A Dollar Here and There. ..

I had to wrestle a guy today to get him the $20.00 tip that he really deserved. There was a bit of blood and I got a Charlie Horse in the deal but in the end I won and stuffed that $20.00 down his shirt. He still has a black eye from the first attempt to give him $20.00; also my win.  It is not easy being kind but it is important to fight for the concept.

Why the tip was deserved was for the following reasons. He works at a strip mall in Guelph in an establishment that has high traffic. Whenever he works he shovels the walks along almost the whole length of the mall. He does it all night, keeping up with the snow. He also salts at the end of the shift. When it is time to plow I simply have drop my blade and skim the snow away.

Now, he is a self serving guy really; certainly not stupid.   If he shovels for 3 minutes he saves himself 20 minutes of cleaning and thus he has more time for more enjoyable things. What he does for his fellow workers and me is exactly what he does for himself, he saves them time and makes the unit spotless. He also saves at least 10kg of salt per snow event so he is good for the environment.

My point is "why can't I recognize it?". Sure he considers the tip offensive but then I just as easily could find it offensive that he does my work. I get tips as an expression of thanks for simply doing what I do and I have had to learn to take it and appreciate it. Let me say thank you. Lol, if I was paying him $40.00 for the work he has done or even attempting to bribe him I have been cheap. It is an appropriate expression of thanks as it is.

Spring runoff help??

I have one fan. What an inspiration that is! The question was posed, " what can be done to minimize problems with spring runoff.?" That is a tough question, one in which the only answer that came to me was "buy a wet vac". Well, I have another POSSIBLE answer, one which I would like feed back on. One which is difficult to get across in a blog so questions too are appreciated.

The following will help divert water If you know the grading of your property. If you have a slope like we have and a swale between your house that you want the water to run to then this solution is a possibility. It is creating an ice dam that will take longer to melt than the surrounding snow. It will mean looking silly and doing things that seem counter productive.

First step. Determine a line across the back of your property that you would put sand bags along to redirect water. Second step, walk back and forth across this line. Bri.g the whole family and invite your neighbours and start stomping. Put snow from the lower end of this line on top of the packed snow and take another walk. Repeat. Third step. Pour water on the uphill part of this packed area and make this area ice.

If you are really ambitious and really worried about a basement you know is prone to leaks then take the snow from your deck, window wells and snow on the down hill side of this ice dam and move to the upside. Use a scoop or a blower. In theory the thicker ice you created will take longer to melt than the unpacked snow. The thicker this ice the longer it would take to melt and, hopefully, it will be the last to go and this will be when the ground frost is gone so it will dissipate into the soil and not pose a problem. Also in theory the runoff from the snow on the higher grade will hit this dam and divert around. Like all ice dams it will freeze behind this dam and slowly the water will go over it.

If anyone is trying this let me know.