5 cents per stick

This is J.T.

J.T lives across the street.

J.T. is 10.

I hired J.T. to pick up the sticks that fell out of the big Maple tree in our front yard for 5 cents per stick. The reason? I had to mow the grass and didn't want my leg taken off by a stick flying at 60 mph. And there were about 30 sticks that I didn't want to pick up. J.T. was good and didn't count the little twigs that he picked up as if they were sticks, because there were hundreds of them and they weren't what I was worried about.

Shortly after J.T. started, his younger brother Zach who is 7 showed up with his two friends Sammy and Bobby. (Bobby looks like he's about 5...maybe 6). They started picking up sticks too, but they were counting the little twigs.

Mentally, I was counting sticks with them and soon saw my maybe $5.00 total job ballooning into a $30 investment... and counting.

At this point, J.T's mom came across the street and very easily talked me into "capping" the price for J.T. at $5.00, and for the younger boys, once they got 100 sticks, they were done. I suggested $3.00 + icecream. The boys (of course) all agreed. Mom said I was very generous.

My yard was immaculately clear of sticks once everyone was done. I ended up paying J.T. $5.00 + an icecream bar, and Sammy, Bobby, and Zach each got $3.00 + an icecream bar. So, for $14 I no longer have sticks in my yard.

In the future, I'm just hiring J.T. and we'll keep it at maybe $5.00 plus an icecream bar.

I was able to mow my yard without worry of a 60 mph stick!