Anyone Getting Ready For Winter?

[espo]

9 hours ago, High octane said:

I'm NEVER ready for winter. I have started putting things in the shed, got the snow blower out and shovel too. Also bought some driveway salt, put the garden hose in the recycle bin, and I need to clean the gutters or call someone to do it. I also need to have the landscaper here to clean up the leaves in the yard as well.  As I get older, I can't do all the work myself anymore. Sighhhhh.

I'm ALWAYS ready for spring & summer though.

An FYI on the driveway salt. Depending on the chemical makeup of the salt products on the market for this purpose many can and will really damage any concrete surface. Local TV station was pointing out that the more expensive versions are usually the best to use. I don't use any but several of my neighbors have thru the years and are now having to replace driveways and walkways. Their explanation about the more expensive salt was that the chemical makeup was the least damaging and that the chemicals were also more expensive for the manufactures. I'm cheep so I use the solar method to melt the ice.           

[Pete J.]

1 hour ago, espo said:

An FYI on the driveway salt. Depending on the chemical makeup of the salt products on the market for this purpose many can and will really damage any concrete surface. Local TV station was pointing out that the more expensive versions are usually the best to use. I don't use any but several of my neighbors have thru the years and are now having to replace driveways and walkways. Their explanation about the more expensive salt was that the chemical makeup was the least damaging and that the chemicals were also more expensive for the manufactures. I'm cheep so I use the solar method to melt the ice.           

Salt eh?  I remember getting runway deicer back when I was in the Air Force and lived in northern Michigan.  It was urea based.  Didn't have the caustic properties of salt and didn't kill the grass around the edge of the sidewalk.  In fact it did just the opposite.  We always had lush green grass in the spring.  They also gave it out in the summer for use as a fertilizer. ?

[ChrisBcritter]

But did your driveway smell like the alley behind a bar? 

[89AKurt]

Guess I can say that I prepared for winter.  It's still beautiful weather in Arizona, so I could keep the door open between my office/hobby room and wood shop.  I cleared off my bench and shelves and paint booth, and made new shelving.  Should have done this last century.

Bench before:

Bench after:

Paint booth before:

Paint booth after:

Amazing what I put up with all these years.  Now it can drop below freezing. ?

 

[stavanzer]

Well, It was 82 yesterday, so Winter is still just a concept. I do need to put Stabil in the Mower though. 

[Tom Geiger]

Leaves and sticks!  This is the time of season where they'll come every Wednesday for pickup.  My goal is to make the most of this and the past two weeks I've had over 20 bags and all 4 pails out.  They usually come between 7-7:30am, but they didn't come until 2:30pm, which allowed me to get another bunch o' bags out!   Yup, already did some 50 bags stuffed heavy and tight.  And haven't made a dent!

[Rob Hall]

My leaf pile on the tree lawn gets bigger and bigger.  I've seen signs they are picking up leaves this week, but I saw the city vacuum truck go down my street yesterday and they didn't stop...

[High octane]

The weather was decent today so I got up on the ladder and removed the wet leaves from the gutters and poured water down the downspouts to make sure that they're clear of debris. The landscaper is supposed to stop by later and give me an estimate on removing the leaves from my lawn as I can no longer do it myself.

[Dave Ambrose]

Winter’s arrived with a vengeance. We’ve had 2+ inches in the last 36 hours. More is on the way. Before you start laughing, this all runs off. 

[Eshaver]

I've now moved to Bend Oregon and it's been the BESTESTEST thing I could have done !!!! We've already experenced snow and in the Santiam pass , between Salem and Bend Oregon, we've already seen snow !!!!

[Rob Hall]

I like Oregon..I need to get out there and see an old coworker buddy of mine that lives in Beaverton (we worked together in the 00s when we both lived in Denver).  I love the coast, places like Cannon Beach, Seaside, Astoria, and driving up the Columbia River Gorge...

[PatW]

I'm pleased that we live in the Midlands in the UK. Early this year we had just 2 and a half days of snow, I say that but just about 6-8 inches. Here in the UK if we get 6-12 inches anywhere in the whole of Great Britain, everything comes to a grinding halt!

I'm glad we don't live in Canada where our eldest son lives as they can have 8 months of bad weather around -40c and just 4 months of Summer +40c. He has a big pick-up to get to his truck as he hauls from Calgary down into the USA most days, being out for 2-3 days at a time. All tyres with studs on that and on his Golf R, the second one of these he's had and his VW Tiguan also on studs. 

This was the extent of our snow in February this year, note my cabin, but didn't stop my modelmaking in there!

[ewetwo]

We had a few inched a couple of days ago. I hadn't started the snow blower at that point but it started soon the first pull. Whew!

[crazyjim]

Had to finally break down and turn on the heat inside.

