Even more efficient than leaf-blowing is ...
Dear Miss Moammar,
Soy sauce is a liquid that, in my experience, defies drizzling, stopper or no stopper. What are your thoughts on substituting balsamic vinegar instead?
Signed,
Masticator in Maplewood
DaveSchmidt said:
Dear Miss Moammar,
Soy sauce is a liquid that, in my experience, defies drizzling, stopper or no stopper. What are your thoughts on substituting balsamic vinegar instead?
Signed,
Masticator in Maplewood
One's own blood makes a nice condiment.
Moammar said:
One's own blood makes a nice condiment.
My blood pressure can go only so low.
It's a curious thing. I wonder how many residents profess to be concerned about the environment yet hire landscapers and use mosquito killing services?
tjohn said:
It's a curious thing. I wonder how many residents profess to be concerned about the environment yet hire landscapers and use mosquito killing services?
most of them.
I am posting this elsewhere, as well, but this is too delicious to miss…
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/03/climate/climate-change-biodiversity.html
mtierney said:
I am posting this elsewhere, as well, but this is too delicious to miss…
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/03/climate/climate-change-biodiversity.html
I have this image of you in a long raggedy black frock stirring a caldron with the thigh bone of a donkey…and your floppy hat dripping with slime.
And the Monday morning drone resumes, yards away. It's like minibikes at the carnival Ring of Death ride circling my cranium. I've had urinary tract infections I preferred to leaf blowers.
sbenois said:
Perhaps you should consider earplugs.
Already considered, one year ago:
Moammar said:
Abject surrender. Ear plugs never!
Did the doughty colonials of 1776 say: "Oh! The redcoats' fearsome muskets are too loud! I must put these primitive boluses of wax, dung and straw in my earholes." Of course not. If they had, we'd all be dropping our aitches and eating bangers and mash to this day.
Did the '69 Mets confront crowd noise in Baltimore with ear plugs? Did David hurl an earplug at Goliath?
Instead, we should consider what anatomical voids a leaf blower might fill.
At the risk of dragging this thread’s oratory down to a prosaic rattle, I’ll add this about earplugs: They block sounds indiscriminately, which can be an impediment to household function during wakeful hours.
I think moammar is over the top to a point that he's doing his argument more harm than good. It isn't even entertaining any more.
But I agree with the general principles. I use a rake and it is manageable even for a woman of mature years (who isn't exactly an athlete and works full time) to handle. My property is small which certainly helps - but driving around town I'd say that there aren't a lot of huge properties in these parts.
I also use a human-powered reel lawnmower - I believe it saves considerable time & money over using a power mower. And it's a huge savings compared to a lawnmowing service.
I certainly am not interested in shaming people who have made other choices. Some choices that I make may leave people shaking their heads. But I would say that if you haven't tried raking recently - give it a try. You may be surprised by how easy it is and how quickly it's done.
mtierney said:
I am posting this elsewhere, as well, but this is too delicious to miss…
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/03/climate/climate-change-biodiversity.html
Did anyone read this link? One small step for humankind…..
Hurling criticism is the default reaction — much easier to do than think out of the box.
DaveSchmidt said:
Yes.
Wonderful concept to affect climate change one garden at a time!
I'm funny how, I mean funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh, I'm here to ... amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny?
I was just in Hawaii - staying at an AirBNB - their weekly maintenance showed up with one of the loudest leaf blowers I've ever heard. I really have no idea what they were even blowing - at least we have leaves to justify it a bit.
Anyway, the funniest part about it was the name of the landscaping company was . . . . . . . . . . Serenity.
Just came in from raking leaves. Google's web health site says that raking leaves burns about 270 calories per hour. I feel healthier already. PS I have a fenced-in corner of my backyard where I simply pile the leaves and it takes about a year until they turn into leaf compost soil. Low tech, low management composting, but it works.
RobertRoe said:
Just came in from raking leaves. Google's web health site says that raking leaves burns about 270 calories per hour. I feel healthier already. PS I have a fenced-in corner of my backyard where I simply pile the leaves and it takes about a year until they turn into leaf compost soil. Low tech, low management composting, but it works.
I prefer raking and think it's more effective than using blowers.
