@Joeblow,
Yeah we just use a snow blower as our driveway is so short. They always crap out at the worst time though or a tire goes flat,
@Tai Chi,
They have inflatable tires? How come not hard rubber ones?
@Ragman,
Wouldn't they freeze up hard like massive hockey pucks?
@glitterbag,
I guess so. Obviously, I hadn’t considered that. Though I’m not sure if they did if it mattered? Perhaps they’d have no traction?
I guess when you have inflated tires, you need to keep a pump handy.
@Region Philbis,
Yikes. You people surely take weather seriously.
In Sin City today it's cooled off a bit. Still around 30C but the humidity has dropped a bit so you don't constantly feel like a wet rag.
@Ragman,
Ragman we have the hard rubber ones on our wheelbarrow and the last time a tire went flat on the snow blower Mr Fix-it filled it with expandable foam -- true! Now it is like a solid tire.
@Tai Chi,
I do the same thing with those kinds of tires.
@edgarblythe,
Sure easier than trying to patch them
Well, this is going to be a challenge. We got 4 - 6 inches of sleet dropped on us yesterday. It's covered with a half inch of powder but you're actually walking on a thick layer of ice. I can scrape it off of my concrete step but I can't shovel a path. The snow blower can't break through the solid ice and merely rides on top of it. Sub-freezing temperatures will be around for a while so it's not going anywhere. I've never had to confront anything like this before. Fortunately I wasn't planning on going anywhere. But will I really have to wait until spring?
@hightor,
Quote:but I can't shovel a path.
do you have a dirt shovel?
those work pretty well with ice... makes a hell of a racket too, in case lazy neighbors are sleeping in... 🙃
if not, give it a healthy dose of rock salt and wait til the sun melts it a bit.
i haven't been out yet to see what awaits...
@Region Philbis,
Yeah, I envision cutting it into blocks with a garden spade and lifting out small sections one at a time. For some reason I'm not in a hurry.
@Region Philbis,
I had what used to be called a coal shovel til someone walked off with it. the blade was solid steel and rigid, not a flimsy steel i suppose because coal was fairly heavy and dense. the flat bottom woks perfectly for chopping thru ice and the dense crusty snow snow plos leave after they've gone thru the streets.
steel handles also work much better than plastic handles.
@Region Philbis,
Yeah I was going to suggest the ice melt...I picked up a huge bag last wek.
But I guess that won't help if you don't have any on hand seeing you can't get out.
We have the same thing right now. But the sun is it ..I'd wait a bit and the sun help you out.
@Linkat,
we lucked out -- only a 1/2" of ice.
it still took over an hour to clear the steps, path, sidewalk and car...
Looks like a lot of people are going to get hammered by old man winter in the next couple of days!
Millions of Americans will be forced into an involuntary polar plunge this week
Quote:
After a mild end to the weekend for many states, Old Man Winter will make a comeback as we start off the new workweek.
“Temperatures will be 10 to 20 degrees below average over the northern tier states by Monday morning,” the Weather Prediction Center said Saturday.
And that’s just the beginning. The thermometer will slip to 30 to 40 degrees below normal by Tuesday and Wednesday, as a strong high pressure system begins to spread Arctic air farther south and east.
Many cities will see a sharp polar plunge in a 48-hour span.
with a measly 4" total by my count, we have lucked out this winter.
thus far...
I lost power for five days over Xmas; it was cold (15º-20º) at night but manageable. I got the woodstoves cranked up and I've got two propane space heaters. Well yesterday the temperature kept dropping all day and by night it was -12º and still dropping. I thought to myself, as long as there's power I'll be okay. Then, after supper, the power conked out. With these temperatures and a biting west wind gusting to 45 mph I knew I could be in serious trouble if it stayed out overnight or longer.
My main concern was the plumbing, specifically the heating pipes from the boiler which run in a crawl space. I figured I'd have to drain them and I wasn't looking forward to it. It was now down to -15º. I looked at an outage map and noticed that all the reports were from a cluster in my township. That gave me some hope – maybe it was one incident and not a bunch of separate ones that would have to be addressed individually. So I waited a bit longer and at 11:30 pm the lights came back on.
Whew! Everyone bitches about the power company, especially after that Xmas outage, but they sent out a crew in -15º weather, knowing that many people would suffer and many water pipes would burst if they waited until morning. When I got up this morning it was -16º. When it's that cold I always like to take a pitcher of boiling water outside, send the water flying through the air, and watch it vaporize instantly – hadn't been able to do that in years. It's a balmy 3º now and tomorrow the temps will moderate.
