I finally left the farm today for the first time since ice and snow blanketed us last week. I love my wife and kids, but it was nice to see someone besides them for a change. The checkout lady at Kroger was probably wondering why I was beaming at her.
We could have stayed put longer without any danger of going hungry. The old lady who owned the property before us was stranded for two weeks after the Great Tennessee Flood of 2010, so Chareva makes it a habit to keep a few weeks’ worth of canned and dried food on hand. We also have neighbors who can pick us up at the highway in front of our property. Chareva hitched a ride with one of them last week.
My first attempt to escape was on Friday. Yes, that would mean attempting to drive my compact car up the same icy driveway my girls have been speeding down on their sleds. No, it doesn’t make sense … but keep in mind I’m a male, which means I’m prone to occasional bouts of inexplicable stupidity. I believe my theory revolved around the weight of the car crushing its way through the ice. Something like that. It seemed plausible at the time.
Our driveway is like an elongated U. It slopes down steeply from the house to the creek, runs almost level across the front pastures, then slopes up again to the highway. I crept down the ice-covered driveway in a low gear, then put the car in drive and tried to pick up a bit of momentum as I approached the slope up to the highway.
I managed to get about two-thirds up the slope before the tires started spinning. Then the car began sliding backwards. I tried turning the wheel to control the direction of the slide, which made no difference whatsoever. That’s when I realized that sliding backwards in a car down a steep, icy driveway is … well, let’s just say it’s a special feeling.
There’s a steep drop into a big pit off the left side of the driveway – the pit is county land, not ours. As the front of the car began drifting left, I comforted myself with the knowledge that when cars roll down an embankment, they don’t explode nearly as easily as Hollywood movies would lead you to believe. Then the momentum of the downward slide seemed to pull the car straight – if you can call sliding backwards going straight.
As I reached the almost-level section of the driveway, I decided I should turn around. In retrospect, I have no idea why. Perhaps having failed to climb the steep slope up to the highway, I thought it would be a good idea to try the even steeper slope up to the house. That would give me another chance to slide backwards – maybe even right off the bridge over the creek. A 10-foot drop down to a rocky creek bed would give me another opportunity to prove that cars do not, in fact, explode as easily as Hollywood movies would lead you to believe.
Anyway, turning around would require backing into the pasture. There are gullies running along the driveway in some areas, but the ground is almost level with the driveway in others. Unfortunately, the gullies had disguised themselves by filling up with snow. I tried to remember where the flattest area was, then turned the wheel and backed into the pasture.
I remembered wrong. The back wheels rolled through the gully because of all that nice momentum I’d picked up while sliding backwards from up near the highway. But the front wheels – also known as “the drive wheels” — parked themselves in the low ground. Since I’m a male and therefore prone to occasional bouts of inexplicable stupidity, I of course spent the next several minutes trying to prove the theory (which all males believe to some degree) that if I constantly shifted between drive and reverse, I could rock the wheels out of an icy, snowy pit and go on my merry way.
After I trudged my way up the house, I made a careful analysis of the situation. The root cause of my troubles, as far as I could tell, was that my driveway was covered with a thick sheet of ice. So the solution was obvious: get rid of the ice.
Even though we live in the south, we own snow shovels. They’re made of plastic. I quickly learned that plastic is completely ineffective for removing ice. I also learned that if you stomp on plastic in an attempt to drive it into ice, the plastic breaks apart and the ice doesn’t.
The previous owner left behind a whole slew of old tools, including two pick-axes. I have no idea what she planned to do with one pick-axe, much less two, but it occurred to me that a tool that bangs through coal can probably bang through ice. I went to the garage and chose the lighter of the two. Sara decided to join me and grabbed a garden hoe.
The first few whacks looked promising. The ice broke apart in decent-sized chunks. Then we hit thicker, more solid ice. I banged away at it with the pick-axe, all the while developing deeper and deeper respect for my great-grandfather Naughton, an Irish immigrant who began working in coals mines in his teens. How the heck did he swing one of these things all day, every day?
