01/04/2025
Survival tips for suburbanites who find themselves needing to tap into their “country boys can survive” vault.
1. Garage swept out & reorganized a bit for Winter’s first impending storm. (Need to really thin this place out going forward. Still waaay too much useless stuff in there.)
2. Work trailer tucked away & off the driveway.
3.Battery tinder’s keeping things juicy.
4. All windshield’s & side mirrors draped with their proper outdoor ice coverings. (Supposed to be a THICK 7 layer cake of frozen precip, then MASSIVE snow totals? We shall see?)
5. Snow/Ice melt ready to rock, but we’ll wait on application so the rain doesn’t just wash it into the street. *Keep in mind “Sodium Chloride” is the heavy hitter when it comes to Ice Melt and keeps operating at extremely low temps, but it also is super corrosive to concrete, rebar, metal railings and our automobiles. Although you can’t avoid it on the streets, you can choose a safer option for your driveway, sidewalk and patios. These safer alternatives are better for your pets paws, plants, trees, shrubs & turf when things get shoveled back into the surrounding landscaping. Explains why we’re always reseeding in around where all that corrosive salt drenched snow gets piled up over the winter.
6. Highly recommend these handy rechargeable lithium battery bumps for you & your family members for “if” & when you may need a jumpstart? Who wants to call & wait on AAA or try and flag someone down with battery cables?The charge lasts a loooong time and you can even charge your phone off them, run a laptop off em’ etc. plus has a handy flashlight too for emergencies. They are a safer alternative for those of you who might even forget the proper safe sequence of how to hook up battery cables to a stranger’s battery.
7. Chainsaw gassed up in case we get a doozy ice storm that knocks down branches. We’ll be able to saw our way out of the house or help rescue a neighbor. Ha!
8. Topped off all the fuel jugs for resupply.
9. And yes, I bought a “telescopic roof rake” for these heavy snows. Some years back, I used it to drag some of the heavy wet snow off the gutters. If you didn’t get a chance to blow out your gutters from the last leaf dump in your area, those heavy wet leaves will turn to ice and the weight of that snow & ice can be more than what your brackets can handle. Plus the melting and refreezing process might be ongoing if these cold temps stick around.
10. Keep a broom handy for quickly getting snow off the cars if your scraper doesn’t have a broom/brush attached.
11. Also, make sure to keep your ice scraper inside tonight in case your car doors are too frozen to access the scraper you’ll need to chisel your way in? I’m from the old school of learning this the hard way and having to use a cassette tape, or my blockbuster video card to scrape my windows.
12. Hoses unhooked from hydrants.
13. Fresh cord of firewood stacked & ready to burn if power goes out, but we also have a gas fireplace that burns both, plus a gas stove for whatever this event throws our way.
14. Now, we’re “whole bean” coffee people. So, if our coffee grinder runs on electricity we might wanna grind some coffee beans to in advance to use in our pour over when/if there’s a power outage. I mean, if you ain’t got coffee, you ain’t gonna survive this storm…PERIOD!
15. We have a cast iron skillet at the ready for some campfire/ gas stove cookin’ with zero need for electricity. Rice, beef, bacon, garlic, avacodos, bone broth, pasta, tuna, raw honey. Bring it on Old Man Winter!
