Making Preparations for Winter

[Bird]

I know you folks up north have to be concerned with such things as preparations to prevent water pipes from freezing, getting everything in shape for moving snow, and such.

Well, it's a little different down south. Last month, I got at least some rain on 20 of the 31 days, but then the sun came out, we've had tempertures in the 40s at night and 70s in the afternoon, and for the past week, I've been busy with my Winter preparations.

In addition to mowing, edging, and trimming the lawn, I moved everything off the breezeway patio (first picture), cleaned the deck, and applied Shwerwin-Williams Clear Deckscape with brushes and roller. The driveway gate on the south side of the house had been painted in the past, so I gave it a fresh coat of Behr flat exterior latex with a brush (second picture). When I bought this place the gate on the north side of the house (third picture) and the wooden fence on the south side (fourth picture) were unpainted cedar. I probably made a mistake using Rustic Red Thompson's Water Seal on them, but since I did that in the past, I gave them a fresh coat of the same stuff, first with a roller on the smooth side, then two days later, both sides with my one quart air powered paint spray gun.

It was too hot during the summer to do things like that, and it was frequently too hot to sit out on the patio anyway, but of course I wanted to get the work done before it gets cold, too, so now I have my outdoor winterizing done.

[DANOCHEESE]

Yep I live up north

Novemebr is a month of deer hunting so I try and get done early

MArk the 1100 feet of lane so I knwo where it is after it snows
Put up 300 feet of snow fence
Get the blower into the shop and ready
Put the backblade on the tractor for the early snow
Aereate 6 acres of lawn and fertiliser
Get all the animal pens and houses ready for winter
Heat has been on since the first of October Need to turn up the in-floor heat
Check all the radiators for proper freeze proection
Find all the kids sleds from last year
Get snowmobile ready may ahve to go to work if the road does'nt get plowed roll all the garden hose sp and drag into the shed
Go buy salt and a new snow shovel


That's it I'm moving south. You guys have deer don't you

[MossRoad]

Up here I closed the pool last month, drained all the lines and filter, took the saltwater chlorine generator in the house and drained and stored all of the garden hoses. Put in the winter chemicals and covered it.

Now we are in leaf raking season, although about a week ago we had terrible high winds and heavy rains, which actually did us a favor and stripped the trees of the leaves early. Sometimes they hang on well into winter. So, I should only have to rake (rake = drive tractor around looking busy ) one more time this weekend. Then I hit little things like repairing some cracked storm windows on the basement, caulking up some drafty places, putting one more shot of insect barrier around the foundation, etc...

After leaves are done I swap implements around in the shed and back the tractor in with the snowplow on, ready for the inevitable.

Of course, I've been gathering firewood all summer, too, so does that count as winter prep?

After all of that is done, I will get my ice fishing gear ready to go.

[Bird]

You guys have deer don't you

Yep, we have lots of deer and deer season opens Saturday. I do like venison, but haven't gone deer hunting myself in many, many years.

Now we are in leaf raking season

I'll have a little bit of that to do later. The crepe myrtle has probably already dropped over half its leaves, but the 4 bradford pear trees haven't hardly started shedding their leaves yet. Of course the live oaks keep leaves on, and shed some, year round.

I don't know of anyone in this part of the country, except some airports, that have any snow removal equipment at all. The various city, county, and state road maintenance crews have some stockpiles of sand to spread in the event of snow and ice. Many years ago, Dallas stocked a mix of a hundred pounds of salt per cubic yard of sand; don't know now, but assume they still use the same stuff.

Three weeks to Thanksgiving and I hope (and expect) the weather will be suitable for me to fry turkeys outside.

[jinman]

Bird, color me green with envy. I had hoped to have my deck at least 1/2 done by now (the south side of my house). Unfortunately, my carpenter is in no hurry to start and I may have to find another person to do the job. I have been planning to use these mild November days to apply stain to my house, but it will be December if I'm lucky.

Your breezeway, gate, and fence look terrific.

[Bird]

Jim, I don't envy you your job; you've got a little bigger job to do than I had.

Of course, I've been gathering firewood all summer, too, so does that count as winter prep?

After all of that is done, I will get my ice fishing gear ready to go.

If you heat with wood, then I'd sure consider gathering firewood to be a major part of the winter prep. But would you believe our house has a wood burning fireplace and it's not had a fire in it in the 4 years we've been here. The prior owner obviously used it and when we bought the house, I thoroughly cleaned out all the old ashes and closed the flue. We have an unopened box of the artificial logs just in case we ever had a power outage long enough that we wanted to build a fire in the fireplace.

And I love fishing, but never had any desire to do it if the water ain't in liquid form.

[Tig]

Snow has been seen nearby so I have some work to do.
We have been keeping up with the leaves so no worries there.
I need to do the final winterization on the boats and move them to their winter locations by the garage.
Pressure washer has to come inside to the basement.
Snowmobiles need to have the carbs cleaned and the suspensions torn down, inspected, repaired and greased.
I need to build a new ice fishing shack. This is pretty high on the list.
Grease the snow blower.
Clear the yard and lane way of anything that will jam the blower.
Repair a section of the laneway.
Wait for snow.

[MarkV]

Bird now that you are all set you can come hang out with me in Georgia for a week or so.

MarkV

[Bird]

Thanks for the invitation, Mark, but I think I better stay in Texas. Besides, I'm getting to the point that I can only work about half a day at a time.

[firefighter jim]

Place looks good Bird, If you get bored, there's plenty to due here at our place! Would like to have some of that 70 degree weather here. Winter is around the corner..............Jim