, a cruder form of trailpacking is done on the lower priority walking-path type trails around the property and for those, I use the quasi snowshoe/backcountry ski sold by Karhu (below).  The binding style accommodates any boot so you don't have to have specialized ski boots and the skis have a mohair strip on the bottom ('no-wax') for grip.  The point of using them is to pack down the snow sufficiently over a few passes so that the skis are no longer needed.  Understood that this can take a bit with deep snow, but it's the choice for longer trailwork that is not as high priority as the paths to the animal shelters.  Hope this may be of some use!

Thanks John and Myrth!  I did site the chicken coop close enough to the driveway that I can snowblow that out at the same time.  I just shovel around the door and by the run as needed.  So at least my animal tending access is easy.

I might go a few days without having to go to the shop.  But it's often enough to be a bother.  My snowshoes aren't easy enough to put on and off to even consider using for these sorts of trips.  Those Karhu skis could do the trick.

One other crazy idea I had was to make a trail packer.  Something I could walk behind and steer that is powered by a cordless drill and a thumping weight.  Kind of like a plate compactor for snow.  It probably wouldn't work but a guy can dream.

I could certainly pick up a snowblower for the job but I really don't want another engine to maintain.

I use the snowshoes to pack down a path so I don’t need to wear them each trip. I walk back and forth and create paths that are easier to walk. I have my snowshoes set for my tall snow boots, so they aren’t that bad to put on - as easy as skis, really.

Oh, gotcha.  Break the trail with them, then come back with the tall boots for ensuing voyages.  Thanks for straightening me out

Mike, I do the same thing you do. I hope someone has a better answer.  Until then,  tromping through ass- deep snow is quite a workout.

No doubt!  I had to take a bucket of ashes out to the garden.  This year I was smart enough to make an auxiliary gate since the normal one opens out at ground level.  On the way there through 2.5' of snow I had to stop several times to catch my breath.  I'm not sure the missus would have found me soon enough if I had a heart attack.  At the gate it was drifted 5' deep.  Clearly should have dug out the snowshoes for that journey.  But it was kinda fun in a way.

Mike Jay wrote:

.....I could certainly pick up a snowblower for the job but I really don't want another engine to maintain.

I hear ya there and certainly do my share of that on riding and walk behind mowers.  That's the surprising thing and maybe goes back to 'number of hours of use' when in comes to the snowblowers and rototillers, which tend to see high use for a short number of days and then sit idle.  One of the factors that **may** be helping here (and not to be taken as an endorsement of the product) is that Stabil fuel stabilizer....and there are lots of others like it.  These do seem to help prevent fouling of the fuel and the carburetor not only during storage, but as an occasional additive to clean out the system.   Whatever the basis, the tiller and snowblowers, if having been pre-treated before storage with a fuel stabilizer, have been thankfully starting each season even after long down-times between use.  Good luck!

I agree on the Stabil.  I treat all my gas with it at the higher "storage" level.  I don't drain or run out my tanks at the end of the season and they usually start right up.  Last year I started up my wood chipper after sitting idle for two years and it started on the second pull.

So I guess maintenance isn't really the issue...  More that I don't want to have the risk of dealing with something that won't run and have to figure it out or spend more money.  And store it.  And smell it in the garage.

Mike Jay wrote:So I guess maintenance isn't really the issue...  More that I don't want to have the risk of dealing with something that won't run and have to figure it out or spend more money.  And store it.  And smell it in the garage.

This!

Every time we talk about getting another tool with an engine, I just cringe. Will it start after sitting a year, or 2? What hell will we go through getting it to run? What cost will it be, to get it running again? Do I really want another machine in the barn? Do I want another gas-eating monster? Do I want the smell, the mess, the CO2, the exhaust?

What I really wish is to have battery operated machines. Batteries are *still* not there yet. But they are getting there. Already they have small tools with swapable batteries— multiple tools that run on the same battery packs. But imagine having the ability to run larger tools like that. A power washer, snow blower, mower... all powered by one easily swapable rechargeable battery pack.

I'm gonna have to go with the walk behind snowblower.  I wouldn't be without mine.  It has been running strong for nearly 20 years, usually cranks on the first or second pull.  I probably blow 3-400 feet of trails every snowfall that the only other option is a shovel.

Can you make better paths in the non snow part of the year so you can use your lawn tractor to keep those paths open?

