The Pine Mountain Club Pulse

For Your Home

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1.) Make sure your chimneys are swept. It should be done each year if you burn a lot of wood all winter, and especially if you use pine cones or wood with a lot of sap.

2.) Make sure your pipes are insulated. If they are exposed or have a tendency to freeze, pipe warmers can be added at a relatively low cost, then wrapped with “pool noodle” type insulators to ensure you don’t end up with frozen pipes. If you are at all worried about your pipes freezing, put your faucets on a slow drip when the temps drop below freezing.

3.) Make sure you have a generator for power backup that is running well. They often need yearly servicing. Make sure you have fresh gasoline. Have fresh batteries on hand for flashlights.

4.) Stock up on several sturdy snow shovels and have a good ice pick on hand. 

5.) Stock up on fire pellets, firewood and/or make sure your propane tanks are filled prior to our first storm.

6.) Stock up on canned foods, bottled water, and pantry supplies. You should have one gallon per person/pet per day.  If you have a freezer in your garage, fill up extra empty water, milk, juice bottles with water and freeze them. For your family and pets.  Fill your freezer with food items easily heated in a pot over a wood stove, if necessary.

7.) Clear your decks of anything that can blow off in high winds and store them in a safe place.

8) If we get a very heavy snow, try to sweep it or shake it off trees that are arching over from the weight of the snow to keep them from uprooting/breaking and falling.

9.) During heavy snowfall, make sure you shovel your decks as quickly as possible. During our last big storm, many decks collapsed from the weight of the snow.

10.) IMPORTANT SNOW HACK: Shovel your driveways, decks, and berms as soon as you possibly can after it stops snowing. Once it freezes overnight again, it becomes exponentially more difficult to shovel. If it’s going to be snowing for a while, try to get out there and shovel it periodically to stay on top of it. The more snow falls, the heavier it gets.

11.) If you will need help shoveling your driveways or getting rid of your berms, (the big pile of snow in front of your driveways caused by the snowplows,) book the snow removal team early, like a week before you know the snowstorm will hit. We book up very, very fast.

12.) Berms are a part of life. They have to clear the streets, and that means they have to create the berms.

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For Your Car

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1.) Make sure you have chains handy and that you know how to put them on. If you know a significant snowstorm is coming, put chains on before the storm hits.

2.) Make sure your car is full of gas. If the power goes out up here, so do our gas pumps.

3.) If you have a steep driveway, park at the bottom, with your vehicle headed out toward the street, but make sure you don’t park so close to the street that your car will be in the way of the snow plows.

4.) If you can, raise your windshield wipers so they don’t freeze to your windshield. Some newer cars you cannot do this with. If that’s the case, consider getting a windshield cover and putting it on prior to snowfall.

5.) Make sure you have extra warm blankets, (enough for four people,) a good supply of water and some canned food (and a can opener) and some extra clothing, socks, outerwear, etc., in case you need to change into dry clothes.

6.) Carry with you a sufficient first aid kit, as well as flares.

7.) Always carry chains and practice putting them on prior to it snowing.

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For Your Person

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1.) Medications for you and your pets: if there is a way to get an extra bottle of your medications prior to winter, get it and keep it on hand.

2.) Make sure you have warm clothes and a couple of changes of socks and gloves. If you must be out in the snow shoveling for any length of time, you might need to change your socks and gloves to stay warm and dry.

3.) Make sure you have a waterproof jacket and boots.

4.) Make sure you drink plenty of water while out in the snow. Dehydration is possible and sneaks up fast.

5.) Very important! Wear lots of sunscreen! The sun reflects up from the snow and is even more powerful at causing sunburns than a typical day at the beach.

6.) Make sure you wear sunglasses if out in the snow on a sunny day. Snow blindness is real and very serious.

7.) Take plenty of breaks when working or playing out in the snow and don’t allow yourself to become overheated.

8.) Do not allow children or animals to play out in the streets in the snow. Our snowplows come down the roads very fast and cannot easily see someone in the road.

9.Have a pair of Trex shoe accessories that go on the soles of your shoes and enables you to walk on ice with less chance of slipping.

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In General

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1.) If you operate an Airbnb, or have guests scheduled to come to the mountain and we know a snowstorm is coming, please postpone your guests’ plans. Having people on this mountain that are trying to drive around in two wheel drive cars, and/or without experience driving on a snow-covered mountain, puts not only them at risk but greatly impedes safety/rescue vehicles, snow plows and other critical service vehicles from getting where they need to go.

2.) If you have an Airbnb, and still insist on allowing guests to come to the mountain during the winter months, make it mandatory that they have four-wheel drive and carry chains. In this last big storm, both were necessary.

3.) If we get another huge snowstorm, please get with your immediate neighbors and consolidate your trips to the village and transfer site. The less vehicles on the road during those times  the better, so as to not impede emergency vehicles and snow removal services.

4.) Have a bag of ice melt or water softener salt, (both can be bought at Ace in Frazier Park,) on hand to salt driveways and walkways. However, do not put either of these on wood decks, as it will eat away the paint and wood. You can use cat litter on wood decks instead.

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Happy and Safe Wintering, Pine Mountain Club!

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