Skip to content

COLUMN: I’m no match for Mother Nature

Freeze-thaw cycle has moved from icing up the sidewalk in the front to pooling by the gate in the back yard.
column-melting-snow
Melting snow has a direct path to the back yard gate.

When Mother Nature and gravity decide to team up, they make a formidable foe. 

I’ve been hearing a fair bit about the freeze-thaw cycle and how it’s been more prevalent this winter, which has caused all kinds of problems on both ends of that equation. My frame of reference is so limited I have no idea if it’s happening with any greater frequency, but I can attest to the issues that result from such weather patterns. 

My front yard faces south, so when the snow starts to melt, it does so out front first. I think I’m pretty conscientious when it comes to clearing snow from the sidewalk, but I had a heck of a time trying to keep up with the constant ice patch that was created by melting piles of snow. 

Where the driveway meets the sidewalk is a low point, so melting snow pools and then freezes. I can’t tell you how many times I went out there with an ice chipper this winter in an effort to clear it, only to find varying degrees of success depending on the thickness of the ice. Even when I was able to remove all or most of the ice, I’d often wake up the next morning to find I was back at square one. 

I was doing my best to avert a slippery situation, but I felt overmatched, and walking along the sidewalk on my block offered proof that many others were in the same boat. Pretty much everyone would clear their sidewalk of snow, but ice was another matter. 

Now that the front yard has sorted itself out, I find myself dealing with the other half of the freeze-thaw cycle in the back yard. The gate to get out to the path is another low point, so all that melting snow has created a wading pool, and although I regularly use a bucket to move the water to higher ground, the pool can re-emerge less than a half-hour later on a warm day. 

Should I not get to the pool before it freezes, it can encase the gate, making it next to impossible to open the following morning, leaving me a choice between the ice chipper and trying to somehow clear four feet of chain-link. I’ve wised up and left the gate open, so if it does freeze, at least I’ve got a way out of the yard. 

I’m grateful all this water is flowing away from the house, not toward it, and that we’re the only ones inconvenienced by it, but less enamored by the fact I’ve simply traded my front yard headache for one in the back. 

Given this never-ending battle, I have to chuckle when I read complaints about the Town not doing enough to address problems that come along with a swing in temperatures. I’m not suggesting civic government should be impervious to criticism, but there must be no end to places where snow melts, freezes and then melts all over again. I know trying to keep up with this cycle in my own lot is a pain, so I can’t imagine trying to do so throughout an entire town. 


Ted Murphy

About the Author: Ted Murphy

Read more



Comments

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks