Five shovels

It’s March and while we wait for all the ridiculous snow to melt, it is time to examine and analyze our friends, the snow shovels. What worked this year? What didn’t? In Palmer we surely had many an opportunity to use them and we all have had a work out. Some of us developed muscles we had never met before. So in honor of the season, here are the five MUST HAVE shovels:

• Rectangular Metal Shovel—Some call this a coal shovel. I call it the bad bully because it doesn’t care who or what it scoops. It’s a utility shovel and it can go heavy or it can go light. It has a square nose.

• Big Plastic Poly Scooper—This is the colorful and lightweight snow thrower. It takes a-lot of accumulated snow and carves out a path fast. This shovel isn’t fancy but it works hard and it is humble.

• Lightweight plastic Slicer—This is more of a specialty shovel which I use to cut larger snow piles into sections I can throw. It is good for precision.

• Monster Pusher—This is also known as a sleigh shovel and is usually at least two feet in width. We push this one as hard as we can. Wear grips so you have traction.

• Ice Chipper—This is a heavy weapon with a sharp pointy edge which you drop with force on solid ice.

• There is also the very long roof shovel which is unwieldy and kinda dangerous. Roof rakes have extra long handles and wide heads.

• Ideally we would have one 14 year old—to go with each shovel. They have the energy, agility and the muscle to make short time of any shoveling exercise.

Snow-blindness—Now is the time to use those sunglasses. The brilliance of the snow coupled with the brilliance of the sun are exponential in value now. Snow-blindness is known as photokeratitis which is caused from rays reflected off both ice and snow. Eye damage from UV rays is particularly common in the North and South Pole areas or in high mountains where the air is thinner and provides less protection from UV rays. We have it all now. We love it. But protect your eyes in a big way. I am not sure how other mammals handle this immense light but we humans get to use our sunglasses and goggles.

Communication In Palmer and Beyond—Next Monday night, March 20, is a Palmer Historical Society meeting which you won’t want to miss. For everyone that uses a cell phone or the internet, Alex Hills is an important Palmer guy to know. He is a true Palmer gentleman first of all but his claim to fame comes from his creation of the world’s first big Wi-Fi network. Dr. Hills will describe his personal odyssey in the world of radio and his challenges as an engineer. The story begins in his teenage years with a quest to understand radio’s mysteries. It continues with his use of radio to provide modern communication services to the Native people of remote Alaska and then to his work in helping to develop Wi-Fi technology. Come to the Palmer Moose Lodge for Palmer History Night. It starts at 7 and there are cookies.

Conspiracy Theory Month—March is known for crazy. All the things that can go berserk normally do in March. It might be politics. It might be relationships. It might be weather. It might be personal development. Humans and animals alike are feeling the change towards the promise of abundance and easier times. But despite the signals of good times ahead, we are stuck in beautiful and deceptive March. So be careful with your loved ones, words and actions. It’s easy to get sucked into controversy with summer’s false knocking at the door.

Pie Day—As you read this weekly column I hope you indulged in Palmer Pie on March 14th for Pi Day. Maybe you have some left-over pie treasures to finish. NonEssentials has two kinds of savory hand pies plus: choc cream, apple, lemon meringue, peanut butter, pecan pies. In honor of Pi Day, they are $3.14 per slice or per hand pi 🥧.

Barbara Hunt is both Palmer writer and artist. She works hard to keep the robust pulse of Palmer, Alaska. She shares the good stuff in the weekly Palmer Alaska Buzz Column in the Mat Su Valley Frontiersman and daily on the Palmer Alaska Buzz Facebook Group. Contact at bhunt@mtaonline.net or text 907.315.3222