A snow blower with powered wheels should be more than sufficient to ensure one is able to plough a driveway and various paths around the garden.

We have a 30" powered wheeled one that used to be more than sufficient to plough our drive (about 10 feet wide and about 100 m long) and would easily cope with ploughing pathways through our fields.

Once we obtained a tractor, it became superfluous for the drive and general pathways but we still use it to plough the pathway around our house if we are feeling lazy.

This is me blowing snow in on of our fields 3 years or so ago. Yes, my hat is on backwards

I got me one of these, best $700 I have ever spent.

yes, I have one too. Had it for a while and use for clearing the deck of snow, keep it on the deck under a cover over the winter. Just have to remember its a two stroke motor re gas!!! Too small for my driveway though. I have a 30 inch two stage 11.5 HP blower for that and a plow blade on my ATV for the really sloppy stuff that the snow blower struggles with....like trying to blow ice cream kind of stuff. I should add I have a very long and relatively wide drive way incorporating a roundabout, hence the abundance of mechanical snow clearing aids.

I use a broom for my deck!

I wish......

Does it not have an electric start option? That's what I use on ours. Not that it's been much use this year as we've had mainly wet snow that clogs the thing up.

I'm trying to convince OH to spend money on a newer tractor (that I can use) with a proper snow blower attachment, we currently have a 1940ish Ford tractor with a blade on the back, that is hassle and time consuming for snow moving. So far snow moving has been relegated to snow squashing, which in turn will be a big icy mess come the melt!

We have a tractor that's easy to use, automatic; one pedal for forward, one for back and it has an effective snow blower attachment. It's a lovely tractor to drive in the summer but, if I were buying one for winter work, a cab would be a wonderful thing to have.

He had to mention nipples again, didn't he?

I was only saving someone else the bother.

I was going to fix the skids today but we decided to go out and waste a lot of money watching the first half of Shen Yun. We shoved off at half time and went to the pub.

I think my OH would be too tight to spring for a cab too...seeing as it's taking a lot of effort to get him to buy something newer and more effective lol

I'd agree to an extent. I have an Ariens 28" 10.5hp model which I've used for a decade or more on our 150ft drive. However it is a heavy beast & the smaller, tracked Honda machines require less physical effort to manoeuvre which might be important to Millie.

I did research blowers for mounting on lawn tractors but got the impression that they weren't much cop until you get to the proper tractor (like you and dbd33 have) stage. Better to get a decent walkbehind blower which is the same money or perhaps cheaper than the blower attachment for a lawn tractor.

We had an Ariens and it was brilliant for about 4 days. It then stopped working (ceased engine) and when we took it back to Home Depot, they could only give us our money back as it was the end of the season and they didn't have any others in stock.

The Cub Cadet in the picture is the same size, but is nowhere near as good as the Ariens. That thing could plough through a mixture of ice and snow that was a foot or more higher than it was. The Cub Cadet struggles with ice.

A number of our neighbours told me not to bother with lawn tractor, or ATV, mounted snow blowers. I would like to have a front mounted blower on the tractor, but haven't got around to getting one yet. Having one on the back would piss me off no end.

A rear mounted blade on our tractor does the job but, like dbd33, I rue the fact that I didn't get a cab.

Random one here.

I haven't used the blower yet (no need). I will need to use it tomorrow.

There are patches (small mounds) that have turned to ice. Possible, or shear-pin death? I don't know what the limits of a blower are.

If it's a lump of ice then probably the blower wont go over it. If it breaks off it'll likely be spat out of the chute so aim it away from anything you value. If it's too much the shear pin will break. Then you a) learn how to replace a shear pin and b) start to learn the limitations of your blower.