www.uppermichiganssource.com After Ishpeming’s Labor Day parade, union members and community members gathered at the Lake Bancroft Park for a picnic, family entertainment and a beer tent, manned by Senator Scott Dianda and two Democrat candidates. To learn more about donating to the ease efforts, click here.
7 Things You Must Carry in Your Car This Winter
My daughter just embarked driving on her own and I want to make sure she has the decent gear in the trunk to get through a winter emergency. What should I make sure she has?
If you already have an emergency kit, well done. Essentials such as first-aid supplies, jumper cables, gloves, a flashlight, duct gauze, a tow strap, and some ordinary implements should already be in your trunkif not for daily driving, then at least when you set out on a road tour. Here are some winter-specific items to include for times when the roads are covered in slush.
Snow Socks: When you unexpectedly need extra traction, snow socks are a space-saving, makeshift alternative to snow chains. These fabric doughnuts fit lightly over the drive tires and can increase grip enough to extricate a stuck car or get it up a greasy hill.
Spare Phone Charger: The cellphone is your primary means of rescue in today’s interconnected world. But to reach help you need juice: A charging cord is a good idea, but a hand-crank charger that works away from the car or when the car battery is dead is an even better one.
Forearm Warmers and Wool Blanket: Your car provides shelter, but you don’t want to run the engineyou have a limited amount of fuel and deadly harass may find its way into the cabin. To keep warm, use a blanket, supplemented by palm warmers when it gets truly cold.
LED Flashers/Flares: Battery-powered lights work for hours and are superb for alerting other drivers if your car is on the side of the road. Flares may seem antiquated, but the warmth they put out prevents them from being obscured and buried by driving snow. Plus, in an extreme emergency they can be used to begin a heating or signaling fire. Flares are usually sold in packs; make sure you have at least three rams.
Food and Drink: It’s exceptionally infrequent for anyone to be stranded during a winter blizzard for more than a day. Long-term rations aren’t indeed necessary, but keeping a few energy bars and a plastic bottle or two of sugary energy drink wouldn’t hurt. Why the latter? The electrolytes and sugars significantly lower the concoction’s freezing point, ensuring you’ll still have liquid when you need it.
Shovel: While it might not look like much, a compact folding shovel is slew big enough to use when digging your car out of the snow.
Windshield De-Icer: An extra bottle of this could mean the difference inbetween eyeing the road and observing yourself parked in a snow bank. Plus, in emergencies you can use the stuff to melt ice on the road or any frozen car parts.
I have a two thousand nine Honda Civic that I derisively refer to as the snow chicken because it doesn’t do so well in the white stuff. What can I do to improve the car’s spectacle in wintry conditions?
The single best option for improving winter traction is to invest in a set of winter tires. All-season tires are actually more like three-season tires. They can get you through a mild winter, but moderate-to-heavy snow requires specialized equipment. The No. One factor in a tire’s grip is the rubber, and when the temperature drops below forty F, regular tires get hard and greasy. Winter tires are constructed of rubber optimized to stay nimble in cold temperatures. And winter tires have specialized treads that are better at biting into hard-packed snow or eking out extra grip on ice. Buying a separate set of tires sounds expensive, but it’s indeed not that bad. During the months you’re driving on your winter tires, you’re not putting any wear on your warm-weather set.
