Is this normal?

[norvilion]

Like it is, I'm sure, in a lot of places it's cold and rainy here in Nashville, making the sidewalks wet but not quite frozen over. On my way in to work today as I was passing over a pedestrian bridge I spotted a couple of workers with leaf blowers trying to blow the water off the ground. It looked horridly ineffective and made the area smell quite distinctly of gasoline/oil burning. It almost feels like it would have been more effective to dump the gasoline on the concrete bridge and set a match to it or (significantly less drastically) bring out a couple of push brooms/floor squeegees.

Is this a common practice? If so it's somehow completely bypassed my general knowledge of grounds keeping. I can kinda see where they were going with it but there has to be a better way of keeping the bridge from icing over, especially with a low only slightly below freezing today and salt already on the path.

[stevedoug]

Here in Detroit, we are pretty much situated on a giant salt mine, so salt goes everywhere in the Winter.
Everywhere.

[aclarridge]

Yeah I think if you put salt or sand on the ground, ice pretty much won't form in non-extreme situations. I've also never heard of anybody using a leaf blower to dry or blow away water...it sounds absolutely crazy and unnecessary. I live in Toronto.

[velocistar237]

Reminds me of this.

[GuitarStv]

Here is a list of the legitimate reasons to own or use a leafblower ever:

1 -
2 -
3 -




They were just dreaming up some reason to use the useless machines that someone decided were a good buy.

[velocistar237]

4 - Hovercraft

[DoubleDown]

On one of those "House Hunters" shows a few weeks ago, one of the house options presented was one that came with a one-acre lawn. So they added into their upfront costs the need for a lawn tractor at $5,000. Makes perfect sense to buy a house with a huge lawn you don't want, so you'll also need a $5,000 tractor to maintain it. Didn't finish watching, don't know what they settled on...

Full Disclosure: I got an electric leaf blower as a present a few years ago and I actually love it. Sure, it doesn't use your own muscle power, but it is 10x faster than a rake and makes a big difference when you have a gigantic number of leaves to move (as in, we usually have enough to fill about 60 large lawn bags each Fall). But yeah, I would not use one for a modest amount of leaves.

[twinge]

Full Disclosure: I got an electric leaf blower as a present a few years ago and I actually love it.

Me too!  We would have 90+ compressed bags of leaves if we bagged them (Our neighbors put out more than 100).  Now I just blow them to the back of the lot and let them passively compost and/or add them to our real compost pile as needed.  Our electric leaf blower also has a "mulching" option that I use occasionally when I want to speed things up or add mulch to places.  Could I use a rake? Sure, I did it the first year we were here, but it easily takes 10x as long.

[michael]

In my hyper-manicured community, I see the workers mowing and leaf blowing in the rain. Very effective. 8(

[Forcus]

I saw something more perplexing at work yesterday. Workers blowing salt off the sidewalks in to the road. I'm not sure at all what the reasoning was. It's still winter here and even with no forecasted snow or ice, it's going to happen. Why not just leave it on the sidewalk? People complaining about that awful crunchy sound?

[strider3700]

salt is hell on dogs paws.  we don't walk the dog on or near the roads in winter because of it.  maybe someone complained about that?

[Forcus]

salt is hell on dogs paws.  we don't walk the dog on or near the roads in winter because of it.  maybe someone complained about that?

Nope this was at work. No pups there :)

[Jamesqf]

...we usually have enough to fill about 60 large lawn bags each Fall).

And why on earth would any Mustachian/sane person put leaves in bags, instead of the compost heap?  I suppose in the spring you'll drive down to the local garden center and buy half a dozen bags of expensive compost/mulch...

[DoubleDown]

And why on earth would any Mustachian/sane person put leaves in bags, instead of the compost heap?  I suppose in the spring you'll drive down to the local garden center and buy half a dozen bags of expensive compost/mulch...

That WOULD be funny!

I actually do blow the leaves to the back of our property and leave them in heaps to decompose. I only gave the 60-bag measure as a point of reference to how much it would be if we did bag them.

In the front yard though I do compact them into trash cans, since no trucks come by to vacuum them up (and transporting them all the way to the back would not be fun or efficient). I found that out when we had just moved in and I had blown them to the curb, and I had two different, helpful new neighbors knocking on my door within one hour "advising" me that we can't leave un-bagged leaves at the curb :-)

[chicagomeg]

Here is a list of the legitimate reasons to own or use a leafblower ever:

1 -
2 -
3 -




They were just dreaming up some reason to use the useless machines that someone decided were a good buy.

One time my mom and I accidentally bought my dad a leaf blower when he asked for a snow blower.

[Jack]

In the front yard though I do compact them into trash cans, since no trucks come by to vacuum them up (and transporting them all the way to the back would not be fun or efficient).

Blow rake them onto a tarp, then drag the tarp to the back yard.

[Nords]

And why on earth would any Mustachian/sane person put leaves in bags, instead of the compost heap?  I suppose in the spring you'll drive down to the local garden center and buy half a dozen bags of expensive compost/mulch...

You've just described Oahu's green waste program.  Our city/county taxes pay for trash trucks to haul away green waste every two weeks, where it's ground and composted.  The compost piles are 10-12 feet high, about 20-25 feet wide, and a hundred yards long.  Sometimes they're running a dozen of them.  The compost company sells the resulting compost locally as "Menehune Magic". 

We vermipost & compost but we still have far more green waste than we can process.  At least the Oahu program offers free mulch.

[DoubleDown]

In the front yard though I do compact them into trash cans, since no trucks come by to vacuum them up (and transporting them all the way to the back would not be fun or efficient).

Blow rake them onto a tarp, then drag the tarp to the back yard.

The thing is, I don't need that many leaves or that much mulch/compost. It's already a mountain as it is from just the leaves in the back! Our waste collection picks up yard waste on designated days and takes it wherever it goes.