ice-remover

[franksolich]

We got hit by ice during the night last night.

Ice is my Enemy, with a capital "E".

Better sleet, snow, rain, hail, cold, wind, than ice.

I think it has something to do with my slipping on ice and busting my elbow the morning the first George Bush left office, because after that, whereas I'd always been wary of ice, I developed a real phobia about it.

It's not a matter of importance at the moment--it can wait until I head to the big city later this week--but anyway, does anyone have any favorite sort of ice-remover?

I was always using cat-litter in the past, just plain cheap baked-clay cat litter, no other ingredient, and while that was okay, it didn't quite hack it.

There doesn't seem to be any reason to be too concerned about "environmental damage," given that this is the Sandhills of Nebraska, where there's not many chemicals around anyway, and the soil on this particular piece of property is unusually rich and constantly enriched.  Plus that I use things sparingly.

[FreeBorn]

Rock salt is my friend 



This stuff gets the job done. I go through about 200 lbs of it in 25 lb bags each year. Living in a village with sidewalks keeps a fairly regular parade of folks on their daily walks going by my place, many of them elderly. The last thing I want to see is someone's granny down on the sidewalk out front so I do stay on top of keeping it clear.

Ice is evil stuff. Just last week on my way to work I hit a patch of black ice on a bridge over the Genesee river. I'm lucky there was no oncoming traffic because I was all over that bridge. Now I can see the skid marks I left every day on my way home, still gives me the creeps.

Years ago while working second shift I went to pick up my lunch order at 9:00 p.m. The door to the pizza place just happened to be right next to the door of my second floor walk-up apartment at the time. I went in and got my order and when I came out I found a man there lying on the sidewalk moaning in pain. The sidewalk was sloped at that section and it had a roof over it but during the daytime water ran down the outside walls of the building from the roof because the sun warmed the roof. It left a sheen of black ice where it leaked down on the sidewalk, right at that sloped part. He was really in a lot of pain and trying to get up. He said he thought he had broken his hip. Holy Sh!t! "Don't try to get up"! He seemed to be in shock and I kept trying to get his attention but he was sort of out of it. Once I got him to calm down a bit and focus and assure me he would stay down I ran up to my apartment and called 911 (no cell phones then) and grabbed a sleeping bag. I put that on him and by that time, only a minute later, he was shivering uncontrollably. The pizza shop owner came out (WTF???!!!) and I told him what happened and that I had to leave but there was help on the way. When I got home from work that night after 2:00 a.m. I found my sleeping bag left inside my door in the hallway for me. A few days later I found an envelope with a nice thank you note from the guy's wife taped to my door, he had indeed broken his hip and was in shock when the ambulance got there.

[thundley4]

One thing to think about Frank, your cats. We use plain old rock salt because of our dog.  Pets will pick up whatever you use on the sidewalks and whatever and then lick their paws.  Some of the chemicals in some products might hurt animals.

[franksolich]

One thing to think about Frank, your cats. We use plain old rock salt because of our dog.  Pets will pick up whatever you use on the sidewalks and whatever and then lick their paws.  Some of the chemicals in some products might hurt animals.

Good point, sir; hadn't thought of that.