Shoveling side walks

[wildbill]

I think shoveling sidewalks has become a lost art, seems like 2/3 of the people on my street must have broken backs or shovels or both. Watched one almost eat it when they slipped on their 6" lumpy, bumpy, man made glacier, man are people gettin lazy.

[waterninja]

I think that shoveling snow off your sidewalks and driveways is a huge waste of time and energy. I should know, because I have been doing it for more then 50 years on a regular basis. That said, I make sure that all my sidewalks and driveways are kept clean, and snow piled out of the way. I agree with OP about how lazy and inept some people are about shoveling their walks and driveways.
P.S, I love using the air blowers to do the walks and vehicles. Really does a nice job.

[bobtodrick]

I know where you're coming from.
Not to turn this into another 'bash the young people', but at 62 I shovel my walk (and the widow ladies next door) before and after work, if necessary.
The house on the other side of mine is a rental and home to five 20 somethings...all pretty fit looking and they shovel their walk twice a winter, if that.

[mgvande]

Originally Posted by waterninja

I think that shoveling snow off your sidewalks and driveways is a huge waste of time and energy. I should know, because I have been doing it for more then 50 years on a regular basis. That said, I make sure that all my sidewalks and driveways are kept clean, and snow piled out of the way. I agree with OP about how lazy and inept some people are about shoveling their walks and driveways.
P.S, I love using the air blowers to do the walks and vehicles. Really does a nice job.

I hear ya shovelling is a big waste of time. That's why I get my daughters to do it. I call it character building.

[fordtruckin]

Dang my father still shovels his walk and the walks of both neighbors on either side of his house. I agree not many people seem to keep up with it any more. Personally I take it as a matter of pride to keep your walk cleaned.

[Bergerboy]

Originally Posted by bobtodrick

I know where you're coming from.
Not to turn this into another 'bash the young people', but at 62 I shovel my walk (and the widow ladies next door) before and after work, if necessary.
The house on the other side of mine is a rental and home to five 20 somethings...all pretty fit looking and they shovel their walk twice a winter, if that.

I wonder if the snow shoveling and lawn maintenance is supposed to be provided by the home owner in their rental contract. That's usually how it goes.

[colroggal]

Originally Posted by fordtruckin

Dang my father still shovels his walk and the walks of both neighbors on either side of his house. I agree not many people seem to keep up with it any more. Personally I take it as a matter of pride to keep your walk cleaned.

Call it pride. I also call it basic civic duty.

Colin

[sewerrat]

Originally Posted by bobtodrick

I know where you're coming from.
Not to turn this into another 'bash the young people', but at 62 I shovel my walk (and the widow ladies next door) before and after work, if necessary.
The house on the other side of mine is a rental and home to five 20 somethings...all pretty fit looking and they shovel their walk twice a winter, if that.

I do the same as you, shovel the neighbours as well, and also noticed that the rental property's don't get shoveled as good or at all.

I guess you can always call bylaw on them they will send out a notice to clean up or if they don't and the city charges them for the clean up, it will just be put on their tax bill.

[^v^Tinda wolf^v^]

I'm a bit different when it comes to maintaining my lawn or snow as I love doing it my self. Although a kind gesture by some who wish to do it for me from time to time, I tend to get a bit owlish if someone else does it for me. Some times I wait so I can work the land better for the satisfaction factor

[nelsonob1]

Originally Posted by sewerrat

I guess you can always call bylaw on them they will send out a notice to clean up or if they don't and the city charges them for the clean up, it will just be put on their tax bill.

Here in Nelson, they had to abort the snow removal bylaw as the City was being sued by people injuring themselves shovelling City property.

[J_mcrane]

We do ours with shovels. And sidewalk to neighbors. My 3 year old has a punk shovel an "helps".


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[wildbill]

Originally Posted by bobtodrick

I know where you're coming from.
Not to turn this into another 'bash the young people', but at 62 I shovel my walk (and the widow ladies next door) before and after work, if necessary.
The house on the other side of mine is a rental and home to five 20 somethings...all pretty fit looking and they shovel their walk twice a winter, if that.

Yup I think that's half the problem I'm 40 and the majority of the people on my street are younger than me. Their too good for the ol' "goon spoon"!

