DECEMBER

THE TWELFTH MONTH • 2021 DECEMBER HATH 31 DAYS

Let Joy light up in every breast, / And brighten every eye, Distressing Care be lull'd to rest, / And hush'd be every sigh. –Peter Sherston

Farmer's Calendar

Now, as the season of storms approaches, a bewildering multiplicity of snow shovels has been on display in practically every store in town. And what snow shovels they are! There are snow shovels with straight handles, snow shovels with bent handles, with fat blades, with thin blades, with D grips, with T grips. Some snow shovels are plastic and cost a couple of bucks; others are so expensive that it seems wrong to expose them to a substance, like snow, that comes for free. What to do?

What to do? It took me a number of winters to discover that very often the best snow shovel is a simple broom, one with long, stiff straw. A broom will take care of better than half the snow you'll get in a winter, and it won't break your back, burst your heart, or dig up your grass by mistake. For cleaning snow off the car, the broom is far superior to the shovel because it can't scratch your paint job. And if you are equipped with a broom and you should, at last, get a fall of snow too deep to overcome, you can fly south until you get to a latitude where snow is unknown and the home centers sell only those shovels that come with pails for use at the beach.

Listen to the Farmer's Calendar at Almanac.com/Podcast.