Maine winter weather shoveling, snow plowing means watch and prepare for what’s in the forecast.
Except the open winters where a drought of the white stuff happens. For those in the blog post audience with no Maine winter experience, the wrong conclusion. It is easy to think no snow, warmer temperatures right?

Don’t the two go hand in hand?
No snow can mean little precipitation combined with low frigid temperatures.
Your open, snow-less winters are the coldest and the outdoor recreation takes a hit. Less snow plowing and shoveling work outs.
But hard to down hill or cross country ski without the snow flakes piling up on the open ground. Good luck snow sledding without a blanket of white to lubricate the track slides and to steer with the carbide ski runners.
Snow is a house insulator believe it or not.
Those snow banks up against your Maine home foundation help protect it from the wind. Open winters with no snow means certain recreation increases. Ice fishing if temperatures stay at or below the freezing mark long enough keeps things chill. The winters with pretty much zip or too little snow make the other Maine outdoor sports kick it up a notch. Often we have the snow. Then lose it all due to an early spring thaw like weather pattern. Warm temperatures turn snow like Frosty to water that runs into the lakes, rivers, streams.
More bonfires, hot chocolate and spirited Maine ice skating pond hockey games in Maine open winters.
Ice fishing derbies to drilled the hole to open up the lake below angling. The ice arenas around that state

of Maine get higher hockey game attendance if the team is winning more than they are tying or losing games chasing the black circle.
In my small hometown of Houlton Maine, the first weekend in February is always Moose Stompers Weekend.

A celebration of winter started up at Loring Air Force Base in Limestone and re-ignited by town manager at the time Alan Bean.
Bean was the Loring air base colonel who mothballed the B-52 facility and applied the locks on the chain link perimeter fencing.
When how to handle and hopefully deter a nuclear war strategy changed. As the new weaponry came along and a change in the political winds happened. That suddenly reduced Northern Maine’s population roughly ten thousand service men and women calling Limestone, Caswell, Connor Plantation and other surrounding Aroostook County towns their home sweet home.
Moosestompers Weekend, January 31st through February 2nd 2020.
This one the 24th installment in my home town of Houlton Maine. I’ve worn the moose outfit that makes you slow, blind and hot. But climbing up the sliding hill and watching the snowmobile and horse drawn sleigh rides is family fun. We don’t hibernate and get out to celebrate Maine winter’s magic.
Watch a Moosestompers Maine Winter Celebration video.
But back to winter weather and how those not living in Maine wonder how and why do we do it.
When you wake up and overnight a new fresh fluffy layer of snow surrounds your yard and accumulates on your porches and in your drive and walk ways. We don’t feel marooned or stranded. We are prepared for winter, have experience removing it and driving on the plowed and sanded roadways. Put on the winter coat, zip it up high and grab your mittens and snow boots. Like everyone else in the neighborhood, the operation to clear the yard of snow begins in earnest. Watch a snow storm video that shows the process of how we in Maine deal with a storm.
Snow shoveling is a great work out employing upper and lower back especially.
Plus your abs, quads, shoulders and other muscles get to take part in the snow shoveling. White fluffy snow is balanced on the shovel load after load. The older, higher water content settling snow can be sliced into with the end of the shovel.

Carving out the chunk you want to release from the snow bank. The one you can handle size wise and balance as you slide under and carry or toss it to where it needs to go. Easy on too heavy and lifting / twisting to avoid injury. Like lifting, the right way using your legs. Do the same with the shovel loads of snow when it is time to heave ho and here we go.
Snow in Maine, shoveling it is a great aerobic exercise.
Maybe more than you like with back to back snow storms but the satisfaction of a cleared walk and driveway couples with the calorie burns. How many calories does shoveling snow really chew up? Experts calculate 200 calories every 30 minutes is what snow shoveling causes inside your system.
Like most things in life, slow and steady is the pace to set shoveling snow.
Have the right length and size shovel matched to the operator. The kids pitch in and their smaller shovel size loads still add up as a family attacks and rearranges where the new snow goes. Snow scoops that slide and push under larger deep sections of snow are effective on driveways and hauled up ladders for long flat commercial roofs. A small storm of a couple inches or less can be handled easily with a snow scoop taking systematic runs. You will sleep better tonight with all that inhaled fresh Maine air. Trust me.

Even the family dog plays in the new snow and the banks packed into place by the snow blowers and plows becomes the backyard fort. The snow tunnel dug out with shovel, hands and feet for the kid’s new play room.
Outdoor fresh air in Maine.
That will improve the appetite. No matter what age, everyone gets a healthy dose clearing the new snow and playing with it in it a variety of ways.
Pick up trucks marauding the small Maine in town streets, back road ways with blinking and revolving orange roof lights.
Their yellow, red and stainless steel snow plow blades angled and ready to drop and push the banks. The beep beep of backing up pay loaders and larger commercial truck mount snow blowers working their magic. Moving the snow out of the driveway and pushing it to the back of the in-town lot or well away from your country home and out buildings.
The big bucket machinery brought in at ninety dollars and up an hour to make short work of relocating large snow banks that become rock solid and more than an F150 can handle.
The industrial snow blowers and trucks with big wings cut through the heaviest of snow loads with ease. The snow plowing video above illustrates what a small Maine town looks like during and after a storm. How quickly it digs out and resumes to business as usual with a systematic snow removal attitude.

Snow plowing with old worn out pick ups create a constant source of mechanical breakdowns when you need them the most. Snow plowing is hard on truck universal joints, electrical systems and all that picking up speed to ram and clear to push to make the banks.
If you are looking for an excuse to buy a new four wheel drive pickup with the plow and all the bells and whistles. Go for it.
Knock yourself out and convince the wife you need one. But every Tom, Dick and Harry in Maine has a plow or a cousin with one. For what it costs to plow out a driveway in my area, hire it done can make the more economic sense. But some love snow plowing. My Dad did.
His Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Count Basie or Glenn Miller cassette tape adding a music beat lowering the plow and pushing the Maine snow.
Your Little Brown Jug, In The Mood, etc with brass horns, clarinets and World War Two era dance music filling the pick up cab. As the 1999 Dodge four wheel drive pickup with now just turned 13,000 miles on the odometer continuing the snow plowing tradition around our Maine family farm property.
Snow plowing in Maine, those who have never done it think we are crazy.

But we live in a Northern tier state not unlike Michigan, New York, Wisconsin and the others along the Canadian border. Just like many of us are slaves to very big and long grassed lawns kept manicure with once or twice a week mowing rituals.
Snow plowing is in our blood and in Maine there are places like New Sweden, Stockholm, Denmark Maine with folks from those area of the World where snow is common place.
Don’t stay away and sample Maine in winter.
Come on up! Because the white snow makes all the difference in your Vacationland experience. Maine winter, we know how to handle the snow and it is a big part of our recreation and lifestyle.
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |
MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA