Actually, 2-stroke garden equipment put out a LOT of pollutants, MUCH more than cars:
Leaf Blower’s Emissions Dirtier than High-Performance Pick-Up Truck’s, Says Edmunds’ InsideLine.com
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It might make sense to address the 2-stroke problem first then. I guess among my lawn & garden fleet, my two-strokers are the gasoline string trimmer and the leaf blower. My lawnmower is a 4-stroker. I switched to an electric string trimmer a few years ago, and it is easier & less dusty to just rake the area than fire up the leaf blower. So I could easily do without the 2-strokers in my case. The 4 stroker lawnmower isn’t as easy to replace.
Thanks for the link. Emissions-wise have to consider how many hours the garden engines are used as well, compared to other emitters like cars and trucks. I run my lawnmower less than 15 minutes a week, and only in summer months. So a direct comparison to a pick-up truck which might be used 20 hours a week, nearly every week of the year, or more may be misleading.
Not for commercial lawn maintenance companies, they run that stuff hours a day.
It seems like the big complaint in these parts about lawn maintenance companies is the leaf blowers are too loud, not so much about their emissions. I expect the strategy for those who’s complain is really too loud, is instead to focus on the emissions.
I’ve had neighbors annoy me b/c they were too loud, but not b/c of their landscaping activities. Either I’m not bothered by the neighborhood garden engines, or I’m lucky so there’s not enough of that activity in my vicinity to be bothersome. But the local community governments seem to spend a lot of time on leaf blower noise, so somebody must be bothered.
A neighbor called the police because a general contractor was trimming bushes without a professional license to do so…welcome to California.
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That’s the problem when the local gov’t allows anonymous complaints. If the complaining neighbor’s name & address were public information, they’d be much less likely to make minor complaints such as this.
Wrong , with so many crazy people who want to settle everything that upsets them with a gun it is best to keep the complaint private . If the complaint is not valid then life just goes on .
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You folks don’t think this is a little extreme? A tree branch came down on my son’s house in Minneapolis some years ago and punch a hole in the garage. We cut the branch up, fixed the roof and re-shingled the garage. I got no permission. Found out later you had to be a licensed arborist to cut the branch and needed a permit to shingle the roof. I guess none of the neighbors minded since I fixed her fence and railing at the same time.
I’m studying Churchill a little now and he was a great history buff. Could relate events in history to the present to consider outcomes. During Lenin and Stalin and the Stasi, and other countries, they used neighbors to spy on other neighbors for speech against the regime and other transgressions. Slippery slope.
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I for one do, no need for that sort of gov’t treatment of the taxpayer, assuming the goal is a polite, friendly community. That presumption caveat must be my error … lol …
Neighbors certainly have a lot of differing opinions about things. Years ago a neighbor wanted to replace the fence between the two properties. I said ok, and suggested we install a drainage trench at the same time. They had 3 teenagers to help, I said with the teenagers, me, and the dad it would probably only take 3-4 hours of digging for us to get the job done. Neighbor: "We moved to this country so we wouldn’t have to do manual labor. No way my kids are digging trenches. " … lol …
Another neighbor complains to me that he had to pull a radish plant found growing in his flower bed, says it is caused by a seed from a radish plant on my property. It’s hard for me to imagine why a neighbor would think it a good idea to complain about something like that, after all who knows where the radish seed came from, blown in by the wind, bird, etc. My thinking is if didn’t want it, don’t complain just pull it while doing the weeding next time, right? This logic isn’t working though. So I point out that the rye grass on his property is invading my garden … stalemate … lol …
Lots of weird stories about trees in my area of Calif. Like the rules for trimming branches for example. If my neighbor has a tree on their property, and a limb crosses onto mine, I can remove the limb. In fact the limb overhanging my property is my responsibility rather than the neighbors, for any damage it might cause if it falls, or if it is too close to a structure making it a fire hazard, etc. However, if the tree is planted on city property (e.g. the narrow strip of land between the sidewalk and the private residence, and I trim a branch (even lop just 6i inches off a branch) that crosses from that tree over my property, I’d almost certainly be fined a substantial amount, over $1000. I see the city tree inspectors driving by on a routine basis taking photos to effect tree-pruning prosecution … lol … seriously, the local gov’t pays its staff to monitor the branches of its trees on a daily basis.
