This past week, we had our first cold snap of the season in Oklahoma. It got down to a blustery 27 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday morning. BRRRRRR!!!!
It reminded me that now is the time to stock up on my winter driveway and walkway clearing supplies.
Oklahoma weather is unpredictable. Every few years, we’ll get hit with a big dump of snow or a city-covering layer of ice. But many winters, we’ll just get a light dusting of the former and some quick-to-melt patches of the latter.
Because severe winter weather is an intermittent phenomenon, there’s a tendency for us Oklahomans to get complacent when it comes to prepping for it.
It isn’t until a snow or ice storm is imminent that people start stocking up on ice melt, sand, and snow shovels. But by then, it’s too late.
I learned this lesson several years ago, shortly after we moved into our current home. It was the first time we had lived in our own house.
We didn’t get much winter weather the first winter we lived in our home, but the second winter, we had a pretty big ice/snow storm, and I wasn’t prepared for it at all. I headed over to the nearby Home Depot to stock up on some ice melt so I could sprinkle some on my front walkway and long, inclined driveway to proactively mitigate the slick build-up.
But it was all gone.
All the other home improvement stores and retailers were out, too.
We ended up getting hit by a ton of ice, and walking up our walkway and driving up our driveway became a dangerous, treacherous proposition for a solid week. My chipping away at it with a shovel didn’t make much of a dent in things. Everything would just ice up again in the night.
So now I buy a few bags of ice melt and a bag of sand early in the fall.
Some years I don’t have to use them because we don’t get any winter weather, but when we do get hit, they’ve been nice to have on hand.
For those of you living in states that get regular winter weather, you’re probably already accustomed to stocking up on supplies to help keep your property safe and clear of snow and ice.
But, if you’re like me, and live in a state with sporadic winter weather, consider this a friendly suggestion to stock up on that ice melt and sand now. While you’re at it, make sure your snow shovels are in good shape and ready for driveway clearing.
As Woodrow Call says in Lonesome Dove, “Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.”
