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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoPlainText>It’s rare that I’m able to move snow as cleanly and completely as happened last Friday. It was just the right mix of circumstances. The previous few weeks had been very cold with some significant snowfalls, so the ground was frozen hard and whatever snow I hadn’t been able to plow off had settled down into a thin layer of snow/ice packed in around the gravel. The five inches of new snow overnight Thursday and into Friday morning was accompanied by more very cold temperatures, the last effects of the recent polar vortex I guess, so it was dry and powdery and could be scraped off very thoroughly without digging up the gravel beneath it, even with the cutting edge of the rear blade facing the direction of travel.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Dean VP, thanks for the pro tip about hooking my left arm through the steering wheel to operate the clutch…I’ll give that a try! And I do have the step on the left side--that’s the only way I ever get up on the tractor. Simple enough from that side, left foot on the step, right foot on the axle, left foot on the platform, then turn and sit… but it of course means walking around in front of the rear wheel first, and usually I’m coming from behind the tractor rather than in front of it. I could try climbing up the rear hitch but suspect I’m getting on far enough in years that it’s no time to develop a habit I might not be able to long sustain. :)<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Dean Vinson<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Saint Paris, OH<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>