Christ, can I have just ONE FUCKING AFTERNOON in the screen porch, without having to listen to the

[Redstone]

fucking various roars and whines of the fucking lawnmowers / string trimmers / hedge clippers / whatever-the-fuck from the fucking neighbors?

Jesus, people! Can't you let ONE FUCKING DAY go by without burning GASOLINE? And think of the plants, would you? Give 'em a break, already!

Redstone

[DS1]

1. My sentiments exactly.

Whatever happened to a rake? They do the job much better, and keep you in some sort of shape instead of fucking standing there using gasoline to get the dust off your driveway.

That's before you hose it down.

[Redstone]

7. I'll never forget the first time I saw a leaf-blower in action...

Back in the early 1980s. Our yard was the EXACT size as our neighbor's, and I raked the leaves in about half an hour. Then I sat back and watched the spectacle of my neighbor using his blower for TWO HOURS to move the exact same volume of leaves...

Redstone

[truedelphi]

68. Heh Heh

[triguy46]

2. I love the smell of two cycle exhaust in the morning.

[swag]

3. Just think of it as the hissing of summer lawns.

[triguy46]

5. If it were only the sprinklers. (What a good album).

[Rambis]

4. My neighbor mowes every three days

he is a freak about his lawn! It drives me crazy too!

[Redstone]

8. Every THREE DAYS? He needs help. And right now.

Redstone

[MissB]

13. Nah. He just needs a few moles.

[Left Is Write]

38. Did you tell him that's not good for the lawn?

If he's a freak about his lawn, he'd be better off letting it get some regrowth before he mows it again. That's crazy.

[barb162]

51. I had a neighbor like that.

He would criss-cross mow like they do on golf courses.

[Rambis]

57. He just did that yesterday!

we have been in the house three years and he just pulled that one out of the hat too funny:crazy:

[Bicoastal]

6. Hey, that there's top-notch self-righteous invective!

You should have your own AM radio talk show!

I keed, I keed...

[Bjornsdotter]

9. I have a neighbor

...elderly, who mows his grass every 2 days and if that's not bad enough....he has been mowing his lawn at 11:30 at night, in the dark on his riding mower.

Uses his table saw, in his garage with the door open at midnight...he's old and I'm trying to cut him some slack, but he's driving us crazy.

I feel your pain...:hug:

edit for spelling

[MissB]

12. Older people seem to need less sleep.

Maybe they know they don't have that long left on this planet.

[Redstone]

14. Jeez, the table saw is one thing, because sometimes you have to do those woodworking

projects at night, but mowing his lawn that close to midnight? That's an old guy who needs and intervention, right there.

Redstone

[madinmaryland]

10. It has not rained here in three weeks and the grass is brown

and basically dead, and the fuckers are still out mowing!

:wtf:

And after mowing they get the fucking blowers out and blow fucking dust everywhere

A**holes

:grr:

[Redstone]

16. The dust. The FUCKING DUST! They seem to enjoy blowing that shit around as much

as they enjoy torturing the grass. It makes Mrs R fucking nuts, because they always seem to mow the fucking dust the day after she washes the cars.

Redstone

[madinmaryland]

20. It's even worse in the spring,

when it just blows the fucking pollen around.

:grr:

fucking a**holes!

[MissB]

11. Today is lawn day.

My neighbors on three sides of me use the same service. Not surprisingly, the service does all three lawns/yards in the same day. I guess I should be grateful that the other six days are relatively quiet.

I was jolted awake this morning at 8:40 (hey, the rest of the family is on a two week trip without me - I deserve to sleep in) to the annoying sound of a leaf blower.

We go with the natural look around here. I have nearly a half an acre, so I'm not terribly motivated to do a lot to the big trees and mature (12' high) rhododendrons. The leaves and stuff eventually break down into dirt.

[Redstone]

15. Twelve-foot Rhodies? Oh, yes.

Redstone

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. They're toys for big boys who like to go "vroom-vroom"

For generations, Americans used push mowers to cut their grass and rakes and brooms to get rid of their leaves.

What was wrong with that?

Nothing. More exercise, no gasoline usage. And the old methods were QUIET.

[texanwitch]

18. I bought a new electric lawnmower, it is very quiet.

I have to charge it up twice due to the size of my yard.

