Earlier this week, I was attempting to get some extra work done around the house. There are always additional tasks around here, especially with all the chickens. During November, we had an excessively large maple tree taken down in our front yard, and best estimates put it well over 100 years old, and it measured over 44" in diameter.
When the tree was initially limbed, the arborist chipped up all the small branches. The first load of chips went to the dump, but the second load we decided we could use around the house. Fill some flower beds, spread it out around the chickens to help absorb some of the mud and poop (lots of poop and mud with chickens). This proved to be both a great idea and a serious pain in the lower back.
As I started at the beginning of this post, I was attempting to move a considerable about of wood chips. On roughly scoop 157, I felt a severe weakening of the shovel. The head of the shovel began to droop, and I was unable to get full scoops without the feeling that it was going to snap completely. I attempted to nurse along the scoop for another 30 scoops or so, when the head went flying off as I threw the chips into the garden border.
I could have stopped, but I thought I can continue to force the issue and make this shovel work, as long as I put it back together carefully and am very gentle with it. basically my work rate came to a complete stand still, as I was messing with the shovel as much as I was actually using it for its purpose.
My eldest brother is one of the smartest people I know, and he always tries to tell me, "There is a right tool for every job, save yourself the headache and get the right one", and he says, "Buy the better tools so you don't have to replace them as often either." This is valuable advise, if you're smart enough to listen.
Needless to say, I fought that broken shovel, until I realized that I was wasting valuable time and energy being very non productive. It is good to recognize when its time to move on. Could I have finished the work with the broken shovel? Sure I could have, but at what cost.
The assessment of cost of my time vs. the cost of the shovel was a no brainer once I stopped trying to "make it work". The cheap side of me didn't want to spend the money, but the rational side of me recognized that I had already gotten my monies worth out of that $30 shovel, which I had been abusing for over a decade.
Its ok to move on. What tools are you nursing along, that should have been replaced a long time ago?
All those random things that are
missing the cords that make them work 😂