Another neighbor complains a branch of my tree is overhanging their property. I mention that they are free to remove it themsevles, but it they’ll work from their side while I work from mine we could assist each other and remove it together. “No!” … lol …
Local rules in my area would permit the tree trimming without an arborist. However If the tree belonged to someone else they might complain, if the pruning job damaged its health. So it might make practical sense to hire an arborist, but I don’t believe that is required. Repairing a damaged roof by applying a few packages of new shingles wouldn’t require a roofing permit here, but if all the shingles on the roof are replaced then a permit would be required.
Tree talk. Surely will spurn comments. Yeah the law is that if the neighbors tree falls on your house, it is your problem on your dime. Unless the tree was rotten or unstable so that it would be negligence to not take it down.
Had an evergreen blow down a couple weeks ago and it landed on the neighbors evergreen that also uprooted. Don’t know if mine pushed his down or the both went down at the same time or what. I didn’t see it when the 100 mph wind came through. So we both took care if our own. Most of my trees are far enough away to not hit anything if they come down. The neighbor has a maple that would make a pretty good dent in my garage though in a high north wind. Unlikely but still wish it wasn’t there.
Can’t speak to the Texas issue, but local gov’ts encouraging neighbors to spy and report what they believe to be minor imperfections by other neighbors is a step in the wrong direction if the goal is a well-tuned society imo.
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I guess some states prioritize which things are important differently. Tree pruning licensing would be low on my list.
I guess you have never had an elderly relative ripped off by an unlicensed crew who just happened to be in the neighborhood .
When my current neighbor moved in next door he told me that he wanted to put in a driveway between our houses. I discussed it with my wife and we decided that we didn’t want his boat on trailer that close to our house. He would have had to pave right up to the property line and zoning requires permission of the neighbors to put any construction that close to the property line. I told him we didn’t want the driveway. It would be unsightly and would have diverted rain water drainage onto my property and caused erosion. We have erosion back there even without this extra water. I could have waited and forced him to remove the driveway, but I wanted to be up front with him. Zoning laws would have forced removal if I pressed it. I thought it was better to be up front with him since we would be living together for many years. Others might have handled it differently. I thought if I was honest and told him my concerns we could work it out, and we did.
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Since we are on trees, got my $250 deductible today from my insurance company today for a large branch from a long dead tree that fell and smashed our glass top table last July. Got a check for $269 for the table and cut up and removal of dead 8" branch after deductible. I then pressed the insurance company to go after it for negligence as I had a text message 10 months earlier recommending a tree company I texted the landlord to remove one of our trees after a phone conversation about the tree. Tree is still there, another big branch falls into or yard, will file another claim for cleanup, an recoup deductible again for sure. Hits a house, car or garage it would have been covered. Insurance company stated deductible funds have been received from the responsible party. There is no government enforcement available to make him do anything about the tree.
Superstorm Sandy caused a lot of damage in my neighborhood. Although my insurance company paid to completely re-roof my house as a result of the loss of ~40 shingles, they refused coverage for tree removal because the tree didn’t hit my house.
The tree came to rest a couple of feet above my covered porch, so now I know that if–God forbid–the same thing happens again, I will have to grab onto the tree and bring it into contact with the house in order to have its removal covered by my insurance.
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It was rude for your neighbor to even ask imo. Your response makes perfect sense.
Hi all. Can we please get back at least kinda-sorta to cars? Thanks.
Kinda car related and price related. I have a little body work to do that I have been putting off. I usually date and note the price on paint and body supplies. My dried up quart of body filler had the date of 2002 and $6 bought at Napa. The new quart was $22.