The best we could do was take chips from the ice. So when my hands began to swell from the impact, we gave up and called it a day.
On Saturday, the temperature was above freezing for the first time nearly a week, and the forecast called for rain all day. I figured the rain probably wouldn’t melt the layer of ice, but might loosen it up enough for me to chip it away. So after a few hours of steady rain, I told Chareva I was going ice-chipping again, even though I’d get soaked out there.
She triumphantly announced that she’d long ago purchased a man-sized set of rain slickers for just such an occasion – pants with suspenders, jacket and hood. They’re bright yellow, and when I put them on over my jeans and hooded sweatshirt, I looked like a mutant canary from a ‘50s horror movie. As I walked past the new chicks in the basement, they all cowered at the other end of their trough.
I soon discovered that the ice was a little softer than the day before, but not by much. I also discovered that water-soaked ice is particularly slippery, and that slickers are called “slickers” for a reason. Chipping away at the top of the driveway, I took a step to the side and felt my boot slide out from under me. I fell backwards onto the hill next to the driveway, which didn’t hurt because the ice covering the grass splintered and absorbed much of the impact.
Just as I was noting my good fortune for not slamming my head onto something solid, gravity gave me a little shove down the hill. The wet ice and the rain slicker took that idea and ran with it. That’s when I realized that sliding on your back down a steep, icy hill – headfirst and with a sharp pick-axe resting somewhere on your legs — well, let’s just say it’s a special feeling.
I kicked the pick-axe off my legs, then remembered that farther down the hill – and not much farther – was a hurricane fence. I stuck my arms over my head as if doing an overhead press and caught the fence with my hands. Amazingly, I didn’t sprain a wrist. My body rotated left and slid into the fence, but by then the momentum was almost down to nothing.
At that point, I decided my ice-chipping adventures were over for the day. But I still wanted to push my car out of the gully and onto the driveway, so I drafted Chareva to do the driving. I pushed and heaved and shoved, tried putting a brick and a board under the front tire, but each time I just … about … managed … to … crest … the … driveway, the tires spun and the car rolled backwards into the gully.
I was flipping through my mental dictionary, choosing the best arrangement of four-letter words to announce that I was giving up, when I was reminded of why I love living in a rural area populated with nice people who say “ya’ll” and suchlike. I looked toward the highway and saw a pickup parked up there. Some guy I’d never met before was taking baby-steps down our driveway to avoid slipping.
“You need some help pushing her up the hill?”
“It’ll never get up the hill on this ice,” I replied. “I found that out yesterday. I’m just trying to get it back up onto the driveway.”
“All right, then. I’m sure we can do that.”
I pointed to the icy, slushy, muddy mess in the gully. “I appreciate it, but we can just leave it here until tomorrow. You’re guaranteed to cover those boots in mud if you step in there.”
“Aw, I don’t care. They’re just boots.”
And with that, we gave Chareva the thumbs-up. She stepped gently on the gas, and the unknown neighbor and I pushed the car onto the driveway.
“Thank you so much for stopping to help.”
“No problem. Y’all have a nice day.”
When the rain stopped later in the afternoon, Sara and I went back out, but only managed to expose a few feet of actual driveway under the ice. By then my arms felt like lead and my hands were swollen again, so we called it quits.
Saturday night is traditionally our family outing to a local Mexican diner. We weren’t going anywhere, so Chareva whipped up a pretty tasty version of steak fajitas with black beans and Mexican fried rice. I believe even our Mexican sister-in-law would have approved.
Today the temperature was in the low 40s, but we’re due for below-freezing temperatures again Monday. I really wanted to get that ice off the driveway before Saturday’s rain freezes on top of it. So around noon I took a show shovel and a steel garden spade down to the driveway to see if the ice was getting loose. On the slope near the house, it wasn’t. But on the slope up to the highway, I was finally seeing some slushy areas.
