TULSA, Okla. — Dealing with our recent ice, sleet, and snow can be tedious and time-consuming.
Some folks want to know the best way to deal with the danger on their driveways and sidewalks. Mike McHugh lived through the beastly blizzards of South Dakota ... and the relatively tame winter storms of Oklahoma.
"Sometimes it's a big challenge," McHugh said.
A daunting challenge at times, but he knows how to handle it — the snow, the sleet, the ice. Although the ice can certainly be more tricky and certainly treacherous.
"We typically use ice melt, but you can use sand, cat litter and calcium chloride to get rid of the ice," he said.
"It gets snow packed and the compounds don't penetrate the ice."
The experts at Consumer Reports recommend attacking that ice and sleet and snow as soon as you can, as often as you can.
"The real tricks are dealing with the snow as it piles up, not letting it form larger pieces of ice," says Consumer Reports Home and Garden Editor Paul Hope.
Spreading that ice melt, Hope says, should be your first choice, if you can find it. But he knows in places like Oklahoma, where it's not used all that much, the shelves can empty quickly.
Maybe hit up a neighbor, he suggests, or a friend, or just a few handfuls.
"If you're able to get your hands on any ice melt, one trick is to mix it pretty heavily with sand, bag of sand from hardware stores or play centers."
A thrifty idea that serves two important purposes.
"And that actually helps improve the traction when you're walking and helps you spread that ice melt kind of evenly and get as much coverage as you can while using as little as possible."
The folks at Consumer Reports say there are a lot of homespun methods of dealing with ice... with items such as rubbing alcohol, dish soap, vinegar, even coffee grounds. There's a long list online.
"It's easy to see why some people turn to these in moments of desperation," Hope says. "The simple fact it is they were effective, you'd probably see people so them a lot more, instead of going to the home centers buying up all the ice melt."
So when it comes to handling ice and snow and sleet, Mike seems to be ahead of the curve. Sometimes it takes some sweat.
"You just got to shovel the snow and keep at it."
Mixing in a little humor, McHugh says. "I would wait until the temperature warms up."
Waiting it out, he thinks positively, in front of the fireplace.
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