[gtx6970]

I live less than 50 miles from the Mexico border. ( moved here last year from Northern Ky )

 

Bought a house at the base of the Santa Rita mountains south of Tucson Az and LOVE it.  If I never see snow again, Im good

 

So all you guys that have snow,,,Keep it there ,,,,PLEASE

Edited November 22, 2019 by gtx6970

[thatz4u]

12 hours ago, gtx6970 said:

I live less than 50 miles from the Mexico border. ( moved here last year from Northern Ky )

 

Bought a house at the base of the Santa Rita mountains south of Tucson Az and LOVE it.  If I never see snow again, Im good

 

So all you guys that have snow,,,Keep it there ,,,,PLEASE

Thanks, Bill..........

[espo]

The leaf issue this time of year can be a real pain. We have several large trees in our back yard and a very big Pin Oak in the front, it will drop it's leaves in the spring. The trees in the back yard seem to wait and see when I clean up the yard and then another one of them will dump it's leaves. Wednesday if had gathered all of the leaves in the middle of the yard and mulched them with both my mower and the ridder mower. They mulch down to almost nothing and are great for feeding the grass. Thursday we had wind and the yard looks like I never touched it. This will be going on a couple of more times before the trees are all done. My work area in the basement and is nice and warm and I looks out on the yard. All part of living on the edge of the prairie I guess.         

[my66s55]

20 hours ago, crazyjim said:

Had to finally break down and turn on the heat inside.

Must have gotten below 70. I use a space heater to warm up my computer and modeling rooms. I built this house in 2005 thru 2007 as totally energy efficient, The power company paid me money when I moved in. My last electric bill was less than $50.00. My highest in the summer was less than $80.00. it's not the cold, but the dampness that gets me. As far as modeling goes, it's the best time to paint. The humidity drops to a usable level.

[Tom Geiger]

31 minutes ago, espo said:

The leaf issue this time of year can be a real pain. We have several large trees in our back yard and a very big Pin Oak in the front, it will drop it's leaves in the spring. The trees in the back yard seem to wait and see when I clean up the yard and then another one of them will dump it's leaves. Wednesday if had gathered all of the leaves in the middle of the yard and mulched them with both my mower and the ridder mower. They mulch down to almost nothing and are great for feeding the grass. Thursday we had wind and the yard looks like I never touched it. This will be going on a couple of more times before the trees are all done. My work area in the basement and is nice and warm and I looks out on the yard. All part of living on the edge of the prairie I guess.         

Yup! I have a wooded acre in Pennsylvania. Most of the trees are in the backyard and the leaves can get two feet deep if left untouched, so you have to keep after it.  The trees in my front yard dump early and if I get at the leaves am I done?  Nope, the wind will blow all the leave down the hill from the wooded front yard next door.  I've already put out the equivalent of 50 bags for the first two pick ups, and it looks like I haven't touched the yard!  

[espo]

1 minute ago, Tom Geiger said:

Yup! I have a wooded acre in Pennsylvania. Most of the trees are in the backyard and the leaves can get two feet deep if left untouched, so you have to keep after it.  The trees in my front yard dump early and if I get at the leaves am I done?  Nope, the wind will blow all the leave down the hill from the wooded front yard next door.  I've already put out the equivalent of 50 bags for the first two pick ups, and it looks like I haven't touched the yard!  

The other problem is that if you do runout of leaves you can count on your neighbors leaves getting blowing into your yard. 

[Rob Hall]

6 minutes ago, espo said:

The other problem is that if you do runout of leaves you can count on your neighbors leaves getting blowing into your yard. 

That happened to me the last couple years after the last leaf pickup.

The city leaf vacuum truck came down my street about a 1/2 hr ago, so the huge pile out front is gone.  But there are still many leaves in the oaks in front and in back, so there is still work to be done. 

[espo]

I'm lucky since most of my neighbors are pretty good about mulching up their leaves, but there're a couple that just seem to want to wait till spring to deal with it. 

[Tom Geiger]

16 minutes ago, espo said:

I'm lucky since most of my neighbors are pretty good about mulching up their leaves, but there're a couple that just seem to want to wait till spring to deal with it. 

On either side of me.  The guy downhill from me seldom does anything in his yard. I'm looking down on a large branch that's been sitting in the middle of his back yard for months.

Uphill, the single lady who lived there waited until every blasted leaf was off her trees to have the lawn service come once!  As a result probably about half of her bounty wound up in my yard.   That house changed hands over the summer and a couple from Texas moved in.  They are overwhelmed with the leaves, said they had nothing like this before.  But they're putting bags out front so that's a good start.

[Rob Hall]

The problem I've had the 3 Autumns I've been here is the house to my north is unoccupied--it was in a trust, the owners passed about a decade ago, and their son drops by once in a while (it sold back in the summer and is now getting remodeled)...so no one picks up the leaves.   Though most of the leaves in their driveway and front yard come from my tree (huge oak in my front yard a couple feet from the property line). 

 

[crazyjim]

Sunny and 78 here today and predicted to be about the same tomorrow.  Gotta turn the heat off.