So Chareva, Sara and I began digging down to the gravel with a combination of the garden spade, the snow shovel, and the garden hoe – Sara’s favorite weapon. After a couple hours of chipping, scraping and shoveling, we managed to expose two long tracks down to where my car was parked.
I rolled Chareva’s garden cart down to the pasture, then the four of us piled into my car and drove up the slope. Near the top, I got a little off track and the car started to slide just a bit. Then the tires found gravel and we pulled out onto the highway.
We were nearly giddy. Look, it’s the highway! It’s clear! We can go anywhere!
Anywhere was a Tractor Supply, where we bought more pig and chicken feed, then a Kroger, where we bought more people feed. I’m normally a get-in-and-get-out shopper, but today I was happy to dawdle. After a week of not leaving the farm, I was shaking off a mild case of cabin fever.
We parked my car on the almost-flat area of the driveway at home, then loaded the groceries into the garden cart to ferry them to the house. As we pulled the cart up the slope of the driveway, my boots were digging into slushy areas. So were the tires on the cart. Apparently the ice had loosed up more while we were out shopping.
So I grabbed a snow shovel and a garden spade, and Sara grabbed her hoe. While Chareva and Alana put away groceries inside, Sara and I banged and chipped and scraped and shoveled until we’d exposed one long track from the car to the top of the slope near the house.
I told her watch from off to one side in case the car decided to slide back down the driveway. “Okay,” she said. “But be careful!”
Nothing to it. No sliding backwards this time. The tires spun briefly once near the top, then caught the driveway underneath. Sara applauded as I rolled up next to the van.
I have never felt so happy to pull into my own driveway and put my car in park.
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That description of you sliding down the hill with the pick axe made me laugh
A quick question – chains for your tyres?
Never thought I’d need ’em in the south, but we should probably keep some on hand in case of a repeat.
A couple of years ago, I got caught going up a switchback in Northern New Mexico that had frozen while I was meeting with a client. I lost traction and the Jeep finally stopped about 6″ from the edge of a very long vertical drop (we don’t believe in guard rails here). Luckily, I had very large pieces of cardboard in the back that I’d been using the day before as target backing on the firing range. I jumped out, shoved them under the back tires, put the Jeep in 4 low and managed to crawl up the hill. I briefly considered parking and going back for the cardboard (covered in bullet holes) but decided it would be a very bad idea to stop.
I really hate ice.
Good decision. Once you’ve made it up the hill, going back for cardboard isn’t worth the risk.
You should get a set of chains.
Yeah, and snow tires would probably be a good idea too.
That description of you sliding down the hill with the pick axe made me laugh
A quick question – chains for your tyres?
Never thought I’d need ’em in the south, but we should probably keep some on hand in case of a repeat.
Tom you brought back fond (??) memories of life in North Carolina for a few years. When we bought our house and acreage complete with barn, two horses and a creek, we thought it was charming and beautiful It was- it was also spring and all sorts of stuff was blooming in the woods on our property and around the house! Being from Florida, we never even gave a thought to why the property had been on the market so long- house was solid- no problems- land was beautiful. Only thing is the drive to the house was straight down to the house from the road. The first time it snowed, rained and iced, and my husband tried to come home from work in his truck, he turned in and immediately slid at breakneck speed down the hill and landed sideways about two feet from the big picture window in the front of the house! Yikes!
We never quite enjoyed the charm of the snow quite so much after that, because it meant if you wanted to come home, you parked at the top of the hill on the road and slid/inched/walked down- meaning that to leave in the morning, you had to reverse that process. It’s a wonder we didn’t break a leg or something in all that winter charm!
I definitely feel for you!
Linda
I still love living in the hilly country, but this experience has made me re-think how to handle ice and snow. First order of business next time there’s ice in the forecast will be to park a vehicle at our nearest neighbor’s place. He’s on a flat area next to the highway and we can hike to his place.