I wouldn't go back to gas powered mower again.

[redwitch]

25. We just got one too, and we love it!

It is quiet, it doesn't smell, it doesn't burn gasoline, and did I mention it's quiet? :-)

[texanwitch]

31. The mower is so quiet and so easy to start.

Just put in the battery and go.

No gas to buy, no smell.

What made me buy this mower was early this summer I had to spend $15 to fill up the gas can.

No more.

The battery lasts a long time if the grass isn't super tall, the mower has lots of power.

[1gobluedem]

19. Welcome to my world

I work on a college campus and there is an infernal machine running all day, every day, right under my window. Lawnmower, edger, trimmer, leaf blower, snow blower, it never stops. And when they absolutely have run out of things to mow, trim, edge, or mow they come and break up the sidewalk with jackhammers and replace it.

I think there must be a daily memo: "Go outside King Hall at 8:00 a.m., leave the machine running until 5, then take it back."

[lost-in-nj]

21. I hear you

but its not to be

It would be nice to have silence....

HI


:hi: :hi:

lost

[laylah]

22. I'll give you that and raise you

semi-automatic weapons, used by freakin' drunken fools here in my "neck of the woods". EVERY Sunday, like clockwork, they shoot their guns and their kids play pissed off music~! And I have a half acre, they have 5 but still insist on doing their "Sunday worship" right next to me!

I feel for you Redstone...some folks just ain't had no fetchin' up :hug:

[Scooter24]

23. Wednesday is lawn day for me

My lawn service starts about 9am and doesn't take long. The gardner arrives shortly after 10am and wraps up about an hour later depending on what is needing to be done. I'm usually at the office by the time they start as is the case with the majority of my neighbors.

Sorry about the noise :hi:

[petronius]

24. Well, see - this is how it begins. First, we let our grass get a few mm longer

than usual, then we go a couple days without washing our cars. Let a couple of leaves pile up under the tree - 'cause the leaf blower is so loud, dontcha know? - and then the terrorists win. The fucking TERRORISTS, man! Won't you please think of the children!?

:silly:

[Blue Diadem]

26. Ahhhhh..peace and quiet..

Is it too much to ask?

Boy do I understand what you mean Redstone. We've been dry here so there isn't much with the mowing and blowing. Even the neighbor who cuts daily is down to 1-2 times a week. It's just..well one of the neighbors got his kid one of those baseball things that they attached to his basketball pole. It's on an elastic sling so it keeps flinging back so he can keep hitting it. So all I've heard lately is PING from the aluminum bat, then THUNK when the ball wraps around the pole..then PING-THUNK, PING-THUNK, PING-THUNK. Kid's pretty darn good, he can really keep it going for a long time.. but my ears are killin' me.

[Drum]

27. My parents lived in a neighborhood

where there was a "schedule" for lawnmowers and grass cutting. My Dad told me how a neighbor came by one afternoon after they'd recently moved in, and informed him that "we do not cut our grass here until ____day." When relating the story to me, Dad was not at all happy with being told when he could work in his own yard and when he couldn't.

But would this be preferable for you? Maybe your neighbors would agree.

[LibraLiz1973]

28. My neighbor mows his lawn every 4 days

His lawn is IMMACULATE- never a leaf on it.
He manages to get everything up right away.
I'm 33 and I've been watching him do this for my entire life.
He loves that lawn more than anything in the world.
It's scary

[Bjornsdotter]

32. That's sick

...I bet there are bodies buried under that grass. You've got to watch those obsessive types.

Cheers

[YDogg]

29. Is it any wonder?

[Vanje]

30. AMEN

I mow my lawn with a couple of goats and 3 sheep.

[SarahB]

33. Is there a connection here?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x6764059

???

[WinkyDink]

34. You must live near me. I HATE these noises!

[dolo amber]

35. Life is terrible

in a middle class suburb where people care for and maintain their property. :cry:

[crim son]

36. Everyone on our street has a "service" doing their lawns/yardwork.

I mean, every freaking one. There is no peace here, ever, because every summer somebody decides to reshingle their massive house, or replace a foundation, or put in a new driveway or (e.g. next door) replace part of their old porch.

The answer, Redstone, is no.

