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December 31, 2004
BOISE...STATE...BOISE...STATE...BOISE...STATE
Well, we didn't win, but we stayed in the game. To the tune of leading in quarters 2, 3 and 4 (up til the last 5 minutes or so). So a big old pthpthpthpthbbbb to all of those people who said BSU didn't deserve to be in the top ten.
In other news, I have found the most amazing sidewalk de-icer ever. It's fast, it's effective, it's non-toxic, it's biodegradable and it not only doesn't burn your lawn like salt and some of the other de-icers, it fertilizes it instead. It's alfalfa meal.
Yeah, that's right, ground alfalfa. I know. I didn't believe it either, but I read about it in The Organic Suburbanite. It was really hard to find the stuff, though, and I live in a rural community. People kept trying to sell me pellets, as if I were trying to feed sheep or horses. But Whitney Farms offers it on their website and I found it at a local nursery.
You have to shovel the walk first, it doesn't melt 2" of snow, but you know, when you shovel your sidewalk, it's not exactly dry after that. The thin film of water on the sidewalk becomes a thin film of ice, and it's usually horrifically slick. The alfalfa meal is gritty enough that it provides traction, and the nitrogen in it melts the ice. And it's a great fertilizer in small doses.
Of course, I read about this and thought, "Yeah, right." But I decided to try it because if it worked I had a fabulous alternative to the unnamed chemicals in the standard ice melter, and if it didn't I could just mix it into the garden and feed the plants. So I shoveled the walk and then sprinkled a layer of alfalfa meal evenly across it. And walking back to the house, the spaces that had been scary slippery were as comfortably stable as the same sidewalk in summer.
I won't be using anything else as an ice melter from here on out.
Posted by sally at December 31, 2004 05:13 PM
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