A couple of years ago, I got caught going up a switchback in Northern New Mexico that had frozen while I was meeting with a client. I lost traction and the Jeep finally stopped about 6″ from the edge of a very long vertical drop (we don’t believe in guard rails here). Luckily, I had very large pieces of cardboard in the back that I’d been using the day before as target backing on the firing range. I jumped out, shoved them under the back tires, put the Jeep in 4 low and managed to crawl up the hill. I briefly considered parking and going back for the cardboard (covered in bullet holes) but decided it would be a very bad idea to stop.
I really hate ice.
Good decision. Once you’ve made it up the hill, going back for cardboard isn’t worth the risk.
You should get a set of chains.
Yeah, and snow tires would probably be a good idea too.
I pretty much had the same adventure, only in the city and on pavement. Before I attempted to tackle my own driveway, my neighbor across the street needed shoveling more urgently than I did–she is dying of brain cancer, and needed a clear driveway so visiting nurses and relatives could pull up and get out safely.
Two hours of straight ice hacking and snow shoveling, combined with about 50 lbs. worth of ice melt, and another 50 lbs. worth of traction sand, and I had two tire trails cleared, and the rest sanded real good.
Then I got back to my own driveway–thank god I don’t have to go to work, but Hubby does, and he’s on a cane. Another 2-hour stint with shoveling and hacking, plus another 50 lbs. of sand and ice melt each, and he had a trail from the front door, down the steps, out to the car, and around to the driver’s side door. Too tired to do any more, I salted and sanded behind his car to the street.
Yesterday was spent clearing street gutters and storm drains, because the snow and ice was thawing hot and heavy, making Lake Superior in front of everyone’s houses (only to freeze up again if left unattended).
“Oh, but you don’t WORK” they say, “so you must be full of energy!” I got a winter’s workout in the past few days, and soon, it’ll be lawn-mowing season (my favorite). I’m 52 with both kinds of arthritis–somebody’s got to do this work when others can’t do it for themselves. If I didn’t get out and do something (outside the kitchen), I’d have been dead a decade ago.
Was anybody else out there shoveling and worried about our sick and dying neighbor? Nope–I could’ve shoveled in the nude, and nobody would’ve seen me. Nobody else even bothered to tend to their own properties.
I imagine you feel about like I do today.
” The root cause of my troubles, as far as I could tell, was that my driveway was covered with a thick sheet of ice. ”
That’s just a correlated downstream event.
The root cause is that we’re guys.
Cheers
And therefore prone to occasional bouts of inexplicable stupidity.
Wow! What an adventure! Glad to hear you survived to tell the tale! Maybe a snow plow should go on the list of future purchases?
My dream purchase is a small tractor with all sorts of attachments, including a plow. But first I need a covered space to park it.
Tom you brought back fond (??) memories of life in North Carolina for a few years. When we bought our house and acreage complete with barn, two horses and a creek, we thought it was charming and beautiful It was- it was also spring and all sorts of stuff was blooming in the woods on our property and around the house! Being from Florida, we never even gave a thought to why the property had been on the market so long- house was solid- no problems- land was beautiful. Only thing is the drive to the house was straight down to the house from the road. The first time it snowed, rained and iced, and my husband tried to come home from work in his truck, he turned in and immediately slid at breakneck speed down the hill and landed sideways about two feet from the big picture window in the front of the house! Yikes!
We never quite enjoyed the charm of the snow quite so much after that, because it meant if you wanted to come home, you parked at the top of the hill on the road and slid/inched/walked down- meaning that to leave in the morning, you had to reverse that process. It’s a wonder we didn’t break a leg or something in all that winter charm!
I definitely feel for you!
Linda
I still love living in the hilly country, but this experience has made me re-think how to handle ice and snow. First order of business next time there’s ice in the forecast will be to park a vehicle at our nearest neighbor’s place. He’s on a flat area next to the highway and we can hike to his place.
Wow. Living in the country is an adventure.
It’s even more adventurous if a you’re a male and prone to occasional bouts of inexplicable stupidity.
Okay, well, this is all making me feel MUCH better about our short, suburban driveway and my husband’s odd snow-shoveling obsession (we have the cleanest driveway in the neighborhood).
