Tips for keeping your pet safe and cool this summer.

6 Ways To Protect Your Dog From Summer Heat

The July heat is on here at The Storage Inn of Egg Harbor Township New Jersey, but it doesn’t seem to slow down our self storage tenants. They just keep motoring to and from their storage spaces like the Energizer Bunny, stopping into our rental office every once in awhile for a complimentary bottle of ice cold spring water.

Today I had a visit from one of our tenants, Sergeant DiPiano – he’s a K-9 Officer, and always has his dog, Trooper, in the back of his vehicle. I asked him how Trooper handles the heat.

“No problem “ he answered “ He loves the AC! “ – “I do end up rescuing a couple of dogs from cars each summer”, he added. “I just wish people would realize how dangerous the heat is for their dogs!”.

Right about then he said he had something for me and headed out to his cruiser. He came back and handed me a stack of pamphlets entitled “6 Ways To Protect Your Dog From Summer Heat”.

Here are those tips courtesy of Sergeant DiPiano.

1. When the temperature is high, don’t let your dog linger on hot surfaces like asphalt and cement. Being so close to the ground can heat their body quickly and is also an invitation to burns on sensitive paw pads. Keep walks to a minimum.

2. Giving your dog a lightweight summer haircut can help prevent overheating, but never shave to the skin. Dogs need one inch of protection to avoid getting sunburned.

3. Provide access to fresh water 
at all times. Make certain an outside dog has access to shade and plenty of cool water.

4. Restrict exercise when temperatures soar, and do not muzzle the dog because it inhibits their ability to pant.

5. Many dogs enjoy a swim, splashing in a wading pool, or a run through a sprinkler in warmer weather which can help bring body temperatures down.

6. Never leave your pet in a parked car! Not even if you park in the shade or plan to be gone for only a few minutes. The temperature inside of a car can reach oven-like temperatures in just minutes, often in excess of 140 degrees. That quick errand can turn into a disaster and could be fatal for your pet.

Any pet that cannot cool himself off is at risk for heat stroke, but some breeds and dogs with certain conditions are more susceptible. Heart disease, obesity, older age, or breathing problems put the dog at higher risk, and for these animals even normal activities in intense heat can be harmful. Dogs with shorter snouts – like Pugs or Bulldogs – have a harder time panting out their body heat, and certain breeds don’t tolerate the heat as well as others. This group includes English and French Bulldogs, Boxers, the Saint Bernard, Pugs, and Shih Tzu.

Well, there you have it folks, some great tips for keeping your pup cool in the summer; and if you bring your four legged friend with you to The Storage Inn, be sure to stop into the rental office for some ice cold spring water for both of you! Have a cool and happy summer!

Happy Summer Everyone!

Summer Fun Facts from The Storage Inn

Summer is officially here in Egg Harbor Township and The Storage Inn is bustling with warm weather activity. Landscape storage customers are shooting in and out, retrieving items from their storage spaces. Families are grabbing barbecue grills, surfboards, and bicycles from their summer storage rentals, and I even saw one of our younger self storage tenants on roller blades!

Everybody loves summer! To celebrate, I’d like to share a few interesting facts about summer with our readers.

In the United States, the top 5 most popular summer vacations are

1) beach/ocean (45%),

2) a famous city (42%),

3) national parks (21%),

4) a lake (17%), and

5) a resort (14%)

The “dog days of summer” refer to the weeks between July 3 and August 11 and are named after the Dog Star (Sirius) in the Canis Major constellation. The ancient Greeks blamed Sirius for the hot temperatures, drought, discomfort, and sickness that occurred during the summer.

In the summer heat, the iron in France’s Eiffel Tower expands, making the tower grow more than 6 inches.

The month of June was named after  Juno, the wife of Jupiter. July is named after Julius Caesar, and August after Caesar Augustus.

