pink salt

[micky]

The "salt" they've been using to keep ice off our sidewalks looks pink.

Does anyone know what it is?

[angelica...]

Salt with dye in it, so they can tell where they've already salted.

Cindy Hamilton

[rbowman]

Good. I was worried they were stealing my Himalayan pink salt when I wasn't looking.

[invalid unparseable]

You were responding to dumb and dumber.

[micky]

Oh, good. It was scary. I had to wipe my feet off before I went inside or got in the car.

I guess the difference is that this year they hired the company that plows the streets to also shovel the sidewalk, so there is salt where there never was salt before. It actually costs more to do the sidewalks than the street. Not surprising but surprising the Board spent the money. The pres said we are getting older, and that is true.

The community sidewalks but he actually went more than 1/3 of the way up my personal sidewalk, even opening the gate to do it.

Supposed to snow here quite a bit on Thursday and Friday.

[angelica...]

We don't have sidewalks where I live, but I had to remove 8+ inches of snow from 100 feet of driveway yesterday. I was plumb tuckered out when I finished. Afterward, the county pushed a bunch of their snow into my driveway, so I'll have a little more to do. Luckily, it's warming up. Last night was our coldest night this winter: -4 F. By Tuesday, we'll be about average for this time of year with a daytime high of 39 F.

I suspect the snow we got Monday night is moving on to your area for Thursday/Friday.

Cindy Hamilton

[trader_4]

You beat me to it, that's exactly what I was thinking.

[micky]

Before I posted, I googled and found that stuff, but it seemed too expensive to do sidewalks with.

What is the point of that stuff?

[rbowman]

I was responding to Cindy; I ignore the mouse.

[rbowman]

It's just salt and not the the stuff Morton's adds to keep it flowing etc. The grinder and extra bottle of salt at CostCo are bout $7 iirc which lasts me a year or more. it has trace minerals and may taste a little different.

As far as the supposed health benefits, it's salt. 2% of other minerals doesn't mean much in the quantities I use salt.

[Clare Snyder]

We got a good 7 inches here with -20C (your -4F )ith 30km/h winds. About 170 feet of sidewalk and 800? sq ft of driveway. The little YT624 earns it's keep on days like that. Being on a corner I get a lot of snow dropped in front by the plough. so I blow about 60 feet of the street (over a foot deep - in places 2 -) to clear the storm drain and make it possible to park on the street - not to mention to keep the NEXT plough from putting it all into my driveway. Just about an hour and over a gallon of gas. Won't likely get above freezing for another week, and we are expecting another 8-10 inches by then.

[gfretwell]

Our daughter is a couple hundred miles north of you (Grand Traverse Co). We get cold just thinking about her weather.

[micky]

I'll see if your name is on any of the flakes.

[Jim Joyce]

Over in Kansas, the pink 'road salt' is a mixture of beet juice with a little bit of salt mixed in. They say beet juice works better than straight salt and is easier on the underside of vehicles.

[Ralph Mowery]

That's interisting. I was just reading about the mowers and tractors that put liquid in the tires for extra weight and traction. Beet juice was mentioned.

[invalid unparseable]

Just dumb then.

[invalid unparseable]

You have to watch what use on drive and walk. Sodium chloride is not friendly to concrete but OK on drive. They may color calcium chloride for walks to differentiate it.

Someone also gave us a pink table salt from some exotic region. Not for melting snow unless you want to spend a bundle.

[Scott Lurndal]

Calcium carbonate is a common additive to tractor tires to prevent the water from freezing in cold climes.

[rbowman]

Beet juice would be good... I was out in the field with an elderly Minneapolis-Moline puling a drag harrow to break up the horse manure when I turned too tight and punctured a tire. The tire was filled with a calcium chloride solution. I had to drive the tractor back to the barn with the tire throwing a rooster tail of chloride on every rotation. The stuff neither tastes or feels very nice.

That tractor was a piece of work. It had a fuel system problem so you were in a cloud of gasoline fumes all the time. Good for a little buzz. I don't know why it never caught fire.

[rbowman]

Most of the pink salt comes from Pakistan. The pink color comes from Taliban piss.