It’s October. And as the headline to this column states, winter will be here sooner than later. It is inevitable. It comes every year without fail. Some like it, but it can be rough on our homes. Time to get prepared.
Chicago might have a mild winter or a horrible one. Either way, being prepared is essential. I recently filled my huge plastic container with ice melt.
I’m going to give my lawn one final cut. After that, the grass will not see the lawnmower again until spring.
I’m also getting my snowblower prepared. I have an electric snowblower, so the long cord will have to be at the ready.
And even though I’m doing all this talking about being prepared, I guarantee that when it all happens, there’s something I won’t be prepared for.
As I write this column, it dawns on me that I have not seen many snow shovels while organizing my tools. I should have had at least three in the garage, but folks like to borrow stuff and not return it.
I am predicting that it’s only going to take me about four hours to shut down my outside for the winter. I have one of those tall, vase-like water fountains in the front yard. I need to turn it off, give it a good cleaning, and then let it air dry for at least a week to make sure all the water has evaporated, especially from the water pump. Then I cover it with a moving blanket, followed by a plastic tarp.
I will repeat that same process for all of my angel statues that sit outdoors for the winter.
Over the summer, I bought many different kinds of plastic covers. It is my hope to be able to cover as many things in place as possible.
In the past, I used to remove all my little statues, wrap them individually in bubble wrap and put them in a container. That has proved to be too much of an effort.
Last year I experimented and left all my gnomes in place on the huge baker’s rack out back. Not a single one of them broke, even though we had a polar vortex.
They can take the frigid temperatures as long as they’re not exposed to moisture. It’s the expanding and contracting of water molecules that will cause things to break.
Winter is coming! Get prepared now!