Only in Minnesota do we shovel snow back onto our driveway after clearing the driveway.

My wife and I are in our second winter as homeowners. What we didn't realize when we bought our house in Rogers is just how much work the driveway was going to require to keep it clear through the winter months. Half a basketball court in size and slanting towards the street, keeping it clear of snow is no easy task. One of the first "big" purchases we made was a used snowblower my neighbor convinced me to buy of his friend. Unfortunately, the snowblower's proven more trouble than it was worth. It's not worked this entire season, and my wife and I have often spent an hour or more hand shoveling our driveway ourselves (including while sick with COVID). Our saving grace has been its blacktop surface. I found that if I can clear the snow down to the blacktop, whatever's left melts off pretty quickly in the sun.

I thought I was pretty clever in discovering this, but apparently this is more common knowledge than I realized. In fact, a photo posted to Reddit proves just how much I have to learn still. Posted in the Minnesota thread of Reddit by Reddit user u/DrManBearPig, the photo's caption reads "My wife shoveling snow ONTO our driveway so it melts faster."

My wife shoveling snow ONTO our driveway so it melts faster. from r/minnesota

(If photo above does not show, refresh page or click here)

Yup. This guy's wife was actually shoveling snow back onto the driveway that had just been cleared to get rid of it faster!

"Guilty of doing this myself every few years," confessed one person in the comments. "I half considered cutting a metal 55 gal drum in half to melt snow over the fire pit too."

"I have done that, totally," admitted another.

"When I lived in MN 25 years ago, my friend caught me shoveling snow off the yard onto the driveway, and she still won’t let me live it down," shared a Minnesota veteran.

"I haven’t done this but I have used snow to soak up water off the driveway so I can chuck it back into the yard," shared a third (I also discovered this "trick" myself this past weekend).

"I see she gave up on beating it up with the bat," joked one person, noting the Wiffle ball bat lying on the driveway.

I think the blacktop is going to become my greatest ally...at least until I get a better-working snowblower!

8 Things That Show Minnesotans are Tougher than Others

LOOK: Food history from the year you were born

From product innovations to major recalls, Stacker researched what happened in food history every year since 1921, according to news and government sources.
 

LOOK: Here are the pets banned in each state

Because the regulation of exotic animals is left to states, some organizations, including The Humane Society of the United States, advocate for federal, standardized legislation that would ban owning large cats, bears, primates, and large poisonous snakes as pets.

Read on to see which pets are banned in your home state, as well as across the nation.

 

More From AM 1240 WJON