I’m pretty sure our looooong sloping driveway would cure him of that obsession.
We don’t have a suburban driveway, but yes, my son and I are also well trained to clean the driveway as soon as possible…during Monday’s 7 inches, that meant shoveling 3 times. However, come Tuesday, it was clean and dry by 10 a.m. 🙂
Glad to hear that you’re alright; I do know about getting out of the house after a week! 🙂
Man, did that make me laugh! No room to make your own parking place near the road? My husband keeps a flat head shovel in his trunk for digging out his car at the train station. I’ve found nothing cracks through ice better than that shovel. If you can get under the lip of it, rips it right up. Just wish we could flip a switch and a heater under the drive way would heat up and melt all the ice. The technology must exist… just too expensive for the average home owner.
There’s not much space to the side of the highway to park. I’m afraid I’d be inviting someone to hit the car on a slippery day. Our neighbor Brian lives a relatively short hike from us. He has a big open driveway with only his Jeep parked in it, so that will the safe zone for a vehicle next time.
Tom, if you wanna slide down hills, you should do it the old fashioned way. I don’t think these extreme versions with cars and pick axes are gonna catch on. 😉 Glad you’re okay!
We’ve been immensely grateful for our Jeep this winter. I had to venture out twice during the nasty stuff last week and had to put it in 4 wheel drive just to get in and out of our driveway. My car wouldn’t have even made it out the garage.
A four-wheel something is definitely on the wish list.
The rain slicker on ice produced an impressive downhill speed. I’d try that instead of a sled sometime if not for the rocks on our land.
They do make steel snow shovels — might have to special order it if you’re not in a place with lots of snow. They also make “ice scrapers”. Not the little plastic things you remove ice from your windshield, but heavy steel wedges on a handle to scrape ice (or roofing materials, etc.) off surfaces. The scraper would probably do better than a pick.
We’ll definitely be upgrading our snow-and-ice removal equipment. The plastic snow shovels were fine when we were renting a house with a short driveway. Three years of rooting for a real snowstorm after moving to the farm, then a real snowstorm let me know I wasn’t quite prepared.
I pretty much had the same adventure, only in the city and on pavement. Before I attempted to tackle my own driveway, my neighbor across the street needed shoveling more urgently than I did–she is dying of brain cancer, and needed a clear driveway so visiting nurses and relatives could pull up and get out safely.
Two hours of straight ice hacking and snow shoveling, combined with about 50 lbs. worth of ice melt, and another 50 lbs. worth of traction sand, and I had two tire trails cleared, and the rest sanded real good.
Then I got back to my own driveway–thank god I don’t have to go to work, but Hubby does, and he’s on a cane. Another 2-hour stint with shoveling and hacking, plus another 50 lbs. of sand and ice melt each, and he had a trail from the front door, down the steps, out to the car, and around to the driver’s side door. Too tired to do any more, I salted and sanded behind his car to the street.
Yesterday was spent clearing street gutters and storm drains, because the snow and ice was thawing hot and heavy, making Lake Superior in front of everyone’s houses (only to freeze up again if left unattended).
“Oh, but you don’t WORK” they say, “so you must be full of energy!” I got a winter’s workout in the past few days, and soon, it’ll be lawn-mowing season (my favorite). I’m 52 with both kinds of arthritis–somebody’s got to do this work when others can’t do it for themselves. If I didn’t get out and do something (outside the kitchen), I’d have been dead a decade ago.
Was anybody else out there shoveling and worried about our sick and dying neighbor? Nope–I could’ve shoveled in the nude, and nobody would’ve seen me. Nobody else even bothered to tend to their own properties.
I imagine you feel about like I do today.
” The root cause of my troubles, as far as I could tell, was that my driveway was covered with a thick sheet of ice. ”
That’s just a correlated downstream event.
The root cause is that we’re guys.
Cheers
And therefore prone to occasional bouts of inexplicable stupidity.
You all survived! Now go out and buy all that equipment so that, inexplicably, next winter will be a low of 40.
Last winter, Southeast Michigan stores were perpetually out of salt. My husband shoveled our sidewalk down to the ice, but then re-packed some snow on top for traction.
As my dad always says, “Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.”
I guess the best time to buy winter supplies is before winter sets in. I asked if they had rock salt at Tractor Supply. As expected, they’d run out days before.
Wow! What an adventure! Glad to hear you survived to tell the tale! Maybe a snow plow should go on the list of future purchases?
My dream purchase is a small tractor with all sorts of attachments, including a plow. But first I need a covered space to park it.
Wow. Living in the country is an adventure.
It’s even more adventurous if a you’re a male and prone to occasional bouts of inexplicable stupidity.
If you had that big Kubota tractor with the blade in front that you know you always wanted you could scrape the road once or twice a year with it and still have it to play with the rest of the year. You could write it off against your chicken/egg business.
A tractor is definitely on the wish list.
Okay, well, this is all making me feel MUCH better about our short, suburban driveway and my husband’s odd snow-shoveling obsession (we have the cleanest driveway in the neighborhood).
I’m pretty sure our looooong sloping driveway would cure him of that obsession.
We don’t have a suburban driveway, but yes, my son and I are also well trained to clean the driveway as soon as possible…during Monday’s 7 inches, that meant shoveling 3 times. However, come Tuesday, it was clean and dry by 10 a.m. 🙂
Glad to hear that you’re alright; I do know about getting out of the house after a week! 🙂
Man, did that make me laugh! No room to make your own parking place near the road? My husband keeps a flat head shovel in his trunk for digging out his car at the train station. I’ve found nothing cracks through ice better than that shovel. If you can get under the lip of it, rips it right up. Just wish we could flip a switch and a heater under the drive way would heat up and melt all the ice. The technology must exist… just too expensive for the average home owner.
There’s not much space to the side of the highway to park. I’m afraid I’d be inviting someone to hit the car on a slippery day. Our neighbor Brian lives a relatively short hike from us. He has a big open driveway with only his Jeep parked in it, so that will the safe zone for a vehicle next time.
Tom, if you wanna slide down hills, you should do it the old fashioned way. I don’t think these extreme versions with cars and pick axes are gonna catch on. 😉 Glad you’re okay!
We’ve been immensely grateful for our Jeep this winter. I had to venture out twice during the nasty stuff last week and had to put it in 4 wheel drive just to get in and out of our driveway. My car wouldn’t have even made it out the garage.
A four-wheel something is definitely on the wish list.
The rain slicker on ice produced an impressive downhill speed. I’d try that instead of a sled sometime if not for the rocks on our land.
They do make steel snow shovels — might have to special order it if you’re not in a place with lots of snow. They also make “ice scrapers”. Not the little plastic things you remove ice from your windshield, but heavy steel wedges on a handle to scrape ice (or roofing materials, etc.) off surfaces. The scraper would probably do better than a pick.
We’ll definitely be upgrading our snow-and-ice removal equipment. The plastic snow shovels were fine when we were renting a house with a short driveway. Three years of rooting for a real snowstorm after moving to the farm, then a real snowstorm let me know I wasn’t quite prepared.
You got me laughing out loud with “It seemed plausible at the time.”
This sentence brought up so many (bad) memories!
I take there was a male involved in those memories?
You all survived! Now go out and buy all that equipment so that, inexplicably, next winter will be a low of 40.
Last winter, Southeast Michigan stores were perpetually out of salt. My husband shoveled our sidewalk down to the ice, but then re-packed some snow on top for traction.
As my dad always says, “Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.”
I guess the best time to buy winter supplies is before winter sets in. I asked if they had rock salt at Tractor Supply. As expected, they’d run out days before.
If you had that big Kubota tractor with the blade in front that you know you always wanted you could scrape the road once or twice a year with it and still have it to play with the rest of the year. You could write it off against your chicken/egg business.
A tractor is definitely on the wish list.
You got me laughing out loud with “It seemed plausible at the time.”
This sentence brought up so many (bad) memories!
I take there was a male involved in those memories?
The stores ran out of driveway salt before the last “ice event” last year in NC and the local garden store suggested a 46-0-0 fertilizer. We sprinkled it on our very, very steep driveway before the ice hit and it did a good job of keeping the ice soft underneath. We still had to shovel, but it was much easier than it would have been. I sprinkled some on shady areas that wouldn’t melt after the “event” and it did a good job of dissolving them as well. Also — my mother (in upstate NY) used to keep a large bag of cat litter in her trunk, to give the car extra weight in snow and also to dump around her tires if she got stuck to give her a little traction to get out — it worked!
Good suggestion. It’s probably easier to find fertilizer around here than rock salt.
I’m glad that you didn’t get hurt by banging your head on anything. That’s always a danger with sliding on ice. I kept expecting to read that you slid into the creek or as we call them around here, crick, LOL.
My brother in law has a dump truck that he uses for various things on the farm, including plowing and salting the very long and winding driveway. We are much further north, though, so I’m sure he gets more use out of than you might.
My dream machine (after I have a place to store it) is small tractor with a front-loader, snow plow, mower, backhoe, the works. Give me one of those, some attachment ought to be able to get rid of snow and ice.
Yes, be careful with the slipping on ice thing. You know that it’s a known side effect of low-carb eating, as late Dr.Atkins has discovered.
You may wish to look into a manual jackhammer. Buddy of mine use to keep one since water pooled at his house and froze solid. Pretty much a jack hammer spike with a long shaft. Then you use something like a post driver. But he would just lift the driver and let its weight fall down to hammer the ice. Worked decently enough. Probably would be better than the swinging pick axe.
Probably easier on the hands and arms.
Up here in Vermont, we have a little something I like to call “sand”. It’s kind of like rocks, only smaller. When you put it down on ice, it somehow deslippifies it. And best of all, this miracle substance is available at Home Depot for $3 for a 60lb bag.
That’s my winter driving tip. Good luck, looks like warmer weather is on the way. (Not exactly here, though. I’m filled with envy toward anyone who lives in a place where this “sand” is not necessary from October to May every year.)
The stores ran out of driveway salt before the last “ice event” last year in NC and the local garden store suggested a 46-0-0 fertilizer. We sprinkled it on our very, very steep driveway before the ice hit and it did a good job of keeping the ice soft underneath. We still had to shovel, but it was much easier than it would have been. I sprinkled some on shady areas that wouldn’t melt after the “event” and it did a good job of dissolving them as well. Also — my mother (in upstate NY) used to keep a large bag of cat litter in her trunk, to give the car extra weight in snow and also to dump around her tires if she got stuck to give her a little traction to get out — it worked!
Good suggestion. It’s probably easier to find fertilizer around here than rock salt.
I’m glad that you didn’t get hurt by banging your head on anything. That’s always a danger with sliding on ice. I kept expecting to read that you slid into the creek or as we call them around here, crick, LOL.
My brother in law has a dump truck that he uses for various things on the farm, including plowing and salting the very long and winding driveway. We are much further north, though, so I’m sure he gets more use out of than you might.
My dream machine (after I have a place to store it) is small tractor with a front-loader, snow plow, mower, backhoe, the works. Give me one of those, some attachment ought to be able to get rid of snow and ice.
Yes, be careful with the slipping on ice thing. You know that it’s a known side effect of low-carb eating, as late Dr.Atkins has discovered.
You may wish to look into a manual jackhammer. Buddy of mine use to keep one since water pooled at his house and froze solid. Pretty much a jack hammer spike with a long shaft. Then you use something like a post driver. But he would just lift the driver and let its weight fall down to hammer the ice. Worked decently enough. Probably would be better than the swinging pick axe.
Probably easier on the hands and arms.
Up here in Vermont, we have a little something I like to call “sand”. It’s kind of like rocks, only smaller. When you put it down on ice, it somehow deslippifies it. And best of all, this miracle substance is available at Home Depot for $3 for a 60lb bag.
That’s my winter driving tip. Good luck, looks like warmer weather is on the way. (Not exactly here, though. I’m filled with envy toward anyone who lives in a place where this “sand” is not necessary from October to May every year.)
We bought our tractor over five years ago, and just got a covered space for it about a month ago. It’s just like leaving your car outside, so needing a cover shouldn’t keep you from taking the plunge. We don’t know what we would do without ours. In fact, we often could use two.
I partly don’t want it exposed to the elements and partly don’t want it sitting outside for all to see when we go away for a week.
We bought our tractor over five years ago, and just got a covered space for it about a month ago. It’s just like leaving your car outside, so needing a cover shouldn’t keep you from taking the plunge. We don’t know what we would do without ours. In fact, we often could use two.
I partly don’t want it exposed to the elements and partly don’t want it sitting outside for all to see when we go away for a week.
Don’t know much about kickstarter but I saw this on FB today and thought of this post. Looks like a cool idea (if it isn’t a bust like most “as seen on TV” crap.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/872387109/zipgripgo-alternative-traction-aid-for-snow-and-mu
That actually would be cool, assuming it doesn’t snap as soon as it hits real ice.
Don’t know much about kickstarter but I saw this on FB today and thought of this post. Looks like a cool idea (if it isn’t a bust like most “as seen on TV” crap.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/872387109/zipgripgo-alternative-traction-aid-for-snow-and-mu
That actually would be cool, assuming it doesn’t snap as soon as it hits real ice.
Fun times, eh 🙂
Sand and salt, must have items. And in your situation, worth having several bags of each in the corner of the barn. Ice melt is “ok”…but expensive.
One of the tricks I’ve always used (until we moved to Florida) was to put a mix of rock salt and sand down BEFORE the storm comes. Pre-treat at least the hilly parts of your driveway. It makes things much easier to deal with, as the ice can’t really “bond” with your driveway.
Then, when you want to go somewhere, toss a layer of salt/sand on top of where you’re going to drive, and off you go. You’ll also find that when you pre-treat and you get that first bit of warmer air?…your driveway will free up much faster.
Whenever we had a storm coming in, I’d pre-treat the driveway, and then put 1 or 2 5gal buckets of salt/sand in the trunk of the car.
Of course, by the time you get another storm like this one, you’ll have forgotten all about this and any other advice in yet another one of those inexplicable bouts of stupidity. I find they recur at an accelerated pace 😉
Also, be careful with things like pick axes, etc. If your driveway is paved, you end up doing long term damage to your asphalt. Pre-treat will pretty much eliminate the need for such measures anyway 🙂
Jim
All good advice. As with most minor disasters, we don’t figure out how to prepare until we live through it once.
Fun times, eh 🙂
Sand and salt, must have items. And in your situation, worth having several bags of each in the corner of the barn. Ice melt is “ok”…but expensive.
One of the tricks I’ve always used (until we moved to Florida) was to put a mix of rock salt and sand down BEFORE the storm comes. Pre-treat at least the hilly parts of your driveway. It makes things much easier to deal with, as the ice can’t really “bond” with your driveway.
Then, when you want to go somewhere, toss a layer of salt/sand on top of where you’re going to drive, and off you go. You’ll also find that when you pre-treat and you get that first bit of warmer air?…your driveway will free up much faster.
Whenever we had a storm coming in, I’d pre-treat the driveway, and then put 1 or 2 5gal buckets of salt/sand in the trunk of the car.
Of course, by the time you get another storm like this one, you’ll have forgotten all about this and any other advice in yet another one of those inexplicable bouts of stupidity. I find they recur at an accelerated pace 😉
Also, be careful with things like pick axes, etc. If your driveway is paved, you end up doing long term damage to your asphalt. Pre-treat will pretty much eliminate the need for such measures anyway 🙂
Jim
All good advice. As with most minor disasters, we don’t figure out how to prepare until we live through it once.