Preparing for winter isn’t something I’d like to do right now. Far from it. Instead, I’d rather enjoy what’s left of the nice weather before the snow comes. History has taught me that unless I begin preparing now I’ll be in for more headaches as the seasons can abruptly change. In the next few weeks I will be completing the three tasks I believe to be most vital in preparing for winter.
Prepare Your Equipment
The first step in preparing for winter is to prepare your equipment. This step varies depending on the equipment you own and rely on. It’s really a two step process: winterize your summer equipment and ready your winter equipment.
To winterize your summer equipment (chainsaws, lawn mowers, boats, etc.) you’ll want to perform end of season servicing. This can include a final cleaning, oil change, greasing and removal of fuel. Gasoline that’s left in the carburetor and fuel tank can gel up. Once the next season rolls around you’ll be left with an engine that’s hard or impossible to start. Prevent that by removing the fuel now.
Next, you’ll perform your servicing of winter equipment. This could mean charging batteries or oil changes for a plow truck, greasing and servicing for a tractor, or simply just ensuring that your snowblower will start.
For us, I’ll be replacing the front end loader on our tractor with the front mounted snowblower. I’ll also go through with greasing and servicing the entire tractor. It’s much easier to do it now before the weather changes.
I’ll also go and charge the batteries on our plow truck and perform an oil change and service the hydraulic pump on the plow. Again, I’ve had to do this in the dead of winter so I’d much rather take care of it now.
Prepare your Land/Yard
The next step in preparing for winter is to prepare your land/yard. This again is dependent upon your situation and needs but what I mean is to winterize your property. Drain and put away your garden hoses, clean up yard ornaments and furniture, flag your driveway if necessary and in general ready your property.
For us, we need to put up 800 feet of snow fencing. Our driveway is around 2300 feet long; a good portion of that runs west to east. As the prevailing wind is from the west it does a good job of keeping that section of the driveway clear of snow drifts.
However, the 800 foot stretch turns north to south so the winds drift snow across it quite fiercely. Having the snow fence put up makes a considerable difference.
It’s important to note that when installing snow fence you’ll want it to be 60-100 feet away from your driveway. The misconception is that the snow fence blocks snow from drifting when it actually does the complete opposite.
Snow fencing is designed to CAUSE drifting, albeit in a location that you prefer. So by placing it that far away from your driveway, you can cause the snow to drift and build up before it can cover the driveway.
Prepare Your Supplies
The last step in preparing for winter is to prepare your supplies. I’m not a couponer or a bulk buyer by any means, but it’s important to have supplies on hand when you need them.
If a winter storm rolls in and you’re unable to leave the house for 2-3 days, do you have the supplies you need? I’m talking about the basic essentials here like: food, batteries, toiletries, medicine, etc.
If you’re stockpiling food, make sure to have a good variety of canned or non perishable food. If you’ve REALLY planned, maybe you’ve canned your own garden produce.
For toiletries or medicine, now would be a good opportunity to purchase in bulk and make good use of all those coupons you’ve been saving.
Also consider storing extra fuel in the event you can’t make it to a gas station. I’m not talking about a tanker’s worth, but an extra 5 gallon can could come in handy. Make sure to use it and refill it to prevent the fuel from gelling as we previously discussed.
One last thing to consider is batteries. If you lose power for a couple of days due to a winter storm, do you have the batteries you need to power your appliances? This might be simple conveniences, but you might need to power an emergency radio or something of more importance.
In preparation for this post I stumbled upon the EZ Battery Reconditioning program which claims to restore dead batteries. Since I’m all about being frugal and trying to save money I wanted to share this program with you. Batteries are necessary for convenience and certain essential appliances. Save some money and recondition your old batteries with EZ Battery Reconditioning.