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"   With winter and snowstorms right around the corner, we&amp;#039;re starting to get our house and backyard ready before it gets so cold we&amp;#039;d freeze our fingers off while we worked! If you want to follow our lead, here&amp;#039;s a list to check off.  Move patio furniture to the garage or a covered area if at all possible. If it&amp;#039;s not, protect tables and chairs with covers. Any large outdoor toys like a playhouse, sandbox, or water table should be covered with a tarp that&amp;#039;s secured with a bungee cord. If you don&amp;#039;t have a grill cover, now&amp;#039;s the time to get and use one. To avoid ice damming, clean out your gutters so melting snow will have a route to run off your roof as quickly as possible. Bring warm-weather plants like rubber and fig trees inside. Blow out your sprinkler system. If you leave water in the pipes, it will freeze and lead to burst pipes. The price of finding and fixing a burst pipe, will be a lot higher than the cost of dealing with the sprinkler system now.  Be sure to check out Good Housekeeping other related stories: Get Your Home Ready for Winter, Caring for Shoes and Boots in the Winter and What Do Bees Do in Winter? from The Daily Green. And if you&amp;#039;re going to be in the NYC area, be sure to come and take a tour of the GHRI labs! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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