Digging Out

This last weekend proved to be a big one as we picked up about a foot and a half of new snow out of a four day long storm. It’s been fun trying to dig ourselves out of this one, especially with a gravel driveway. Challenges aside, the snow is beautiful to look at and goes a long way to stave off fire season in the spring and summer months.

The county doesn’t use any de-icers up here because there’s a lot of people who are against their environmental impacts. There have been a lot of meetings and outcry lately because the city and the county would like to use de-icers on most of the northland roads. I think it’s a great idea. I would rather be driving on safe roads then to be dealing with extremely icy hills and slide offs. As long as we don’t see trees dying off and wildlife croaking on the side of the road, it seems okay to me.

There are some ways to deal with snow and ice and be a little more environmentally cautious too. It has been shown that salt can damage soil, plants, crumble concrete driveways and sidewalks, contaminate ground water supplies, rust cars and even be tracked into the house where it can be a problem for pets and children. Obviously, the best way to avoid all that danger is to just use some good ‘ol fashioned backbreaking work and shovel and scrape your driveway. The best time to get out and do it is actually during the snowfall before it becomes hard and icy, freezing to your driveway. I’ve also found tackling it during sunshine is another great trick because the icy chunks are beginning to melt and will usually scrape easily after just a few minutes of sun exposure.

If you happen to be in the process of building a new home or renovating, think about your driveway placement and the sun exposure it gets. I’ve seen plenty of south and east facing driveways ice free a day or two after snow. But a ton of north and west facing driveways that look more like a skating rink a week after a storm. If you do need to use ice melter, there are some safer alternatives to salt-based deicers. One product is called Safe Paw and is apparently pet, child and environmentally friendly.

Another fun tip I learned is about avoiding those chemical laced windshield cleaner/deicers for your wiper fluid. Apparently you mix one part water to two parts plain ‘ol vinegar or rubbing alcohol, whichever you happen to have on hand. Supposedly it doesn’t freeze and helps keep the ice from building up on your windshield while you’re driving down the highway. I’m going to have to try that one out myself!