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Get Through The Tough Road By Winterizing Your Car

Getting ready for winter also means getting your car ready for the icy and snowy roads. Doing so lessens the possibilities of winter road accidents and other mishaps. After all, you don?t want getting stuck up in the middle of nowhere, with your engine coming to a halt, or your tires losing traction, or your wiper blades snapping into pieces down the road. Winterizing your car early on saves you your life, especially so if you live in an area where snow is non-stop.

Here are six easy steps to winterize your car. Do them as early as you can to get your car ready to face the toughest winter conditions.

1. Mind your tires. First off, check the tire pressure. As the temperature gets colder, tire pressure decreases. Generally, a temperature drop by 10?F causes a pound per square inch loss in tire pressure. Inflate your car if needed, as deflated tires have significantly reduced traction and can be quite dangerous on icy and wet roads. To better ensure safety, you can choose to use snow tires during winter months, which are more equipped to handle adverse winter road conditions since they have better traction and control.

2. Inspect windshield wipers. Replace them if yours are more than a year, because if they are too old, chances are they won?t stand against the snow, and, as you know, it is seriously dangerous if the wiper blades split and break just when you are driving in the middle of a blizzard. Also, use windshield washer fluid in place of water to break the snow on the windshield. Before winter sets in, make sure your wipers are ready to do what they were created for: clear your windshield and give you a good view.

3. Check your oil. Oil works to lubricate the engine, but if it is too cold, oil thickens, which may be bad for the engine. Therefore, use the type of oil with less viscosity or thickness during winter months. You can check your owner?s manual to figure what type of oil your car needs during this season.

4. Examine your heater and defroster. Your heater functions to keep you warm and snug when you are driving, while the defroster makes sure that no moist fogs up the windshield. Make sure these two are working properly, as it is quite hard to drive while shaking in cold and with moist blocking your view.

5. Inspect your car battery. Usually batteries can last three to five years. If your battery is past that frame, it is time for a replacement. If it is not, you only need to do a thorough inspection on your battery. See if there are corrosions on the cables and other areas. Also, check if the battery fluid runs low, and if it does, carefully add distilled water onto it. Consult a car mechanic should you need more guidance in your battery inspection.

6. Keep an emergency kit. When winterizing your car, organize an emergency kit, which can have flashlights, bottles of oil and washer fluid, ice scraper, gloves, blanket, and every other tool and item that will keep you safe during your winter drive. Having an emergency kit is as equally important as checking all car parts.

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Prepping Up: Winterizing Your Lawn

Here comes the cold season. It is now time to prepare our homes, cars and our selves for the low temperatures. But what about our beloved garden and lawn? Winterizing your lawn and garden is all about keeping it thriving or alive until the following year. Contrary to what most people think, winter does not kill your lawn or your garden. During this period, the grasses are just hibernating, like some animals during winter.

Timing is important when winterizing. You do not want to have your lawn deprived of any kind of nutrients or vitamins while the ground is not yet freezing. Give adequate time for your grass and lawn to absorb as much sunlight and other nutrients they can.

? Rake leaves and clear the lawn of any kind of debris to allow more sunlight to be absorbed by the grass. Check with the local waste management council about the disposal of garden and lawn wastes, there are some states and locations where it is illegal to include yard trimmings in the trash. Leaving the trimmings could cause the mildew and molds to develop.

? You could use weed control in your lawn even if they will be covered with snow. Just like grasses, weeds still grow. By using weed control, the weeds would not return in spring.

? Another thing to check on your lawns when winterizing would be the pH levels. You would need to attain a balanced levels of nutrients in your soil, this would ensure that the lawn will be absorbing the nutrients or fertilizers in the soil and prepare for growth during spring.

? Fertilizing the soil to prepare for the winter is also important. When looking for winter lawn fertilizer, it is high in potassium. Potassium encourages the growth of roots, no the growth of leaves and flowers. Fertilizing the soil is usually recommended to start after September or October. If you would be fertilizing too late, the grass could still continue grow and eventually be damaged by frost.

? Aerating is also important when winterizing your lawn. Grass tends to be compressed and the packets in the soil where oxygen could be easily available to the roots. Oxygen is essential when roots and plants are breaking down the sugars stored from their photosynthesis. You could use punch-core aerator which is commonly used in golf courses. Aside from that, raking could also mildly aerate the soils.

? A thin layer of thatch is good for the lawn but if the layer of thatch exceeds more that ? inch, then it could cause problems with your lawn. It could limit the flow of air which could eventually cause diseases and fungal problems.

With proper winterizing your lawn will be able to survive harsh climates. Winterizing your lawn may require a lot of work, but when spring comes, you would see the difference and the advantage of preparing for the winter. If your lawn is not that well cared for, then winterizing would help in rejuvenating your lawn and making it easier to manage during spring.

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Basic Guide on Winterizing Your Swimming Pool

You have invested money in building swimming pool and it has given you so much pleasure. As the season begins to get colder, you have to prepare the pool to make sure that it won’t be damaged during the season change. For this purpose, you will gain lots of insights from gathering information about ways on winterizing swimming pools.

As the summer bids adieu, you must also begin saying goodbye to your pool. Here are the processes that must be followed to make sure that the pool will be ready for the colder season and will also at its tip-top shape come summertime.

1. Check the pH level of the water. This must be about 7.5 and if the results show otherwise, put dry acid on the water. Check the chlorine and use a product that is ideal for the situation to protect the pool from developing algae come winter months.

