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Editor: Sue Hamilton
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The
Fan Hitch, Journal of the Inuit Sled
Dog, is published four times a year. It is
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The Fan Hitch welcomes your letters, stories, comments and suggestions. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit submissions used for publication.
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This site is dedicated to the Inuit Dog as well as related Inuit culture and traditions. It is also home to The Fan Hitch, Journal of the Inuit Sled Dog.
The Fan Hitch welcomes your letters, stories, comments and suggestions. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit submissions used for publication.
Contents of The Fan Hitch are protected by international copyright laws. No photo, drawing or text may be reproduced in any form without written consent. Webmasters please note: written consent is necessary before linking this site to yours! Please forward requests to Sue Hamilton, 55 Town Line Rd., Harwinton, Connecticut 06791, USA or mail@thefanhitch.org.
This site is dedicated to the Inuit Dog as well as related Inuit culture and traditions. It is also home to The Fan Hitch, Journal of the Inuit Sled Dog.
photo: Hamilton
Spreading it Around
by Mark Hamilton
by Mark Hamilton
It has been a very icy winter here, and we've had to spread a lot of sand in the kennel and on the walkways in the back yard for the dogs' and our safety. We use salted sand on our driveway, but we prefer to use plain sand anywhere the dogs will be walking. Rock salt isn't good for the dogs' pads and they will ingest some of the rock salt if they lick their feet after walking on it. Here is a statement from the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for rock salt: "May produce nausea, vomiting, abdominal discomfort and, if swallowed in very large amounts, may cause increased urination and central nervous system depression." We avoid the potential for all that just by spreading only plain sand in the areas the dogs use.
Because our town's highway department sand pile is salted, we purchase 50 lb (23 kg) bags of what is advertised as "play sand" at a big box home improvement store. Play sand is screened, fine grained and, since the bags are stored under cover this time of year, also very dry. We use a small, hand held garden spreader to dispense it, taking advantage of the fact that the sand is absolutely dry (wet or coarse sand will not dispense from these small spreaders). A thumb slide adjusts the feed rate of the sand through the spreader. It has a detent mechanism with stops at the 25/50/75% feed rates. I found that the play sand frequently jammed the detent mechanism, but those troublesome parts can be quickly, simply and permanently removed without adversely affecting the spreader's functionality.
photo: Hamilton
I've seen these spreaders, as well as larger 10 cup (2.36 liter) versions, in garden centers, hardware stores and big box home improvement stores.
Got a tip you'd like to share? Email it to mail@thefanhitch.org or snail-mail it to Mark Hamilton, 55 Town Line Road, Harwinton, CT 06791, USA.