Driveway season has begun! It’s been here for a while, but we have managed to squeak by with few problems now that we are acclimated to the driveway shenanigans. Much like Pavlov trained his dogs, the driveway has trained me. The switch from autumnal weather to winter weather in December is like the bell. My behavior changes. I obsessively check the weather app on my phone. If there is even a small chance of snow, I am out of bed at 5 am, looking out over the driveway from my kitchen. Yes, my kitchen is in the front of my house. It’s a weird feature. Think about it. Most are in the back. I digress. If there is no snow, I have a choice: work out or go back to bed. If there is even an inch of snow, I bundle up in my snow pants (which conveniently hang by my front door all winter), coat, hat, and gloves and venture out into the winter wonderland. If there is a few inches of snow, I get the snow blower. Any less than that, and I shovel for the work out. The snow blower and I have a sordid past, with him falling on his side once and pummeling the entire length of the driveway, finally coming to a rest just before the street. Of course, it wouldn’t start again because all the gas and oil were in the wrong spots. So I had to push that extremely heavy snow blower up the entire drive without self-propel, the steepest sections not even cleared off yet. After finally getting it up the driveway, I then had to shovel. It took me two years to use the snow blower again. Our relationship has improved in recent years through necessity. 

This past Sunday evening, Tayden decided to come home for a few hours to do his laundry. The driveway was sort-of cleared. When we had been skiing the previous weekend, there was a lot of snow, which had become comfortable on the driveway over a few days, so it was difficult to remove. We got down to blacktop on the left side, so at least one set of tires would have traction. For the four wheel drive or all wheel drive vehicles, this was enough. But Tayden has the only front wheel drive vehicle in our significant fleet. Not surprisingly, he called from the driveway to let us know he couldn’t get up. Pavlov’s bell. Trav and I were up, slipping on our gator step boots (which is really Yaktrax, but I have warped it in my head), bundling up for the cold, and heading out with the bucket of salt and some shovels, all of which sit just inside or just outside the front door. Since Trent and Juliana were here, I yelled for Trent to join us. At 30 weeks pregnant, Juliana is exempt. Trent didn’t feel like helping, being all snuggled up on MY couch, and I was forced to give him my worst Mom face to set in parental guilt. I pulled out two more gator step boots so he could select a size. 

Since the driveway was as clear as we could get it, we could only lay some extra salt, and push his car up. It’s tough to get a running start on our driveway. You must take the 90 degree turn as fast as you can and try for even acceleration, with the car in low gear. If you have ever wondered why all cars come with a low gear that most people never use in the entire life of the car… it’s for us. Thank you! It took four tries, but on the fourth try, with Travis, Trent, and me pushing, huffing and puffing, the car cleared the driveway. Actually, we had similar situations on game night (we should not host ANY parties in the winter). Perhaps a post for later. 

When the kids were leaving later that night, I learned of the ice storm that was starting Monday. And Trav informed me that we had just used our last bag of salt. I went into panic mode, checking to see if Home Depot or Menards were open at 9pm on a Sunday. They were not. So, I got up early for work Monday (Pavlov’s bell) and drove to Home Depot to purchase four 50 lb bags of less expensive salt (for warmer cold temps) and four 40 lb bags of more expensive salt (for colder cold temps), making an impressive 360 lbs of driveway salt. I talked to the lady at the store who checked me out. She suggested a heated driveway, noting that I would save the $106 I just spent on salt. By my estimate, a heated driveway would cost us $100,000, given the slope and length of our driveway (the only person I had come to give us an actual estimate wouldn’t quote it). Lady, I spend roughly $100-$200 per year on driveway salt. Conservatively, I wouldn’t recoup my money for 500 years. Pretty sure that is much longer than the life of the driveway. So, it’s salt for us. 

Have a great week everyone! Love those short, flat driveways. I truly am jealous! I used to have a normal driveway. One bag of salt would last two winters. Ah, the good old days.