[LibDemAlways]

49. In my neighborhood, too. And the gardeners all

show up on different days, so there's a constant racket. My husband is the only guy in the neighborhood who still cuts his own lawn, and he only does it every other week. And we don't own a leaf blower.

[crim son]

52. We owned one until my husband moved out. He'd use it and I'd use a rake

and I'd accomplish more in the same time period.

It sounds like we live on the same street! :hi:

[Redneck Socialist]

37. Me thinks thou dost live too close to thy neighbors

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and to be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.



Walden or Life in the Woods

- Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862)

Ol' HD was kind o' a nut job, but he was spot on about a lot of things.

[cleveramerican]

45. In Walden

where did he get the boat?

[Gormy Cuss]

60. Waldenmart. n/t

[Jamastiene]

71. ...

:spray:

:rofl:

Good one.

[hedgehog]

39. Does this have any relation to cicadas?

Maybe this is the year that the lawn mowers swarm.

[mykpart]

40. I bought a manual lawn mower.

Quiet and uses only elbow grease for power. Takes a little more effort to push, but I need the exercise!

[Locrian]

41. real men use reel mowers

>>I bought a manual lawn mower.

Me too. It's a good work out. My neighbor has a freaking riding mower for the same size yard! I'm in great shape - he looks like a pear.

Real men use reel mowers.

[regularguy]

42. Oh I hear ya!

My neighbor (an ok guy, really) has an excruciatingly loud gas-powered device for every fucking task imaginable. Lawn Mower, edger, trimmer, leaf blower, snow blower, chain saw, and many more ( and our lots are only about 1/5 of an acre!), one of which seems to be roaring at any given time.

[Deep13]

43. I'd love to oblige if you can get the city off my ass.

I'd never mow at all if the city didn't threaten to bring me to court because the grass is too long.

[mikeytherat]

44. How about a leaf blower, in a 30 m.p.h. wind, while it is raining!

I sh*t you not, good sir. I'm sitting in my office one morning, early November, with a nasty storm brewing - steady 15-20 winds, gusts to 30 and above, 40 degrees, raining. Above the howl of the building storm, I hear a steady, high-pitched whine. "Not deep enough for a generator, too low for a saw," I think to myself, "what the hell is that noise?" I travel up to the third floor to get a good look out the dormers and there he is, Neighbor Idiot Supreme, with his leaf blower, going to town on a Matterhorn of wet leaves. Well, going to town as much as he could given the weather and the wet leaves. Which is to say, going nowhere. Slowly. Loudly. He gave up after about 15 minutes, but he really tried during those 15 minutes.

I'm not that old, Red (just shy of 40), but I am the only raker in the neighborhood. I just rake 'em into one big pile and bag away. I guess people think I'm nuts, but they probably thought that already.

mikey_the_rat

[Redstone]

56. Sometimes I think Mrs R gets out the goddamn blower just to get me to go out and

do some work. She knows that I can't STAND listening to her cleaning the driveway with the noisy fucker, so I always get right out there with the push broom and make her stop so I can sweep. It takes me all of 20 minutes, and burns ZERO gasoline (though it does make beer disappar at an alarming rate).

Redstone

[cleveramerican]

46. Sorry man ...

I got this cool new gas powered weedwacker for Fathers Day from my daughters and I have been enjoying the hell out of it.What a well designed tool. I have the most thoroughly weed wacked property in the world and thats just how its gonna be this summer.Adjust.

[GoneOffShore]

47. "All the kids in the neighborhood all love Mr Softy"

Lather, rinse, repeat.

[mikeytherat]

48. "Fur Elise," Casio disco-style, complete with hand claps and whistles.

Beat that!

In a way, actually, it is so surreal it begs the question, "This sells ice cream?"

mikey_the_rat

[barb162]

50. Hey there, Redstone...can't agree with you more!

A beautiful summer day, when you want to open the windows, is next to destroyed by the LOUD, annoying-as-hell trimmers, mowers, etc. It seems as soon as one neighbor gets done, another starts up around here. You have to close the windows because the noise is so damned loud.

[redqueen]

53. I wish meadows were in style.

I think they make an area look much more peaceful than the obsessive/compulsive, manicured golf-course look.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

54. This is another reason I'm in favor of front yard veggie gardens.

Tomatoes aren't noisy.