The first Olympic Games in the modern era were the 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the Olympiad in Athens, Greece. The Games featured the Panathinaiko Stadium, the first giant stadium of the modern world that housed the largest crowd to ever watch a sporting event.

Watermelon, a summer time favorite, is part of the cucumber, pumpkin, and squash family and consists of 92% water. On average, Americans consume 15 pounds of watermelon annually.

The popsicle, another summer time treat, was accidentally invented by an 11-year-old boy in San Francisco in 1905 during the cooler part of the year. He left a glass of soda sitting outside and by the next morning it had frozen solid. A little time later in life he began selling them at an amusement park in New Jersey. Cherry is the number 1 popsicle flavor in the United States.

Before the Civil War, schools did not have summer vacation. In rural communities, kids had school off during the spring planting and fall harvest while urban schools were essentially year-round. The long summer holiday didn’t come about until the early 20th century

The record for the most people applying sunscreen was on January 8, 2012, in Australia with 1,006 participants applying sunscreen for 2 minutes.

There you have it – A few things that you may not have known about Summer! Happy Summer everyone from all of us here at The Storage Inn!

The Heat is on!

Its mid June and the temperatures at The Storage Inn in Egg Harbor Township New Jersey, and The Storage Inn of Ocean City are starting to soar! The heat and humidity, however, does not seem to deter our customers from shuttling in and out as they rearrange and retrieve items from their storage spaces.

As a courtesy to our self storage customers, we keep a refrigerator stocked with cold water to help them stay cool. Working in high heat and humidity can be dangerous, especially for our senior tenants, so each year we offer a few extra tips on avoiding heat-related problems while working outdoors.  

Here are this year’s tips…

1. GRUNT WORK FIRST

Minimize your own energy loss by doing the heavy lifting early, so you can spend the hot hours in the shade, slowly patting yourself on the back.

2. BUCKET COMFORT STATION

Put an empty bucket in the shade and fill it with icy water to keep your drinks cool, your washcloths wet and your cold packs charged, or to give yourself a reason to kick off the work boots for an invigorating foot-bath. Just don’t drink out of it!

3. GET MISTY

Using the garden hose to give yourself a spritz to the back of the head on the “mist” setting gives a relieving rinse, while a little jet action to bare feet cools you off and freshens you up. The more settings you have, the more satisfying the shower.

4. SAVE THE ALCOHOL FOR LATER

Alcohol is a diuretic, which dehydrates you by causing the body to lose more water than it absorbs. Save it for the shade!

5. SHIELD YOUR SKIN

Wear loose-fitting, lightweight, porous clothing. Choose heat-reflecting light-colored fabrics rather than absorbent dark ones, using long sleeves and pants to shade your skin, absorb sweat and reduce your surface temperature.

6. COOL TRICKS

Squeeze ice wrapped in wet washcloths behind your knees, on your wrists, in your armpits or on any major arterial lines. In the South, Little League team moms keep cloths in coolers for kids to wring around their necks between innings. In the yard, you can get creative. Chinese medicine cites the wrists as key to clearing the body’s heat.

7. KEEP A COOL HEAD

“Approximately 20 percent of your blood supply flows to your face,” says Walter Herman, M.D., a retired cardiologist from Philadelphia’s Jefferson Hospital. So you can lower the heat to the rest of your body if you just keep a cool head. If you can’t move your work to the shade, create your own with a broad-brimmed, light-colored hat. A bandana soaked in the ice bucket, or a sombrero left over from Cinco de Mayo would also do the trick.

8. EASY BREEZY

Use a work fan or a garage fan to keep the air moving over you. Fans create wind chill (a term more often used on frigid days). In this case, the sensation of coolness comes from sweat evaporating from your skin more quickly than in still air. You may also fan yourself with any of the hats from tip #7.

9. COOL VEST!

For working in severe heat, you may want to consider a cooling vest. The Cool Vest costs about $130 to $200 and uses chemical cold packs that are inserted into pockets in the vest. After a few hours of exposure, drop them in the ice bucket for a recharge.

10. DRINK HEAVILY

Last on the list, but first in importance: Stay hydrated.

The US Army Field Manual warns that you can’t use your own sense of thirst as a guide. Thirst occurs late in the dehydration process, in many cases hours after you’ve become dehydrated. If you don’t feel the need to urinate hourly, and if your urine has turned from a healthy lemonade color to a jaundiced maize, you’re probably already dehydrated. Stop working and take a swig of water, sipping frequently in small amounts rather than the occasional guzzle.

Add a little lemon, mint or cucumber to a cool glass of water for hydration with a twist. Or munch on watermelon, which is 92 percent water, according to the National Watermelon Promotion Board.

As for all that beer you’ve been keeping cold? Pop one open after a cool shower and dinner.

There you have it folks! Plenty of great tips on staying cool for the summer. 

June is Here – Be Safe Out There!

June is finally here, and Summer is right around the corner – the staff here at The Storage Inn Self Storage in Egg Harbor Township New Jersey couldn’t be happier! It’s great to watch our customers going to and from their storage units with big smiles on their faces, in shorts and flip-flops, driving jeeps and convertibles,on a mission to retrieve their summer items from their storage spaces. One of our tenants, Mr Care, stopped in today to get some packing supplies, but also to remind us that June is National Safety Month. Bill works for the National Safety Council. He left me a pamphlet on National Safety Month, so I read it, and here is what I learned…

Each June, the National Safety Council and its partners raise community awareness on preventing the leading causes of injury and death at work. Each week of June has a different focus area. Listed below are the four focus areas and some info on each.

Week 1: Emergency Responders

The nation depends on emergency responders to preserve the public’s safety and health when
disasters strike. To successfully meet this challenge, emergency responders must be protected from the hazardous conditions that disasters and other emergencies create, whether they be natural or as a result of human action.

Week 2: Be Healthy

Healthy people are statistically less likely to be injured, whether it’s at the workplace or in the home.The keys to staying healthy are diet, exercise, and regular medical check-ups.

Week 3: Watch Out for Danger

While safety is important in all aspects of our lives, ensuring safe workplaces has the potential to save thousands of lives and prevent tens of thousands of injuries and illnesses each year. In 2014, 4,821 U.S. workers died from work-related injuries and approximately 3.7 million workers suffered non-fatal injuries and illnesses.

Home safety is also very important. Follow all safety guidelines when using appliances, power tools, and yard equipment. Be sure to keep all household cleaners, chemicals,  and prescription and non-prescription medications in a safe place, Be aware and be safe!

Week 4: Share Roads Safely

Distracted driving occurs any time you take your eyes off the road, hands off the wheel, and mind off your primary task: driving safely. Communication systems in vehicles are there for convenience, not safety. Even hands-free devices pose a threat because the brain remains distracted.

Last but not least, do not engage anyone who appears to be having a bout with road rage. Remain calm, pull off safely, and let them pass.

Okay, So there you have it – The four focus areas of National Safety Month! The team here at The Storage Inn wishes everyone a great Summer. Be safe out there!

You have a bee to thank for one in every three bites of food you eat!!

Yesterday was a particularly warm Spring day here at the Storage Inn in Egg Harbor Township New Jersey. One of our self storage customers, Victor, stopped in to buy some boxes, when we noticed another tiny visitor in the office  – a bee !  Mr. Bee bounced off the glass of the front windows trying to make his escape back to the outdoors. My first inclination was to grab the office fly swatter, but Victor stopped me… “You can’t kill him! Don’t you know that bees are now an endangered species?” Victor opened the front door and was able to get Mr. Bee to freedom, eliminating the chance of storage rental customers getting stung. Victor followed Mr Bee, flying out the door to his storage unit, so I decided to check out his claim that bees were an endangered species.

What I discovered is that several American bee species have been classified as endangered. Scientists know that bees are dying from a variety of factors – pesticides, drought, habitat destruction, nutrition deficit, air pollution, global warming and more. So, why do we need bees?