[Sagebrush]

Agree that some people refuse to clean sidewalks and drives. Being a senior of 70 + I have the time and still the physical well being to use a back pack blower to clean the full block and my widow neighbor ladies driveways. I personally look at this as being insurance so that someday someone might clean sidewalks and drives for my wife. So will continue as long as I can ( hopefully a very long time ) only problem is I like to clean early in morning and my neighbor like to sleep so have to wait.

[Nikanit]

I have a 17 year old son. He grew up in Vancouver and try as he might, he cannot seem to shovel snow as good as I can.

[From The Hip]

Because right after I finished dinner and got the dishes done I would put on the snowsuit and boots etc and then make the rounds and knock on doors.It could be -20 celcius and I was out there shovelling sidewalks for $1 or $2 if they were big....very large jobs were $3 and I had a guy pay me $5 a bunch of times to clean his whole deck and the sidewalk as well.

As an adult living in Calgary I pretty much HATE winter.

FTH

[wildbill]

Originally Posted by Nikanit

I have a 17 year old son. He grew up in Vancouver and try as he might, he cannot seem to shovel snow as good as I can.

Same here my boys try but they miss spots, I'm so bad I actually sweep with a broom after I'm done with the shovel haha!

[robson3954]

Shoveling snow, cutting lawns, tidying your property, painting fences etc. If you don't have the time, ability or money to do it, don't buy a house.

[purgatory.sv]

Originally Posted by waterninja

I think that shoveling snow off your sidewalks and driveways is a huge waste of time and energy. I should know, because I have been doing it for more then 50 years on a regular basis. That said, I make sure that all my sidewalks and driveways are kept clean, and snow piled out of the way. I agree with OP about how lazy and inept some people are about shoveling their walks and driveways.
P.S, I love using the air blowers to do the walks and vehicles. Really does a nice job.

like

[bat119]

I shovel my walks and love to plow snow with the quad, my driveway and anybody else's on the block that needs it. Never even put it on last winter and so far haven't used this year either.

I tried telling my wife about how many old guys die from heart attacks shoveling snow so she better do it, she didn't buy the story, she did offer to call 911

[CNP]

Originally Posted by nelsonob1

Here in Nelson, they had to abort the snow removal bylaw as the City was being sued by people injuring themselves shovelling City property.

Shouldn't attempt to shovel walkways while impaired by drugs or alcohol

[couleefolk]

Originally Posted by robson3954

Shoveling snow, cutting lawns, tidying your property, painting fences etc. If you don't have the time, ability or money to do it, don't buy a house.

Sounds like you believe that if someone has a different perspective than you do that automatically makes them wrong. Maybe the people that want their neighbors to live exactly the way you expect them to should move to a better neighborhood. My nearest neighbor is .25 miles away, and if he has an old house it is not for me to tell him to build new. We had one hermit living in the nearby village that apparently had buckets full of cigarette butts in his house, along with his chickens and goats and a few rats, plywood nailed on the sides of his house, but no one ever seemed to stop him from living that way, it's called minding your own business.

[CaberTosser]

I take pride in making nice tidy berms and today was upset to see that the postie stampeded through it and made a mess of everything when they trapsed across the lawn. The walk is shovelled neatly for their safety (as required by law) and the dillhole completely bypasses it. Many wouldn't care, but I like my front yard to be picturesque.

[gordfishing]

so do any of you great snow shovelers want to become professional snow shovelers
Looking for reliable people to shovel in Airdrie
$18.00 per hr
monthly guarantee
season end bonus

[ÜberFly]

Call in a complaint! Mail carriers are not supposed to cut across lawns. Or next time you see him/her tell them in person. I speak with mine often (Im home during the day) and told him I don t mind if he crosses in the winter if there is snow covering the grass, but asked him not to when there is no snow as it causes a path to be worn in the grass.

Originally Posted by CaberTosser

I take pride in making nice tidy berms and today was upset to see that the postie stampeded through it and made a mess of everything when they trapsed across the lawn. The walk is shovelled neatly for their safety (as required by law) and the dillhole completely bypasses it. Many wouldn't care, but I like my front yard to be picturesque.

[nelsonob1]

Originally Posted by CNP

Shouldn't attempt to shovel walkways while impaired by drugs or alcohol

Exactly. Only reason I do mine is that I lost my wallet......

[dangerranger5143]

I noticed this exact issue yesterday while walking the dog. Some of the neighbours are done very neatly, others just run a single shovel width path down their walk and others completely neglect to do it at all. Very frustrating when walking the dog and I'm trudging through rough, bumpy, unshoveled snow. Looks terrible in my opinion and after everyone has trampled it down it makes it even harder to shovel then when it is fresh. Some people just don't take pride in their property and how it looks.

I would also like to say that not all young 20 somethings are lazy. I will be the first to admit that there are in fact many younger people that are lazy and don't care about simple things like shovelled walks and neatly cut grass. I am 25 years olds and just bought my first house in April of 2016. During the summer the grass was always cut once a week and I spent count less hours fertilizing and picking weeds to make it look good. This winter I shovel walks for both my neighbours if I'm the first one out to do it in the morning. Neighbour to the east is away at work a lot and the neighbour to the west is an older couple. I have no issues shovelling for them. When I was away for Christmas and it snowed a lot I returned to find my walks had being shovelled. Just goes to show that a little neighbourly hospitality goes a long way. Sad to see that some folks my age give a bad name for a certain age group. Goes to show who was raised properly as a child.

DR

[Positrac]

My wife used to get on me as soon as the snow stop hitting the ground to get out there and clean the sidewalk off. For the first few years of marriage I did it just to keep her happy (and quiet).

Then one day I came home and there was an ambulance pulled over a few houses down the block from ours. Paramedics were loading another neighbour from down the street into the back. By the time I parked my truck and walked over they were pulling away. The snow covered sidewalk was a bright red in colour. I was informed by two RCMP that were standing there that the lady from down the street slipped in the snow, fell backwards and hit her head. They were taking pictures of the scene. The sidewalk was clear for some distance and she fell about 10 feet into an uncleared section.

A couple days later I read in the local newspaper how our neighbour fell and hit her head, was transported to emergency and died a few hours later. She left a husband and two teenage kids behind.

I heard that the neighbours two houses over were never charged by the RCMP because they failed to clear the sidewalk in front of their house even though you were responsible for doing so according to the city bylaw. But that didn't stop the family of the lady who fell from bringing a civil case against them. I don't know the outcome of the case but I do that it dragged on for a long time and by the time it was finished they were no longer married.

I've had one of the cleanest sidewalks on whichever street I lived on since.

[CaberTosser]

Originally Posted by ÜberFly

Call in a complaint! Mail carriers are not supposed to cut across lawns. Or next time you see him/her tell them in person. I speak with mine often (Im home during the day) and told him I don t mind if he crosses in the winter if there is snow covering the grass, but asked him not to when there is no snow as it causes a path to be worn in the grass.

I'll leave a polite note, maybe I'll post it at the neighbors before he obliviously crosses again with his head down while reading envelopes with his headphones cranked. It is a safety issue as there is also a large landscaping rock concealed under there so a major trip hazard exists. The berm was about 26" high and intentionally piled there as a barrier that an attentive person would avoid, now its 36" high. It may get higher yet

I respect peoples lawns and don't traipse all over them, even as a kid when I had multiple paper routes I always used everyone's sidewalks. If a 12 year old can do it, an adult ought to be able to.

[GeoTrekr]

I delivered the Calgary Herald/National Post for 7 years. My biggest peeve and also the largest risk was permafrosted driveways/walks. Some places were predictable in that the residents didn't lift a finger from fall to spring. I lost a lot of good jackets/snowpants due to slips and falls, not to mention the blood I spilled. I was very lucky not to hit my head or break any bones. Some carriers were not so lucky.

If you have anyone regularly coming to your door for any reason, even a shovel-width from the front door to sidewalk/road is appreciated.

[Nova]

Our city posts reminders every year but never actually enforces the bylaw. If people were fined once in a while it might make a difference, but that never happens. The city is good about cleaning them with their small machines, but in the end the sidewalks are a hazard regardless. The snow gets packed for a day or two and short of manual removal it stays there. Couple warm-ish sunny days and it turns to ice. Throw an inch or two of snow on that and you're asking for injury. I try and just take my dog out in the country and hike with her 2 or 3 times a week rather than daily walks in town. From late November to early April I end up tweaking a joint or muscle or throwing out my back every time we walk in town.

I had actually kept mental note last year how many residents shoveled their sidewalk along the route we took, it was between 5 and 10%. Absolutely pathetic.