walking on ice safely

[Guest guest]

Okay a few tips here from someone that has to take loads of up to 250 or

300 lbs of canned pop on a two wheel dolly for work, ice or not. Falling

with that heavy a load isn't an option.

From Cabelas catalog I buy the ice cleats made of chain and rubber I

think the last pair I got was under $l5. These have been a life saver for

me. Still may slip a bit from time to time if the ice is also wet. They

also carry the yak track type cleats. This is like the postal carrier here

uses. They are springs cris crossed under the foot over rubber. Some

catalogs like carol wright carry ones with a rivet type spike through the

bottom. They are okay, but with a lot of walking can pull through the

bottom of the rubber or the spike wears down.

If you don't have or don't want to spend the money on commercial ice

cleats there are a couple of things you can do.

Before I found my cleats in the catalog, I used to take a pair of my

husbands tube socks. The kind with the terry cloth type lining. Turn them

inside out and slip them on over your shoes as far as you can. gives you

more traction than your shoe alone. Can get a bit slippery when ice balls

or snow start balling up in the terry cloth and they get a bit wet. Even

then still better than nothing.

And finally, I got the idea of using the socks from something my mother did

when I was a child. When it was icy she would take two rubber backed fake

fur bathroom rugs . And she would toss one down on the ice in front of her,

walk on it, then toss the other down and step onto it, stooping to pick up

the one behind her.

On our porch I keep a bag of sand. I keep a plastic coffee cup in it. I

use sand on the porch steps. you could also use sand to make a path to walk

safely on from your house to the car.

In your car carry a bag of kitty litter ( or sand)around. can toss it up

under the tires if you get stuck on an icy spot to give you traction.

Now for a funny story. One year when I had the cheap rivet spike cleats

and one had broken at work that day. My boss and I were moving a juke

box into a bar. Most of the snow and ice were gone in our town. But the

town we went to still had some ice, especially on the north side of the

building. My boss was wearing cowboy boots and scoffed at me wearing cleats

all week. Well we got the juke box off the truck and started toward the

door and hit the ice. My boss could not get any traction at all with his

boots. I wound up pushing him and the juke box all across the sidewalk to

the door with my one still working ice cleat. And it was on my bad leg, the

one I had the afo brace on at the time. It was so funny to see him getting

pushed around

Then when we found the chain cleats in the fall and winter hunting

catalog I bought one for each family member that year. Mine lasted for

almost three years. And when it is icy I wear them all day at work, even

inside buildings for a week or two at a time.

Debbie and Ian McKinley (13 yrs BMD)no litters from

Kansas http://home.hit.net/~dimck/ Brighteye Bushy Tail Gretchen CD,CGC

11/11/92 - 10/07/03. Swiss Stars Harvest Moon CD,CGC, DD 6/l8/93-

5/9/04 Swiss Star's Maximum Risk 09/15/02 Sammy (rescue/rehome)

(rescue)