Snow Day at Tipper Creek: Sledding and Snowblowing with the Toolcat

The driveway has an ideal sledding hill... and yes, that means that the driveway is not the ideal driveway. A fresh 6" makes it an official snow day. Perfect for sledding and snowblowing with the Toolcat.

I get to play with the snowblower. The Bobcat Toolcat; 65hp diesel, 6" hydraulic snowblower, all-wheel-steer, heated cab for two is the natural companion for an acreage. Our little piece of land located many miles from the nearest ploughed road required a work mate of some type to maintain year round access. We have tried a few tactics over the last few years; hiring a grader (not reliable), ploughing it with a pickup with a snow blade (too much snow), using a smaller gas snow blower (too much snow), giving up and not clearing the road (too much snow). We resisted getting a machine for a number of reasons but eventually our need for access justified the purchase.

The Toolcat has not disappointed. In fact, if you like machines, you can guess that it has been a blast. Besides the snowblower, it can handle a plethora of attachments including our other favourite, the brush smasher.

The kids get to sled. We have a snowmobile skimmer for our snowmobile. Except that we don't have a snowmobile. The skimmer is more of a bobsleigh for the kids. It can fit a half dozen when they want. Sledding is maybe one of our finest activities. The equipment required (sled) is approximately 1/1,000th the cost of a snowmobile, it provides exercise, excitement and just the right amount of pain.

Snow days are one of the reasons we live in the woods. In the city snow is often the enemy, but with a lot less other stuff to do, we can sometimes actually just play with it.

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