We like winter. We don't mind the cold until it becomes too unreasonable and we are happy with snow no matter how much there is. What we hate is freezing rain and ice. In the recent past, it seems one cannot have winter without it.
Many places were hit with crazy weather in the past couple of weeks. I wish we were the exception. Twice in a row, we got a couple of inches of freezing rain on top of several feet of snow. Oh goodie. The first time around, it was followed by a snowfall, so everything remained relatively reasonable. The second time around, however, freezing rain was all we got.
Lovely, isn't it? The entire place is covered with ice. With about four feet of snow below it.
The first time the ice layer was quite thin and easy to break through. With further snow on top, getting around was not easy, but it was possible. This time the ice is thick.
Poor Cookie is not impressed. Where we did have trails made in the deep snow, they are full of ice and cannot be used. Everywhere else there is thick enough ice to slip around on it until ultimately breaking through. Hazardous mess.
The first day after the freezing rain, we used up all of our sand just to get down the steps to take Cookie potty right under the tree beside the house. It was impossible to make it anywhere else, including our truck.
We do, however, have a wood stove.
I remembered that back in my old country, where many people had coal stoves to heat their houses, they would use the resulting ashes to treat their icy sidewalks and steps. Ash is environmentally friendly--in fact, it's a fertilizer--and harmless to dog feet.
Ashes provide amazingly good friction, even if all you have is the fine dust form. And no matter how fine and light, the wind might blow it away from your hand but won't blow it off once it lands on the ice you're treating. The friction from ashes is something you wouldn't believe--it is way more effective than sand.
Not only do ashes provide great traction no matter how slick the ice is, once they get hit by the sun, they also literally eat into the ice.
Take a look above what the ash did to the clear solid ice I depicted earlier just after one sunny day. Perhaps because they are dark, or maybe they have some further properties that make them melt the ice they touch, the ashes eat right through it.
Many places were hit with crazy weather in the past couple of weeks. I wish we were the exception. Twice in a row, we got a couple of inches of freezing rain on top of several feet of snow. Oh goodie. The first time around, it was followed by a snowfall, so everything remained relatively reasonable. The second time around, however, freezing rain was all we got.
The first time the ice layer was quite thin and easy to break through. With further snow on top, getting around was not easy, but it was possible. This time the ice is thick.
Poor Cookie is not impressed. Where we did have trails made in the deep snow, they are full of ice and cannot be used. Everywhere else there is thick enough ice to slip around on it until ultimately breaking through. Hazardous mess.
The first day after the freezing rain, we used up all of our sand just to get down the steps to take Cookie potty right under the tree beside the house. It was impossible to make it anywhere else, including our truck.
We never used commercial de-icers because of the regard for both the environment and our dogs' feet.
We do, however, have a wood stove.
I remembered that back in my old country, where many people had coal stoves to heat their houses, they would use the resulting ashes to treat their icy sidewalks and steps. Ash is environmentally friendly--in fact, it's a fertilizer--and harmless to dog feet.
Takeaways about using ashes on icy surfaces.
Ashes provide amazingly good friction, even if all you have is the fine dust form. And no matter how fine and light, the wind might blow it away from your hand but won't blow it off once it lands on the ice you're treating. The friction from ashes is something you wouldn't believe--it is way more effective than sand.
Not only do ashes provide great traction no matter how slick the ice is, once they get hit by the sun, they also literally eat into the ice.
Take a look above what the ash did to the clear solid ice I depicted earlier just after one sunny day. Perhaps because they are dark, or maybe they have some further properties that make them melt the ice they touch, the ashes eat right through it.
That's really interesting, I've never heard of using ash on ice. It might be dirty but it's certainly organic & non toxic!
ReplyDeleteDirty is a relative term :-) Doesn't carry into the house as much as sand does, actually.
DeleteWe used to do this all the time when we had a wood stove. It works great.
ReplyDelete