Farm Fact Friday: Traveling Prepared During Winter

Hello everyone welcome back to another Farm Fact Friday and the 1st of 2022 of course hope you had a wonderful holiday and a great start to the year. It’s great to be back and we’re going to kick things off with just a reminder about how to travel prepared during winter time. Certainly, something that everyone can utilize, super important. Also for when we’re making travels you know outside of city limits where gas stations may not be as close and people coming to help us may take a little bit longer. The things that we have in our vehicle to make sure that we’re safe and warm during that time is super important. I don’t know about you but for me this is, this was a time that I cleaned out the back of my vehicle to make sure some of these things were were there and as a reminder to keep them in there since winter is definitely upon us here in Ohio.

So let’s just go through some of these items if you don’t have them already hopefully you can take time tonight or sometime throughout the weekend before you travel to make sure you have all the essentials because you never know when you’re going to need them but you want to make sure they’re there just in case. So the first thing I would say is just add some bottles of water and some non-perishable foods in the back if you’re like me you have children that love to snack so if you happen to use those snacks for other things make sure you replenish them to make sure that you have food in there the entire winter time. Also important to make sure that you have a blanket if you have more than one person in your family it may be wise to have more than one blanket I’m particularly a fan of this type of blanket because the outside provides another layer of protection. If you have to wrap it around yourself kind of blocks out some of that wind so get those blankets packed away and then layering is always nice and these items of course will help extra pairs of gloves an extra hat. You’ll never know when you need them maybe one pair of gloves, gloves get wet it’s nice to be able to change those into a dry pair. We don’t leave home without our cell phones typically one way to make sure that you’re not leaving home without your cell phone is to connect it to your Bluetooth that way when you get into the vehicle the two connect and you already know that you have it with you. If they’re not connected it may be a reminder that hey I should check to make sure I have that or go back into the house and grab it before I leave. With that being said it’s important to make sure you have a charger in your vehicle that connects to whatever it is that it requires so mine uses a USB, it plugs right into my dashboard and I can charge my phone. It’s also a good idea to think about a battery operated one just in case your vehicle is not running for whatever reason. Flashlights are certainly important and make sure you add batteries for backup. Some people drive with sunglasses all the time others do not I would say grab yourself some shades to put in your vehicle that sun gets bright and it reflects off of the snow making it extra difficult to see. Snow scraper and brush scraper are important just to make sure that you have clear visibility when you’re leaving work. We know in Ohio that it could snow during the day and leave lots of inches on our vehicle so make sure you have that scraper and brush handy. Then I find these kits very useful, the fact that they’re compact and you can just close this and store it away is very helpful and contains you know the tools that you may need, jumper cables are very important and may even have reflectors that you can set up depending on the time of the breakdown just gives other drivers some awareness that to show some caution when driving.

Now I don’t have it here but a shovel would also be something you could consider you may even want to put in a bag of sand or kitty litter. Anytime there is difficulty getting traction putting that underneath your tires can help you possibly get out of the situation and then if you have a four-wheel drive vehicle such as a truck it may be wise to have your hitch along with a tow strap packed in there. I know from personal experience my husband has helped several people out of ditches just because he enjoys doing that and likes to lend a hand because he can of course. This is you know personal decision but if you are able to help and understand and know what you’re doing to help that person those would be things to make sure you have packed in your vehicle as well. So again none of all of this is in preparation we hope you don’t have to use it but definitely better to have it and not use it than to need it and not have it. So like I said this is you know useful for anyone but as you’re traveling country roads the things that you need just aren’t as accessible or as close together as they are when you’re in town.

With that being said please make sure that you keep your gas level well above e use kind of a quarter of a tank as your mark to make sure you get more and a half a tank would be even better that way if you do get a situation and need help hopefully you can keep that vehicle running until help arrives. So guys I think that’s it it’s time for me to go in and warm up my fingers and toes so have a great rest of your Friday bye golly a wonderful weekend and we’ll check you back next week for another Farm Fact Friday take care.