We had a wonderful weekend a couple of weeks ago. Since spring is here, so does the yard work. Since I pay someone to do most of it, when it comes to extras they check if we are OK with spending more money. They came with two propositions. One is to treat the grass and the other is to treat the pavers.
I am not big on chemical usage. I don’t care so much about weeds in the lawn but I really don’t want moss in it because it will eventually take over and kill the grass. I said yes to that. But, my wife and I differ about moss on the driveway. On one hand, it does cause degradation of the block setting, but I don’t feel like it hurts much. So, I said that I will do that.
This is probably only the second time I have used the sprayer in the picture. I remember getting it from my grandparents when we got into our first house in the late 1990s. I didn’t know if it worked even since it has been sitting for so long. Once I figured that out, I also learned that there was a lot of pumping involved.
This particular model has a port for a hose. The act of filling up the water pressurizes the vessel. Very nice until all the air leaks out. That happens when some of the powder (moss killer) gets into the threads or the rubber seals are dried out because they have never been lubricated. By the time I really figured all of those problems out, I was on the last tank.
The whole process took me about two and a half hours. My out of shape body was wondering if this was really worth the effort. But, it was one of the very first 70 degree days in spring and it felt really good to be outside with pleasant weather. As the moss killer works, I also notice that there is some grass also springing up . That actually requires a different treatment. So, now I have to go with a second application. I am less enamored with spraying something like Round-up than a zinc based moss killer.
If I look at this analytically, I saved myself $170. That is $180 for the job minus $10 for the moss killer. Given the time I spent, the pencils out to $68/hour. I am sure that I would not pay someone that rate to do this job. But, if I have to do it twice that is going to take it down to half of that and now I am getting into the rate that I would pay for.
I am not going to say that I didn’t learn some things, like how to use my sprayer. But, you always have to do the calculus of would that time be better spent doing something else. In my case, I am very close to that line. I am not too proud to do the job, I just have limited time to do things and I am not sure this is how I want to do use it. I also know that there was a significant amount of inefficiency in my doing the job and messing with pumping and the sprayer.
My grandfather was a farmer and my dad wishes he was one. Spraying has been in my whole life. Being a chemist and a believer in whole, natural foods and environment I think chemicals has a very limited place. One place is to not destroy property and infrastructure like my driveway. If you look very carefully at the picture, you can see some patches that are loose. I have tried to repair them several times. I don’t want that to get worse.
End Your Programming Routine: So, for now I will see how it goes. I feel like I should have paid the money. The last time I did this, I had a quote to prune the apple tree for $200. I did it and it took me 16 hours, plus I had to deal with all of the clippings. It is not like I have a burn pile. So you would think that I learned, it is just hard to spend the extra money.
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