Here are some reasons…

More than $15 billion a year in U.S. crops are pollinated by bees, including apples, berries, cantaloupes, cucumbers, alfalfa, and almonds.

U.S. honey bees also produce about $150 million in honey annually. But fewer bees means the economy takes a hit.

The global economic cost of bee decline, including lower crop yields and increased production costs, has been estimated at as high as $5.7 billion per year.

Keeping bee populations safe is critical for keeping American tables stocked with high-quality produce and our agriculture sector running smoothly.

As you can see, humans are dependent on honey bees for a large portion of their dietary needs. So just remember these facts as you enjoy your summer barbecue and watch out for Mr Bee circling your soft drink. Be careful not to swat him too hard – you could be committing a federal crime by swatting an endangered species!

Tips from a police officer about winter driving

Slip Sliding Away – The Woes of Winter Driving

As the manager of The Storage Inn Self Storage here in Egg Harbor Township New Jersey, I get to speak to a lot of different people. Recently I had a conversation with one of our storage space customers, an officer from the Atlantic County Sheriff’s Department (We donate storage space for their annual Toys 4 Kids toy drive). I was curious to hear what he thought about the area residents and driving in the snow. You see, although I have lived in Southern New Jersey for a number of years, I have also lived in the mountains of Pennsylvania, where a 10 inch snowfall barely slows them down. During my time in Southern New Jersey I have noticed a couple of things – we don’t get nearly as much snow as Pennsylvania, and even though there are virtually no hills in extreme Southern New Jersey, many people do not seem to be, shall we say, ”comfortable” driving in the snow.

When I asked officer DiPiano about this, he just smiled and said “ No practice! – It’s kind of like basketball. If you only played five or six times a year, you probably never would get really good at it.” So I asked him what people in this area could do to be prepared for the occasional bout with winter driving. He replied “ If you don’t get much practice driving in the snow, you need to memorize some basic rules”. Here are officer DiPiano’s 5 tips for driving in snowy weather.

1. Stay Home – If you’re not comfortable driving in the snow, and you do not absolutely have to go somewhere, stay home and be safe.
2. Your 4 wheel drive does not make you invincible – While vehicles with four-wheel drive typically do perform better in snowy and icy driving conditions, the technology can backfire by giving drivers a false sense of safety. It does not mean that you can race down the road at top speed in the snow and bring yourself to a quick stop.
3. Be prepared – To ready your car for the winter, check your tires for correct inflation and sufficient tread for driving in the snow. Check your antifreeze levels and battery power and make sure that your defroster and rear window defogger work.
4. Back Off ! – Many people inexperienced with driving in the snow will tailgate the vehicle in front of them. Like driving too fast, this lessens your reaction time.It’s recommended that you double your normal distance between cars – 2-4 car length for every 10 miles per hour of speed. You should also be looking ahead for stoplights, stop signs and curves in the road so you can give yourself adequate time to brake or steer around them.

5. DO NOT slam on the brakes – When you feel your tires start to slip, it’s easy to panic and slam on the brakes. Don’t do it — this removes traction from your tires, taking away your ability to control your vehicle. What you should do when you feel yourself begin to skid is ease off the accelerator and let the car slow down on its own. A moving tire means that there is still some traction, which is what you need to steer yourself out of a collision. If braking is required and your vehicle comes with an anti-lock brake system, brake with steady, even pressure. If your car doesn’t have ABS, then you should pump the brakes. When handling snow-covered corners, you should begin a steady braking as you approach the turn. Once in the corner, ease off the brakes and use the car’s remaining traction to steer through the turn.

There you have it – Officer DiPiano’s 5 tips for occasional snow drivers. Hopefully these tips will help you to navigate the rest of the winter. I personally cannot wait until the next snow – I promised my granddaughter that I would take her sledding. Now. if I could only find a hill…