2. When the cold months come in, run the pump six hours each day. This action will also prevent algae from developing while the pool is not in use. Any kinds of leaks should be sealed. Turn off the valve of the skimmer and allow the water to drain until it is about six inches below the bottom of the skimmer. This is the preferred amount of water on the pool.

3. Before you store the summer cover, if ever you have used one, clean it through pressure washer or simply with fresh water. Keep it at a dry area and get the winter cover. When placing this on the pool, apply enough tension on the cover to prevent anything from getting beneath it once it is in place. This must be checked several days in a week to be certain that it is still tight.

Tell everybody about the cover. For everyone’s safety, tell them that even pets are not allowed to go near the pool area. The cover may be able to protect the pool, but it wasn’t designed to protect anyone or anything that may accidentally slip atop the material.

4. After you are done with the abovementioned procedures, it is time to drain excess water from the equipment. Water needs to be drained from the pump, heater and filter. This can be easily done by pulling the drain plug that can be found at the bottom. This part makes the whole process a lot easier.

Even if you are stuck with lots of things that are crying for your attention in preparation for the coming season, you should never forget to drain the pool from water. During winter, the water will freeze inside the area that may result to permanent damage that you certainly wouldn’t want to happen.

When you are done with all these steps on winterizing your swimming pool, you can proceed with other tasks. But you have to check on the pool after several days to see if everything is okay and holding up or you need to fix some areas to be very certain that everything is going to be fine.

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Winterizing Techniques that You Can Apply at the Garden

Do not be discouraged about your love for gardening just because the colder season is about to come. You cannot do anything about this, not unless you would be willing to relocate somewhere, like in countries that only have two kinds of weather. You don’t really need to go that far because there are steps that you can in winterizing your garden so that you can preserve the effort you have invested in it and to prepare it for the next season when you can tend to it again.

This may sound added work, especially if you are going to attend to many other things at home. But for people who are keen about gardening and love seeing the results of their labor, here are the things that must be done to prepare the area for the winter season.

1. When do you start preparing the garden for the colder months? You will notice change on the color of the plants. As this occurs, leaves will begin to fall off. This is a clear indication that it is time to act on your plan so that you will still have a healthy garden when next year comes.

2. Dig up all your plants from their roots to tips. If you won’t do any measures and you will let dead plant remnants on the garden, you are allowing remnants and rodents to have a feast when it is already winter. To avoid this, you must remove the dead plants and place them in a compost pile. You can also choose to leave the remnants in the garden. You can simply let these at the top of the soil until these have dried up. Plow the soil along with the dried plants early spring or during the later days in fall.

Why do you need to till the dead plants and fallen leaves on the soil? Through this, the garden will be able to absorb nutrients from the plants. If you will leave the plants and do nothing about it, the soil won’t be able to easily absorb the nutrients and this is going to cause delay on the warming of the garden soil when it is already spring.

3. In the fall, you should not put fertilizer on the soil. This is a great way of caring for the environment because this product will cause bad long term effects and besides, it is a waste of money. Nothing is going to absorb it anyway with most plants getting withered or fallen. And besides, if you rely so much on such product, it will eventually be washed away on creeks and wetlands and may cause harm in the process. If you are such a big fan and you cannot do away with fertilizers, do it in spring.

4. You can also add chemicals on your garden during fall, especially if you are such a big fan of these products. Before you do, check the pH level of the soil and add sulfur or lime if it is needed. You can easily spread these chemicals and plow the soil after.

In following these wintering techniques for the garden, you are making it easier for you to start all over again when spring comes and you can start planting anew.

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Easy to Do Steps in Winterizing Your House

Planning ways on how to go about winterizing your homes can be done anytime. It is better to be prepared for just about anything so no matter what happens in the coming months, you can take a look at your list come wintertime. If you intend to start executing the plans, the best time for this is at the fall Equinox. At this time of the year, the temperature is beginning to decrease that your house needs to be maintained so that it would be ready for the next season.

How do you go about preparing house for winter? Here are some tips that can help you with the task at hand.

1. First up, you should call an HVAC professional to inspect the heating system. They will do vital furnace inspection as well as clean the ducts. You should have stock of furnace filters with you because this must be changed every month. The furnace must be clear of all flammable materials that may cause other risks and dangers. It will be better if you can avail the kind of thermostat that is programmable. If you are utilizing a hot-water radiator at home, the valves should be opened slightly and close immediately when water appears.

2. Check for crevice cracks at the exterior of your home. Make sure that there are no exposed entry points on the pipes. If you found anything cracks or holes, seal these fast.

3. For the doors, you can use weather stripping to prevent cold air from coming inside the house. To achieve the same for windows, these must be caulked. If the house has a basement, you can protect the window wells by covering these with plastic shields. It’s time to keep the summer screens for later use and get glass replacements installed. You can also put storm windows if you have these or you simply want to.

4. The fireplace must be ready for the coming season. Put a cap at the top of the chimney so that you can keep away birds and rodents. If you haven’t cleaned the chimney for quite a while, call someone to remove creosote and soot from this part. You also have to stock up chopped wood or firewood that should be placed in dry place. Check the damper of the fireplace if this has still the right kind of closing and opening.

5. If the weather at your area usually goes lower than 32 degrees during winter, you should consider adding insulation at the attic. Through this, warm air will be prevented from creeping at the roof that might lead to ice dams. While at the roof, you must inspect worn out tiles and roof shingles and replace materials while you still have time. You must be very sure that water cannot enter your house through the roof. Gutters should also be cleaned from any kind of debris.

There are many more steps that you should consider in winterizing your house. The important thing at this point is to make sure that you will feel comfortable and safe inside even when the temperature hit the lows once the winter season starts.

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