Everyone in the mid-west OK

On Dec 11, 4:53 pm, Mary wrote:
I understand there isn't a single bag of ice-melt stuff for sale anywhere in the
city,

Kitty litter is also supposed to work pretty well. I've never tried
it, since we live in the country and have no sidewalks. Or, if you
have them, ashes from a fireplace. When we had our huge blizzard/
flood in '97, my horse's legs were frozen in the water that had flowed
overland and then froze about an inch thick. We had to get her out of
the pasture (what pasture? it was a solid sheet of ice!) and she
couldn't walk on the ice. DH got ashes from the fireplace and spread
them out, which gave her enough traction to get her out and up to
higher ground, i.e. the lawn around the house. Sure made it a lot
easier to feed her and she'd come up to the kitchen window and watch
us eat at the table.

Joan

lucretia borgia wrote:

You should get the horses those shoes that look like the bottom of
golf shoes and then they can get a grip on ice and snow. We used them
on the horses in Switzerland.

Not for horses, but for people: I just bought a pair of YakTrax at the
recommendation of a friend, and was chagrined to see that it's for use
only on unshoveled snow. The problem is, in city walking there's never
ALL unshoveled or ALL shovelled - always a combination of both. I
haven't tried them yet, so can't fully evaluate, but maybe someone else has.

http://www.yaktrax.com/

Sue

--
Susan Hartman/Dirty Linen
The Magazine of Folk and World Music
www.dirtylinen.com

Susan Hartman wrote:
lucretia borgia wrote:

You should get the horses those shoes that look like the bottom of
golf shoes and then they can get a grip on ice and snow. We used them
on the horses in Switzerland.

Not for horses, but for people: I just bought a pair of YakTrax at the
recommendation of a friend, and was chagrined to see that it's for use
only on unshoveled snow. The problem is, in city walking there's never
ALL unshoveled or ALL shovelled - always a combination of both. I
haven't tried them yet, so can't fully evaluate, but maybe someone else
has.

One remedy when I was much, much younger was to put a pair of old,
woolen socks on over your wellingtons.

On 12/12/07 11:53 AM, in article , "Susan
Hartman" wrote:

lucretia borgia wrote:

You should get the horses those shoes that look like the bottom of
golf shoes and then they can get a grip on ice and snow. We used them
on the horses in Switzerland.

Not for horses, but for people: I just bought a pair of YakTrax at the
recommendation of a friend, and was chagrined to see that it's for use
only on unshoveled snow. The problem is, in city walking there's never
ALL unshoveled or ALL shovelled - always a combination of both. I
haven't tried them yet, so can't fully evaluate, but maybe someone else has.

http://www.yaktrax.com/

Sue

Sue, you're the second person to recommend them today; I'm hitting EMS
tomorrow

C

"Bruce" wrote in message
...
Mary wrote:
I understand
there isn't a single bag of ice-melt stuff for sale anywhere in the
city, but they are expecting more to arrive tomorrow.

It may be a question of terminology as I'm not sure what "ice-melt" is but
we've always used common salt to remove ice from the steps & paths.
Bruce

Don`t spoil the illusion, Bruce - they call it something a bit more
imaginative and probably sell it for five times the price!

Pat

Pat P wrote:
"Bruce" wrote in message
...

Mary wrote:

I understand
there isn't a single bag of ice-melt stuff for sale anywhere in the
city, but they are expecting more to arrive tomorrow.

It may be a question of terminology as I'm not sure what "ice-melt" is but
we've always used common salt to remove ice from the steps & paths.
Bruce


Don`t spoil the illusion, Bruce - they call it something a bit more
imaginative and probably sell it for five times the price!

"Ice melt" is usually understood to be something other than salt.
'airports, for instance, cannot use salt because it's too corrosive.
Many animal lovers opt for a different substance which is not so hard on
dogs' paws. Some products contain _some _salt but not as much. One I
Googled up contains calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, potassium
chloride, sodium chloride, and calcium silicate. The last is an
anti-caking ingredient. The product is touted "Won't harm grass, plants,
concrete, or carpets." So there's some salt but it's not all salt.

But, of course, it costs more.


Karen E.

On Dec 12, 9:50 am, lucretia borgia
wrote:

You should get the horses those shoes that look like the bottom of
golf shoes and then they can get a grip on ice and snow. We used them
on the horses in Switzerland

Ah, but she wasn't shod at all! I've never ridden my horses enough
that they need shoes.

Joan

On Dec 13, 6:40 pm, lucretia borgia
wrote:

We used to have them shod with the spiked ones
once the snow was packed down, then one person rode the horse and you
had gear, rather like water skiing gear, strung out behind and
somebody skiied behind the galloping horse. It was great fun, you
needed good goggles because the hooves churned up some lethal divots.
It was called skijoering and I think originated in Scandinavia
somewhere.

That does sound like fun!

Joan