[Redstone]

55. And you're not the only one...Mrs R has Japanese eggplants in pots as an ornamental,

and they look great as well as producing tasty vegetables. We've grown tomatoes in the front as ornamentals as well.

Redstone

[zippy890]

58. .

yeah! I'm with you and the guy on the porch with the weedy lawn.

:rofl:

[Redstone]

59. Hey, weeds are the PERFECT lawn plant! They don't need any watering or feeding, and they

stay nice and green no matter what.

Give me crabgrass any day. It's easy as hell to deal with.

Redstone

[CRF450]

61. Do they really anger you that much??

They dont bother me all. I can understand when people cut their grass way too often, but when its gotta be cut, it has to be done. Our grass on our 2 1/2 acre lot gets cut every week. We have a Toro Z-master lawn mower with a deck around 60" wide. Gets the job done quick too!

[Redstone]

62. You don't understand. This is not "It's gotta be cut." This is "I'm going to mow the grass

that I just put fertilizer on to make it grow, because, well I haven't BURNED ENOUGH GASOLINE this week, or maybe just because I'm bored..."

May I ask, without sounding confrontational, why you need to mow 2-1/2 acres of grass? Have you ever thought of letting some or most of it go to being a wildflower meadow, or maybe just a natural state with brush for wildlife habitat?

Habitat loss for wildlife is a big problem in this country. If you'd let half of your acreage revert to brush and trees, you'd be helping fix that problem more than you might imagine.

Redstone

[zippy890]

63. that's right, plus its a lot quieter without those dad-blasted

lawn mowers and weed wackers and the guy across the road in his damn tractor mower going all the time just cuz he likes to ride around in it and cut every single blade of grass twice.

what good is a porch anyway if you can't sit on it wnd enjoy some peace and quiet once in a while.

and watch the grass grow.

:toast:

[CRF450]

64. I cut it all because...

I dont quite like the thought of the whole yard looking like crap. In fact, right behind my yard, theirs a wooded area where pine trees where planted many many years ago, and I have trails running through it for riding the dirtbike. Thats mostly why I have a big yard anyways. Oh yea, I dont have neighbors either since the whole place is surrounded by farm fields.

For me, it has to be cut. I only used about a couple gallons of gas.

[Redstone]

65. OK, that works. As I said, I was just asking. Sounds like you have the habitat thing worked out

pretty well in your area.

Redstone

[CRF450]

66. couple satallite pics of it

The green grass is my 2 acre lot. The rest of area is not. The area with the trees, that brown area, and those two trailer houses (which are all torn up) belonged to some people that used to live in those two houses and one that burned down. They moved out for some odd reason and didn't bother fixing up the place at all. And they havent contacted anyone here for the past 6 years! So now I play around their on my off days with riding the dirtbike, having some paintball battles etc etc... Hell we had paintball battles from inside those two old trailer house by shooting through the window openings LOL!

[Joe Fields]

67. What's really bad, is when you work nights and TRY to sleep during the day,

and can't, because every jackleg with a power tool, from saws to lawn mowers have to create a fucking symphony of whiny noise.

[truedelphi]

69. I've moved to the country and have escaped

the noise of these machines

But the BLAME Stupid OVER SIZED DOGS that roam around and BARK!! Seven in the morning and there is no way to shut them up plus the cat feels he is helping by traipsing over to the window and using my face as the window sill.

I think that somebody musta outlawed sleep or somethin'.

[Jamastiene]

70. You and I could be neighbors and form a coalition.

I don't mow the grass until it starts coming to get me at the door. I had a vine growing right into the front door and had to get my step dad to come help me mow recently. I believe my jungle will get one more mowing during the summer and one good one right at the end of the growing season. That's it. I don't see mowing the grass weekly or even every other week. I don't get why some people seem to spend their ENTIRE SUMMERS mowing the grass on a daily basis. I have neighbors who seem to be mowing every damn day. It gets on my nerves. I'm trying to grow a good healthy jungle over here. They are disturbing my triffids over here with all their polluting noisy machines.

I'm with you. I'd like to have a nice quiet summer afternoon where I can just enjoy the sounds of the birds and tree frogs without having to hear the roar of a mower to screw it up.

Great post, Redstone. I'm with you on this. :thumbsup: