What's wrong with a broom and a rake?

[DCJenn]

So, for the last THREE hours, the condo building next door's maintenance man has been using one of those leaf blowers to blow out the garage. He's so very lucky that my husband isn't home post call because I think he'd have the leaf blower tucked up someplace very uncomfortable. As it is, Nikolai is napping and thankfully hasn't been bothered.

and when I think about the gas he's wasting and the crap he's spewing into the air...it just steams me all the more.

Jenn

I knew what you were posting about before opening the thread.

I loath leaf blowers, and weedwhackers, and the garden tractor sized mowers people use on their 1/3 acre lots.

Maude fobid somene actually have to streach or bend or stoop or walk to do yardwork. So much better to haul around a 50 lb pc of equipment and lose your hearing.

You all make me thankful to be surrounded on 4 sides by concrete. Well, really on 2 sides by concrete, the other 2 sides of my house are other houses. Though this Sunday, we were woken up by the sounds of my new neighbor's roofers at 7:30 AM That was unpleasant, and I'm sure if I had gotten close enough, they wouldn't have smelled too sweet.

I hate leaf blowers just about as much as my nieghbor loves his. He even gets on his roof and blows off the roof.

[Sheherezade]

I hate all the mechanized yard stuff, too!! I thought I was the only gardening Luddite. I make DH mow the little lawn with a reel mower - it only takes 20 minutes. He keeps threatening to get a "real" mower. I did give in to the snow blower, though. Shoveling 2 feet of snow off the driveway and walkways and the neighbors walks seems worth the fuel. Honestly, I'd give up after school activities to keep the gas in the snowblower.

[alison]

My mom told me those blowers were invented in Japan for small gardens so that they could blow leaves out of the manicured trees and pick them up. Using them on a small scale like this makes sense to me, but when I see entires sidewalks and rooftops getting "cleaned" by these things, it drives me crazy!

[BonBon]

I've noticed too that it takes a lot longer to get the job done when you use a blower.

I can't help but wonder what was on the roof to be blown off.

Angie, we finally caved on a snowblower...worth every penny.

I can't help but wonder what was on the roof to be blown off.

I don't know! I could hardly believe it.

I did a double take.

Our neighbor had their yard cleaned last week...the *sswipe blew a whole bunch of leaves through our fence into our yard. Tell me, how does a plastic cup chewed up by their dog end up on our side of the fence? I threw that thing back over immediately.

[fluffhead]

I LOVE my reel mower - I can even feel OK about having a kid walk with me while using it, as I can just stop walking and the blades stop rotating.
Leaf blowers, snow blowers, weed whackers, lawnmowers all operate on 2-stroke engines which are terrible polluters. The NY times just had an editorial about this. California has new regs about 2-stroke engines, but the "landscapers" are opposing it in every other state.
And I can assume that a fed govt which favors snowmobiles in Yellowstone certainly won't have anything to say about this.
I won't even start on the noise pollution.
And think of the effect on the national waistline of everybody digging out their rakes shovels and implements of destruction!

[mommax3]

I am proud to say that I worked HARD in my yard Monday, pruning and weeding like a maniac, and I gathered all the trimmings (8 trash bags full!) up with my own two hands......no leaf blower here.

I am not so proud to say that my forearms, (from yanking up the &%$#@ landscaping material that thwarted me every time I tried to dig something up) back, and thighs haven't been the same since, although I am walking a little less stiffly today!

Sally

Leaf blowers, snow blowers, weed whackers, lawnmowers all operate on 2-stroke engines which are terrible polluters. The NY times just had an editorial about this. California has new regs about 2-stroke engines, but the "landscapers" are opposing it in every other state.

Sort of along those lines... they're building a new skyscraper in Philly and had the brilliantly green idea to use a new system of urinals & toilets that is waterless. Well, the plumbing union would not hear of it, they sucessfully argued that they were entitled to the work and installed pipes that lead to nothing. Landscapers, plumbers and unions, oh my...

This is why I'm the rare democrat who does not like unions. "Entitled" to work is a hard concept for me.

Not so sure on the waterless toilet though.

Not so sure on the waterless toilet though.

Not sure how they Philly building is doing it, but there is one in Portland that uses grey water. (I think! Geez, I read the whole article but have lost the details). Maybe they are doing something like that. Good thing all the pipes are there.

I loved our reel mower too. Great exercise. That is a downside of having so much *$(*&@ grass, even though we have pulled out a bunch already. I think that by the time I finished the backyard, I would have to go back and start on the front again. At least in the spring.