Snow blower earned it's keep today

[5th Tuition]

Busted my way out the back door to find 20+ inches of snow leading to the garage. Luckily, I had placed the snow shovel near the back door last night. I did a quick shovel (only taking off the top 8-10 inches) to the garage. Once in the garage, I started the blower (the biggest Ariens makes- with headlight and heated hand grips) and scared the $hit out of the stray cats that had taken refuge in the garage. After the cats scattered, I blew the remaining snow from the original shoveled path. After I had one full path to the road, I just kept taking another 6-8 inches (width) of new snow off the 20+ inch deep snow. With this technique, the blower was not working too hard. It probably has a 20 inch blade, but by only doing 6-8 inches of new snow at a time, the engine was not working too hard.
I believe, if I had tried to use the whole blade, either the "chute" would have become blocked, or the engine would have overheated.
I just wanted to pass this along to those with blowers, so they didn't damage it in this heavy and deep snow. Now, since I live on a dead end street, it will probably be monday until my road see a plow and I can get out to do my 82 year old mothers house.
p.s
My fishing (tennis) elbow is sore from jockying the blower around this morning.
5th (Marty)