Kettle for melting ice

This weekend as I went for a blissful 2 hour walk, in my beloved South End neighborhood, during the brief 40 degree “thaw,” it seemed as if every other homeowner was chop, chop, chopping the ice on their driveway or sidewalk.

And today, bundle up Mary, the chilly weather, going down into the single digits this week, has returned as if as an early April Fool’s Day joke, but at the end of February, the beginning of March.

And as I talk and walk, no salt to be had anywhere, at the moment, to help break up that slippery, pesky, now multi-inches of ice.

Bundle up for winter (day glow orange hunting hat)

My tip (I also use it to strategically get rid of dandelions in the summer months). I go out, very, very carefully (please, no slipping with boiling water in hand!), with a hot kettle of boiling water, and put little dribbles of boiling water here and there (not too much otherwise it too, turns into ice!), and gradually, especially if you’re completely obsessive about it, it breaks up the ice enough to get that chop, chop, chopping of Newburyport winter ice to actually get chopped into pieces.