Winter Prep

[Larry Caldwell]

It has been an unusually mild autumn here. We still haven't seen first frost, which normally happens in October, so I have had plenty of time to prep for bad weather. I was running tasks through my head and wondering if I had forgotten anything. So far;

Winter tires on vehicles and new wiper blades. First legal day for studded snows is November 1. Summer UV and heat kills wiper rubber. Test vehicle batteries. Winter kits in vehicles. You might think antifreeze, but that is one of my spring rituals. Service the cooling system before you need cooling.

Sweep and inspect the chimney. Service and inspect smoke/fire alarms. Cutting firewood is a winter project, so the wood shed was already full by Sept. 15. Check weather-stripping on doors and windows. Clean gutters again and again until leaves quit falling.

Get Christmas lights ready to turn on after Thanksgiving next week.

Service and test generators. I have four of them, one for the house and each outbuilding. This year I am adding a lithium battery UPS for the modem/router so our cell phones and tablets will work without running a &$&% noisy generator. The house generator runs on propane and the tank is full. The other generators are gasoline, but only run occasionally. 10 gallons of gas is plenty. The propane generator is a Home Depot 8/6 kw special only 4 years old, but the hoses all rotted and fell apart. Extreme fire hazard. I was not pleased.

Inspect and repair water system insulation.

Plenty of staples, other ingredients, and supplies if we decide not to go to town for a couple of weeks. We're retired, and if we don't want to go anywhere, we don't. The wood stove has a good cook surface and I have a gorgeous antique hand crank coffee mill, so the essentials of gracious living are covered.

Batteries. Tractor Supply had 1300 lumen rechargeable LED flashlights in stock for under $15 that will save me big bucks on AAA and AA batteries. 2.5 hours on high.

Waterproofing all my outerwear, greasing my boots so they can dry before I need them, digging out winter hats, caps, and gloves.

Yard and garden cleanup. Get the sprayer off the tractor and mount the blade.

What other seasonal tasks are appropriate this time of year?

 

[bigtiller]

I am doing my winter prep early also. I think I'm about halfway through the list.

It is a more enjoyable job when it is a calm 65° day.

It's not easy to set the driveway markers with an inch of frozen ground on top.

 

[ultrarunner]

For me cleaning gutters and downspouts after the leaves drop and furnace/filter tune up top my list as it doesn’t snow here.

 

[alexbennet]

That is a serious prep list, but you might have missed a few water system details. Did you drain all the outside water faucets and store the garden hoses to keep them from freezing? Also, it is a good time to stabilize the fuel in your lawnmower and other small gas equipment before putting them away for the winter.

 

[jjeff]

Winterizing sprayers and pressure washer with RV antifreeze, blew out drip irrigation lines tomorrow, winterized RV, pontoon, down state and tritoon up north. closing and draining water line to unheated part of barn, walked around with a concoction of marvel mystery oil and seafoam putting it in 2 and four stroke lawn care equipment. Plugging in all tractors and electric start equipment to battery maintainers. Ran around with my cordless DeWalt grease gun greasing all fittings on equipment. Cut and split several face cords for wood stove up north and fireplace down heren this summer. Put qa backwoods hacked plow on tiny tractor up north put ATV plows on down here and tire chains and weight box, and plow on ATV up north. Waiting to get my 3/4 ton back from getting extensive upgrades to put my new to me boss plow on already put new tires on it this fall. Will weld pipes on cutting edges when I get it back. Currently working on getting three what my state considers vintage snowmobiles up and running. Test ran my small walk behind snow blowers up north and down here. Got My 4k hr Honda 6k generator running. I'm sure Im forgetting other things have done already.

 

[Oaktree]

Pretty much all of the above, plus cleaning out the garage. Most of the year it's just used for storage and as a workshop, but Mrs. Oak is pretty adamant about parking her car in there Nov-April. I'll park the tractor on my side so it's ready to go for plowing (it too lives outside rest of the year). Still some room on that side for workshop projects.

 

[JJT]

I am doing my winter prep early also. I think I'm about halfway through the list.

It is a more enjoyable job when it is a calm 65° day.

It's not easy to set the driveway markers with an inch of frozen ground on top.

I'm always late to the game on the driveway markers, (700'+ driveway). A few years ago I started using my cordless hammer drill with a 12" bit. Works like a charm. And every marker is perfectly plumb. Yes, I'm an **** ex engineer.

My neighbor asked, how the heck do you get your driveway markers in so straight? He's now using his cordless drill....

 

[RjCorazza]

I'm always late to the game on the driveway markers, (700'+ driveway). A few years ago I started using my cordless hammer drill with a 12" bit. Works like a charm. And every marker is perfectly plumb. Yes, I'm an **** ex engineer.

My neighbor asked, how the heck do you get your driveway markers in so straight? He's now using his cordless drill....

Never thought of using a drill, I may have to try that.
What I do is pound a 12" landscape spike into the ground and place the marker in the hole.

Most of my winterizing tasks are much easier this year after building a small pole barn with pallet racks for implements. Plows, blower, and spreader are all now just a few minutes to get installed. It used to be an all day project getting them out of a 40' shipping container, and it was a real hassle.

 

[jjeff]

I tell my wife I don't need driveway markers at my places I plow with my photographic memory she disagrees.i did Mark a sewer line clean out camper tank fump screw on cap 90 at my cabin though (it's been replaced along with 3 feet of 4" line movin it closer to septic tank inadvertently one winter). Lol

 

[bigtiller]

I'm always late to the game on the driveway markers, (700'+ driveway). A few years ago I started using my cordless hammer drill with a 12" bit. Works like a charm. And every marker is perfectly plumb. Yes, I'm an **** ex engineer.

My neighbor asked, how the heck do you get your driveway markers in so straight? He's now using his cordless drill....

I made a post pounder for the markers out of a ½" pipe, pipe cap and steel dowel.

The dowel is 6" longer than the pipe.

I pound the dowel into the ground until the pipe touches the ground, remove it and put the marker in the hole.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

That is a serious prep list, but you might have missed a few water system details. Did you drain all the outside water faucets and store the garden hoses to keep them from freezing? Also, it is a good time to stabilize the fuel in your lawnmower and other small gas equipment before putting them away for the winter.

Good point about the fuel. I store all small engines dry. Since I have been working on generators, they all have fresh oil in the crank case and empty fuel tanks. The chainsaw, of course, only gets used in the winter, so it has been sitting empty all summer, but I haven't sharpened any chains since last March. It's time to get busy on that.

All my outdoor faucets are freeze proof. I lump garden hoses in with fall yard cleanup, but you reminded me that I have not done yard tool maintenance. I like to give all wooden handles a coat of boiled linseed oil. I will spend the winter doing stuff like sharpening mower blades. Any tool maintenance goes on the winter or early spring list. I do have a bunch of lead-acid batteries that need to be recycled. They are the remnants of a solar storage project for a travel trailer that doesn't live here anymore. I see that more as an unfinished chore than a seasonal project.

The big project for this week is the Christmas lights. Thanksgiving is a week from tomorrow and I like to light up the day after.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I made a post pounder for the markers out of a ½" pipe, pipe cap and steel dowel.

The dowel is 6" longer than the pipe.

I pound the dowel into the ground until the pipe touches the ground, remove it and put the marker in the hole.
View attachment 4422197

So do you guys pull your markers every year? I have reflector markers along one short section of driveway, and leave them in year round. I should replace a few.

 

[bigtiller]

So do you guys pull your markers every year? I have reflector markers along one short section of driveway, and leave them in year round. I should replace a few.

Yes.
I think most of us pull up and store for the warm months.
If I didn't, they'd probably get ran over or mowed down.

 

[grsthegreat]

I got the driveway markers in a few weeks ago. Cordless impact drill with long masonry bit works wonders.

Everything else is done, chimney cleaned, gutters cleaned, sprinklers blown out.

Only thing left is chaining up tractor and hooking up hydraulic powerpack and hoses on tractor. But no snow in near future, so ill put that off still. I may just go ahead and install the hydraulic unit and hoses, as that takes the most time in prepping the tractor…..well see how lazy i feel in a few days.

Im actually looking foreward to snow, as the dog stays alot cleaner than the muddy mess from the rain.

 

[CalG]

I pulled out the emergency 4.5kw generator, Started and ran fine on the third pull. Filled the fuel tank with this years gas.

Greased the FEL on the B2601, mounted the front snow blower on the B7200. Moved the battery tender from one battery to another, don't ask me which, there are too many. Hauled the snow tires up from the shop lower level to fit to the wife's Volvo AFTER we drive down to Boston twice next week ;-)
Brought a half skid of wood pellets just outside the downstairs door, close to the burner.

The anticipation ans excitement of coming winter is JUST SO INVIGORATING! Love it!

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I pulled out the emergency 4.5kw generator, Started and ran fine on the third pull. Filled the fuel tank with this years gas.

I tested a 4.5 kw gasoline generator this year, but mostly I keep them stored dry tank, cylinder fogged, and exhaust/intake bagged to keep bugs out. It had been sitting in the barn for 10 years and started on the second pull. Made power fine. I should button it up again in case it sits for another 10 years. My dad used to store all his farm equipment that way. I only have a tractor now, and I use it year round, so small engines are the only thing to get mothballed.

The anticipation ans excitement of coming winter is JUST SO INVIGORATING! Love it!

I learned many years ago how to dress for the weather. I think summer heat is ugly weather, rain and snow are nice.

 

[ultrarunner]

Forgot about fogging… only did that with the old outboard.

 

[MossRoad]

Winters have been so mild here for the past few years about all I do is make sure I have a good snow brush in each vehicle, put the snow shovel by the back door, put the plow in the tractor and back it into the back garage. It gets so little use that I have to put a battery tender on it over the winter.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Forgot about fogging… only did that with the old outboard.

I suppose you don't oil your guns either.

 

[ultrarunner]

For some reason my reply was held for moderation and never released?

Odd because all I said is I don’t have firearms quoting you.

It must be me because I have had more held for moderation posts over the last few weeks than the previous almost 25 years here?