Run For Your Life, The Mower Is Coming!
I took time out today to mow the yard before another group of thunderstorms blew through. It’s amazing to me how fast this lawn can grow in just a few days of nourishing rain.
Not only is the grass growing like weeds, so are the weeds! I just can’t seem to keep up with them.
Last summer I invested in a “green” mowing machine. By that I mean I went out and spent money on a brand new mower. This one is the old fashioned kind called a reel blade push mower. I have a small yard and I never have liked the sound of a mowing machine so I figured I would make the change. Now with the price of gas I’m glad I did. I still have the small gas powered mower but I don’t think I will ever use it again.
I’m crazy about my reel mower. I can mow the yard in flip flops with out worries of losing a foot. Every time I mow, I also get exercise. When I’m mowing it’s so quiet I can hear the birds. In fact, when I was mowing the front yard today, a nice fat robin sat down on the yard not five feet from me. My mower didn’t bother that bird at all.
I feel good about mowing without the use of fossil fuel, without polluting the air with another small gas engine. I wish all of my neighbors would switch to reel mowers and cut down on the noise pollution in the neighborhood.
I’ve found that I’m much more aware of what I am mowing when I’m mowing by my own power and in quiet. Today I saw a small black toad. I never would have noticed it with the roar and speed of a power mower. In fact, I probably would have run right over the little toad with that gas mower. Today I saw the tiny toad trying to hop out of the way and I just stood still in the quiet for a few moments while the little toad got its self off to a safer place. I noticed big daddy long legs and a flutter of grass hoppers, all easily escaping my slow mower.
I noticed the dampness of the grass and thought of last night’s rain, my damp basement and the prediction of more to come. I noticed the blooms in my garden that had started to fade and the bits of wood chips scattered about by animals. I was easily able to avoid a small contingent of toadstools that had popped up over night, again thinking that with a fast powerful gas mower, I might not have even noticed them.
Michael Becks is a contributing Author of Jetfly Blog. For more related articles and reviews visit Jetfly Home & Garden Blog now. Also, for the Best up-to-date related Online Products, check out Jetfly Lawn Mowers Shop for Todays Current Online Deals.
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Comments
The article is well written and describes wonderfully what people miss out when they get so much into work that they do not pay attention to surroundings. Nicely written article. I also have push mower and enjoy listening to birds!
I mowed the lawn today too, except I used the old-fashioned gas powered mower. I started mowing when I was a kid, so I just do it to get it done, not that I don’t pay attention, its just that I want to finish. It might be different if I had a quiet mower that that one!
This was a excellent article. I mow with a regular gas mower and I still see and hear the birds. I do understand the “green” thing also and I admire you for doing so. I like that the US has better air quality standards and all that is great. But I still will buy me a riding mower soon I kind of enjoy not walking to do the work of mowing the lawn. I will not buy “Green” anything because just like the “Organic Grown” thing the addition of one word seems to make them feel that they can charge an additional arm just for the word. I stopped buying words a long time ago. I think it was shortly after I learned the value of money and products worth and how hard I had to work to purchase the item.
Very good points. I think those reel blades are a lot, LOT cheaper and a very good investment.
I’m one of those crazy “tree-hugging hippies,” although I’m not a hippie and I don’t especially care for trees beyond personal preference–I’d just like to save plants when they are essential for the wellbeing of wild sentient animals. My partner and I refused to use a power mower mainly because of the high probability of harming and killing live animals. Instead, he bought a sickle (still dangerous, but not nearly as much) to chop down weeds. It’s cool 
I bet no one else on the block cuts their weeds and grass with a sickle! Of course we don’t like pollution (affects everyone), and on a more selfish level, we personally hate the noise and smoke.
Relatively speaking, my fossil fuel use is very tiny, and would be even if I used a power mower every day. According to various sources, grains and beans require 2 - 5% as much fossil fuel as beef to produce. 78 calories of fossil fuel go into 1 calorie of feedlot beef protein, while 2 calories of fossil fuels produce 1 calorie of soybean protein. It takes 145 times the amount of fossil fuels to produce beef compared to potatoes. So you get the idea.
In terms of environmental pollution, that’s not even scratching the surface, in terms of water pollution, topsoil erosion, water consumption, slash-and-burn of rainforests, yada yada.
And for the person who thinks slapping the word “green” in a product means it should be boycotted, greenwashing is nasty stuff, but if someone put the word “green” on your new riding mower, would you get rid of it? What if the riding mower wasn’t called “green,” but twenty times more expensive than it is now? Pretty fallacious reasoning with many leaps.
Btw, “organically grown” is now a USDA label with specific requirements for certification. There’s a lot wrong with the system but now “organic” is a label with specific, objective meanings, not just a word per se.
Nice article. It is amazing what we discover when we “stop and smell the roses.” In this world people miss out on much of the beauty and wonder or life and nature. This article brought a smile to me as I thought of all the things there are to see and wonder about in life.