Another happy raker here! In addition to the benefits of exercise it always seems to lift my mood.
That said, when our neighbor moved he gave us his almost new battery powered blower and mower. This year my husband has encountered some significant medical setbacks and he has been able to continue to participate in yard work thanks to these new tools. The mower is lighter weight than our gas one...thus easier to maneuver and push on our sloped lawn. And, I think he's getting some of that "man with a power tool" adrenaline when it blows the leaves I rake into a neat pile in the street. 
RobertRoe said:
Just came in from raking leaves. Google's web health site says that raking leaves burns about 270 calories per hour. I feel healthier already. PS I have a fenced-in corner of my backyard where I simply pile the leaves and it takes about a year until they turn into leaf compost soil. Low tech, low management composting, but it works.
When I lived in Maplewood, I decided to create a compost pile in a corner of the rear yard. Turned out wasps, squirrels, and bees loved it. The wasps won.
Hate those gas-powered leaf blowers? N.J. may be banning them.
Karin Price Mueller, nj.com
Hate those gas-powered leaf blowers? N.J. may be banning them. (msn.com)
New Jersey lawmakers are taking aim at gas-powered leaf blowers with two bills recently introduced in the state Legislature.
The first measure, S4273, would prohibit the sale of gas-powered leaf blowers within a year of the bill becoming law and ban their use entirely after four years. Introduced by Sen. Bob Smith, D-Middlesex, chair of the Senate Environment and Energy Committee, the bill would levy fines of up to $1,000 for each offense.
The bill says gas-powered leaf blowers emit “high rates of pollutants,” noting that the amount of carbon monoxide emitted from a typical gas-powered leaf blower in one hour is equal to what’s emitted from a car’s tailpipe over eight hours.
The second bill, A6238, proposed by Assemblywoman Lisa Swain, D-Bergen, would task the Board of Public Utilities to establish a rebate program for the purchase of electric or battery-powered leaf blowers.
The proposals for statewide change come after several municipalities took steps against leaf blowers after an increase in complaints about noise as more people started to work from home since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
I see in many towns that leaves are put on the curb and then vacuumed by the townships. Considering the vacuums are really blowers in reverse, shouldn't they also be banned when using gas to power them?
Today I had to strip the paint off of a door with a scraper. I've done it a lot. It is not enjoyable. But I decided to set up outside my garage behind the house, put some Depeche Mode on the Bluetooth speaker, and get to work. 10 minutes later landscapers showed up two houses down with their gas blowers and spent the next hour ruining my afternoon.
DanDietrich said:
Today I had to strip the paint off of a door with a scraper. I've done it a lot. It is not enjoyable. But I decided to set up outside my garage behind the house, put some Depeche Mode on the Bluetooth speaker, and get to work. 10 minutes later landscapers showed up two houses down with their gas blowers and spent the next hour ruining my afternoon.
Leaf blowers: the only thing that can make paint-scraping worse. What can't they ruin?
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... leaf-eating.
The neighborhood is once again being serenaded with the unending, skull-penetrating drone of a leaf-blower as a neighbor tries to remove every trace of nature from his yard. Not a leaf can be allowed to remain on the pristine lawn, in case the suburban perfection of Maplewood should be disturbed. Strange that the town's emblem is a maple leaf when we try so hard to remove them from sight, but there we are. They must be exterminated.
But are leaf-blowers really enough? There are still likely to be some stray leaves tucked away under shrubs, lurking with deciduous menace. Blowing them onto the street leaves open the possibility that they will blow right back. Then what? I propose a modest solution: ingestion.
Anyone with a leaf-blower should henceforth be encouraged -- perhaps forced -- to drop on all fours and personally eat each leaf. The low-to-the-ground posture will ensure no fugitive leaf can escape. The area will be silent except for rhythmic crunching.
Leaves are nice drizzled with soy sauce, baked into a casserole with fontina or merely crammed by the handful into a homeowner's face until breathing becomes difficult. The act of digestion will provide fiber, which we all need more of.
Alternatively, the town council could just ban leaf blowers once and for all, we could all get a little light exercise from raking and blood-pressure readings would drop across Maplewood.
Until then: Eat up.