When my gloves get wet/cold, I use socks. Mostly just for snow clearing, walking the dog, running, etc. My cheap-but-good+versatile hand-protection this winter is a pair of Smartwool glove liners. When it's really cold and working outside, add a pair of those 2/$1 stretchy gloves from WM. The men's version is, iirc, marginally more expensive but actually has a cuff. When those get wet or cold, use socks on top of the smartwools. Wool or cotton, depending on what is handy and how long I need it to be warm.
Lessons learned?
Budget more for gas. Nationwide blizzards jack up prices fast, driving in low gear uses up gas faster. Not usually significant, but when cash is tight, it sure is.
Salt instead of sand for getting unstuck, as per D-Day. I dunno though, my father always said sand is better. Not sure why, I'll have to ask when I see him.
Synthetic tech fabric yoga pants over long johns and/or running tights is warmer and more comfortable than jeans over long johns. Is there a guy version of yoga pants? I guess just athletic type pants. Doesn't get damp/wet easily, doesn't get heavy, snow doesn't stick as much, etc. Discovered this by accident this morning when I threw some pants and a fleece on over PJ's aka t-shirt and long johns to dig out, but it figures. Can't believe I've been putting on jeans to shovel all these years just so they could get wet, cold, and heavy.
That's all I got. Pretty unadventurous around here. Stayed home yesterday with the kiddos, didn't even venture outside at all. Made brownies and did crafts. The kitchen floor needed cleaning, so I let the kiddos play "cooking" with the kitchen sink full of water. Did not need a bucket to scrub the floor. Read a story about animals hunkering down and storing food to prepare for winter and stay in PJ/loungy house clothes most of the day, and no one got upset about not going out and frolicking in it. Their dad can take the big one sledding this weekend.
But one of my neighbors snowblowed a path over my sidewalk yesterday. Still trying to figure out how to work in stuff like shoveling and dog-walking into the whole single mom thing. Not very robust about the cold this winter either. It snowed late evening through mid-morning and was blowing and drifting a lot for most of the day. I can't leave the kiddos in the house when they are awake, what with the into-everything eighteen month old, and I balked at going out late at night for some pretty good reasons. Headed out at 5 this morning to dig out, but the path had already been cleared. Don't know if someone is pissed at me for being lazy/slow or trying to be nice, knowing that I don't have a snowblower.