That is the way I have been keeping my paths open. And next year with a high tunnel we are putting in 300 ish feet away that will still be my preferred method

Hi Bernard, the path goes over the current lawn. There's a healthy dip that I have to traverse which is fine when mowing but not with a blower on the front.  I believe...  So I'd have to build that up which would have knock on effects.

I've also found that, at least with my garden tractor mounted blower, when just driving into a foot of snow for a long distance, if I can't keep going forward, I can't back up either.  Something about how some snow falls in behind me and I can't back up perfectly straight so I start to drive on the loose snow and I start spinning.  Another issue is that when I get to where I'm going, I may not be able to turn it around.  That's because the blower is a fair distance past the front (turning) wheels.  So to turn I have to push the blower sideways into the snow.  Easy enough for gradual turns but not gonna happen for tight maneuvering.  I could shovel a turn around area at each location but then we get into my laziness issue.

For the chicken coop it's a 25' straight shot so I can drive towards it 8 feet, back up and scootch over 2' and plow in 12', back up and scootch back to the first spot and plow all the way and back up and clear out the left bit.  If I just do one trip there I sometimes can't get back for the aforementioned reasons.

Mike,

I have the same issues with the lawn tractor but I find that if I keep a 2 width area blown clean it helps throughout the rest of the winter. That said if the drifts are big or we get a lot of snow yes it does take some extra effort to keep the same width but in the end it makes life easier since I can walk back and forth easily. One area I blow is in the barn's steel roof dump line but my water spigot is there, so I have to keep things clean. The other one is the path to the wood pile. Here I have to take a 90 degree turn. I end up just blowing a LARGE area for my turn zone. If i keep things clear I can use a garden cart to haul wood. I really don't want to do that by hand

I still think you may be able to find a space where you can make a lane to your buildings. Is there a way to avoid the area with the dip even if it is a bit longer?

We sound like we have similar challenges.  My commonly trod paths are to the greenhouse and barn (workshop).  Every other week we have to haul wood from the wood pile to the back of the house (with a sled).  Every month or so I have to go out to the garden shed.  

There's only one way to get from the driveway to the greenhouse/barn and it's through the dip.  It also involves a 90 degree turn.  The wood pile to the house is a different path in an area I know I can't get to with the tractor in winter (lower level basement door vs first floor driveway = steep hill to get to back yard).

I think the best fix would be to blow it with a walk behind.  I'd just rather not get one.  Then I could get to all of these places and handle the back yard hill (I think).  Plus, maybe, I could blow out the snow slump off of the greenhouse.  I'll have to keep my eyes open for an 80 amp cordless snowblower like the one Cecile likes (from another post).

EGO Power 56 volt now has a snow blower!  I have their 21" self propelled lawn mower and the string trimmer I love them ! 16" chain saw is next.   Battery's all interchange , although my big one for the mower is too heavy to want in the string trimmer.  


For now,  like you I walk out a path to the shop. Ocasinally I will bring a snow shovel and do "trail maintenence "

Mike Haasl wrote:On the way there through 2.5' of snow I had to stop several times to catch my breath.

That's a ridiculous amount of snow. We haven't had a snow like that since the late '90s, so I've never had to deal with that in a homesteading situation. I agree that snowshoes are a simple short-term solution, but the packed snow becomes a challenge when things warm up. If you don't want a snowblower (I don't blame you), then shoveling may be your only option. When we're expecting more than a few inches of snow I do multiple shovel passes of our paths in order to avoid dealing with all of it at once. I can shovel all our paths in 10 minutes if it's just an inch or two. But you'd need to do that at least ten times if you're getting 30 inches.

that looks so inviting being that's its hitting about 93 and very high humidity right about now.

Hi, The way I see it you can either knock it down or throw it out. I used to shovel to my sheds until one day I stepped on a board and it knocked the snow down.  So I strap short boards on my feet ( 2x6x16") for low snow, and I have  piece of plywood for large piles of snow. The plywood is 4 feet by 2 feet. I put the leading edge about 1-2 feet on new snow and walk on it with the boards on my feet. Move the plywood 1-2 feet forward and tramp down the leeward edge. It takes me about 10 minutes to do 50 feet. Coming back I can carry the boards and plywood to the storage space for the next snowfall as the path is packed quite hard.

If you've got a frisbee or tennis ball, and the snow doesn't have a heavy crust...

When I was a kidlet, I remember looking out one morning to see the snow so high! My grandfather grinned and said "watch this!"  He threw my frisbee toward the shed and the dogs charged after it, breaking and trampling a path for us in the snow.

Back in my MN days, I would make paths using a blade on my Troybuilt.  It was weird in that the first pass was the Troybuilt running under the snow with little puffs of smoke coming out through the snow.  Where I was we would only see two serious snows a year. 4 ft in November and 4 ft in March.  In between, it was mostly blowing.

 In my present location, the schools close if there is a light dusting of snow.   Maybe once every 5 years we get snow worth noticing.  It melts in a few days, so I push my way through it.  In 20 years I have used a blade for snow on my tractor once or twice.  

The past two winters I've been using a snow scoop to pick up a hunk of snow, back up and slide it up out of the path to the side and sluff it off.


I'm still open to the cordless snowblower but I haven't found one on a good enough sale yet.

Stomping down the snow with boards would work, especially since it would freeze overnight and get harder.  One issue is that in late winter you'd start punching through it.

Every winter I maintain snowshoe trails that cover our 26 acres. Whenever I see a dead tree that I want to collect for firewood I snowshoe a path to it and stomp down the snow around it. By spring, I'll have enough trees identified for cutting to heat our yurt the following winter. In the spring there is always a warm, sunny period that softens the snowshoe trails followed by a cold snap. This is when the trails become firewood freeways, with no need for snowshoes. There is a great deal of satisfaction in having prepared for this situation and being able to accomplish so much despite there still being several feet of snow to travel over.

Mike Haasl wrote:The past two winters I've been using a snow scoop to pick up a hunk of snow, back up and slide it up out of the path to the side and sluff it off.


I'm still open to the cordless snowblower but I haven't found one on a good enough sale yet.

Stomping down the snow with boards would work, especially since it would freeze overnight and get harder.  One issue is that in late winter you'd start punching through it.

Those galvanized snow scoops are hard to find these days. I saw one for sale recently and forgot about it until now. I think I'll contact the guy and see if he still has it. Thanks for the reminder.

We just shovel. We've got a path to the outhouse, to the woodshed, to the garden, and a loop from the north side of the house out to the parking area and back around to the south side of the house. I probably maintain close to half a kilometre of paths, so there is some tromping through deep snow when it takes me a while to catch up after a snowfall.  We don't often get more than a foot and a half of snow overnight, though.

Until last winter, we also shoveled our half kilometre driveway, just a track on either side for the tires, and the vehicles would plow or compact the middle. My husband and I can do the whole length of the driveway in a couple hours. If we're both working, sometimes we don't have time to shovel and have to walk in until we've got time on the weekend. Last winter we bought a snowblower, so now it takes one of us about 45 minutes to do the tire tracks. We still have to walk in during spring breakup, but we're doing lots of work on the driveway. There will probably be some problem spots this winter, but hopefully by next we'll have year round drive in access!

The paths around our property are too narrow and uneven to snowblow, so we'll be stuck shoveling for a while. I don't like packing the snow down because then you get the hard path in the middle, with soft stuff on the edges. If you get any drifting snow, you start losing the edges of the original path and sinking into the soft stuff up to your knees when you step slightly wrong. I also don't like the deep slush that results when things start melting in the spring.

I got a second one at a garage sale for $5 last summer

Posting an odd re-bump follow-up question in case anyone has seen this done.

The walk behind snowblowers by MTD made their way into many homes re-badged as different brands.....Craftsman, Yard-Man, etc....with perhaps the most popular sizes being the 5 hp and the 8 hp versions.  I have an MTD-badged 8 hp and two 5 hp versions.  But now the 8 hp version has symptoms of a locked auger gearbox after sucking up a dog-bone that stopped the unit in short order......the engine still works fine, but now the auger will not turn.  My question is this:  Since the auger unit for both the 8 hp and 5 hp versions are 24 inch intakes, might I just unbolt the entire (damaged) auger unit from the 8 hp and swap that from the 5 hp onto it instead?  Both are from before year 2000 models.  I will do some measuring on bolt patterns and pulley sizes and distancing, but was hoping maybe someone had already seen this done.  [Please refrain from commenting on my bone-headedness for replacing the auger shear bolts with standard 1/4-inch bolts! ;-)  ]      Thanks!

Edited to add a photo of what a walk-behind snowblower looks like with the front auger assembly removed from the power unit.