The Calm Before the Storm in Western Washington

Pat, let's not get too carried away with making the snow disappear. I clearly remember 1996 when we were underwater down here after a pineapple express melted another big snow. It can go gradually if it would just stop!
 
Still lots of snow here. The roads were actually worse today than they have been. Very slick. Still able to get around though, drove to Bellevue and the highway was clear, but most roads still have some snow and side roads have lots of compact snow/ice.

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The house with lots of snow


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This shows just how much
 
Hunkydory":2f6mbfi9 said:
rogerbum":2f6mbfi9 said:
While I was shoveling, I was thinking Roger on Sensei needs to plant beets next year instead of potatoes. Beet juice is a good de-icer and it's much safer for the environment. Given that the storm drains on my street drain to salmon streams, I wish I had a lot of beet juice de-icer available.
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So Roger, what's in the beet juice to make it a de-icer. The only thing I know about beets is the conversion to sugar and when you parachute into a field of them its like landing on a bunch of rounded rocks. Would like to be convinced if used on the roads of Wyoming we wouldn't be sliding on red ice instead of black or white ice :lol: Here on the roads they use a 90
% sand 10% salt mix when the vehicles can't keep on the road.

Jay
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With no answer from Roger decided to check out this myself. The answer I thought was interesting enough to share. My interest is solely due to having operated a snow plow doing snow removel and adding sand and salt to Wyoming Highways for the State of Wyoming for two winters and therefore wondering if maybe there was an economically viable more environmentally friendly alternative for the sand and salt we used. Utah which is awash in cheap salt and used 100% salt with great slick road control, but many environmental and rusty car concerns during the period I was snow plowing for the State of Wyoming.

My inquiry led to this. The beet juice needed to be mixed with salt and calcium chloride to work anywhere near effectively, but did reduce the corrosiveness associated with just sand and salt. To be effective and excepted there seems to be more work on the ingredients and application apparent from this article in the Chicago Tribune. http://greenerside.typepad.com/my_weblo ... icer_.html

Jay
 
I was listening to a radio program a few days ago about a city that was using a novel ice melting material. A local spice packing company had 9 tons of surplus garlic salt available for free. It was mixed in with the regular sand/salt mixture. Made for a strange smell but the price was right!
 
CAVU":2n0dowp6 said:
I was listening to a radio program a few days ago about a city that was using a novel ice melting material. A local spice packing company had 9 tons of surplus garlic salt available for free. It was mixed in with the regular sand/salt mixture. Made for a strange smell but the price was right!
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And if you roast up road kill from those streets, it's already seasoned.

Sorry I didn't get back to you earlier Jay but it appears you found an answer yourself. Some of the cities out here have been experimenting with alternate de-icers mostly due to environmental issues associated with standard methods. Also, with the beet juice de-icer it's easy to see where it's been applied.
 
This morning when I got home from work, we had a total accumulation of 2 Feet of snow at our place. Yesterday morning before I left for work I plowed our driveway for the third time since the snow first began falling. This morning was the fourth time. Today was the second time that I've had to shovel snow from one of my sheds as it was showing signs of imminent collapse. (I constructed it to shed water.....not copious amounts of heavy snow). So far, we've lost two trees on our place, but I haven't walked through all the woods on the property to determine if more trees have fallen yet. (Guess, I need to borrow Starcraft Tom's Duck Hunting Hip Waders, otherwise I'll get snow in my barn boots which are obviously not as tall).

Last night it was a real challenge to access our patients, due to the heavy snow. But we managed to "git er done"... :disgust .
 
Friendly C-Brat Suggestion:

Mix the Beet Juice with the Garlic Salt, then add copious amounts of Vodka, which will also depress the freeing point of water and ice.

Mix well, and drink profusely until the snow melts. Call the drink a "Snowman's Suicide", if you will.

Stay Happy until we all get together in January at the SBS/CBC!

But don't plan of breathing on anyone else while there.

Joe. :teeth :thup

:note "I got too much time on my hands..." :note
 
Well, it is snowing pretty good here right now, footprints and tire tracks from last night are all covered up, but the TV news tells us it will turn to mixed rain and snow later in the morning. So - will it be a white Christmas, or our typical gray Christmas? Stay tuned!
 
Sorry I have not mastered the art of posting pictures in the text but I have just uploaded a weather radar screen shot to the Kingfisher album which shows why some of us choose to live in places like Squim and Whidbey Island in the rain shadow !!!

While the TV is full of the latest snowstorm in Seattle, I-90 blocked etc. right now here it is 36F and melting !!!

The other side of the coin is that we really got dumped on last week and we have even less snow clearing equipment than Seattle.

Merv
 
Thanks Roger :lol:
Funny how the spell checker doesn't know about Sequim either :wink:

Stay safe with all that tropical weather we are having and beware of dolphins...

Merv
 
Still snowing here in Marysville as I write. Its not big flakes but little ones at a constant rate. It tell the truth I have really enjoyed all the snow. Its more like the Placerville winters that I was use to and loved. I spent two winters driving propane truck in this for months at a time. Man pulling a 200 ft hose from the truck thru waist deep snow and back 40 to 60 times a day will keep you in shape. that was 40 lbs ago. Hey is any one going skiing in the next month?
 
About 4 more inches here over the night/AM and it was coming down heavily until about 30 mins ago. I made it into work yesterday but the roads in downtown Seattle were miserable and just getting in and out of the unplowed parking lot was a trick. So, I'm staying home today. Plenty of projects to do around the house.

Had a little cabin fever this AM and we were out of bread so I put on the running shoes and jogged 2.25 miles round trip to pick up some bread and a few videos to keep us entertained during the day. Not surprisingly, I was the only nut job out running in the heavy snow. To make matters worse, we got a call from my in-laws who spend their winters down in Port Isabel TX. They let us know how warm (80 degrees) and sunny it is there today. Between them and Jim, I just can't avoid hearing how nice it is there :thdown ! I don't think the snow will melt for a few days so it looks like a white Christmas here.
 
Well yesterday Lizzie and I built a snowman. we used carrot slices for the eyes and an icicle for the nose. Then we followed our cat Ferris' tracks into the woods behind the house. So that's where she goes! I grant you I've had a boring life, but, with that caveat, yesterday was one of the happiest! Let it snow!
:love
 
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