In the north 800 pounds of sand on my 1/4 mile drive does 1/2 way.. EODMSgt how long is your driveway? Yes my town asked why I needed so much. Town sand truck came up I had done 1/2.. He did front hill to get out.. edit to add if ya need to and rock salt becomes unavailable.. water softener salt pellets are larger and will Swiss cheese the ice so bucket of tractor can break it up..
Good point. I only have 150' of driveway plus another 50' of sidewalks to cover. And who's to say we don't get into a freeze/thaw pattern, or a rapid succession of ice storms. We'll see...
Your warmer but here sand in cold snaps freezes.. so you add/mix a bag of salt in barrel keeps it soo you can shovel it out here I am giving all these gems of knowledge away ok since its FHC
That's what I do too. Well, I didn't mix the salt in at the DPW yard but I mix it in with the 5 gallon buckets I keep on the front porch and in the rear of the house. So far the 55 gallon barrel hasn't frozen yet, but it was bone dry when I put it in.
We had one growing up (our driveway had a good slope) and I don't know why I haven't set up a sand barrel yet. Tired of lugging 5-gallon buckets around. Something like the one below but with more of a lip to cover the opening so the mix doesn't get wet. We have a similar setup where the town has two sites where residents can get a salt/sand mix for free. Not going to lug a 55-gallon drum there to fill it up but would make several trips filling up 5-gallon buckets to put in the drum at home (one of the sand sites is not far from the post office and I have to go there every day anyway since they don't deliver mail in our sleepy little village). Driveway isn't that long but I also have the drive going past the sheds to the wood lot to do. I've learned over the years how to make 5 gallons of sand/salt go a long way and it typically takes about 10 gallons to do the area well enough for safe walking and driving.
99 lbs fell this past week by a dog induced catalyst but there was no stopping the motion since the driveway was ice underneath the thin snow. Sore for a couple of days, is all. I went up to get the mail when we had guests over between Christmas and New Years and fell on the ice, I thought it was in secret but as soon as I got in the house, some of the women asked if I was okay after falling..... "Oh, you saw that, huh?" "We did but watched you get up relatively quick so thought all was well." Yup, there is no more bouncing when you land. I always try to tuck my chin onto my chest as I am going down.
Slipped and fell on a patch of black ice in 2000 and had to have an MCL repair. Slipped on ice while walking dog about 10 days ago. I was going one way and Bucky decided to go the other way while crossing large patch of ice. I didn't go down but twisted the same knee I hurt in 2000. Both MCL and ACL are hurting. Feels like a strain more than a tear. Time will tell. Knee brace back on for now. It helps. Ice sucks. I've used more salt this year than the last 4 years combined. Snow blower hasn't been used yet this year. Leaf blower and cheap shovel have done all the work. Be safe!
