No-so-silent Spring

I hate those fucking things so much. To anybody who uses one: I hate you!

I really hope noise pollution in general becomes a bigger topic of conversations. Yes, I hate gas leaf blowers and they ruin so many spring and fall days. But what about my annoying neighbor who insists on revving his Corvette at 5:30am? I hear that damn car for a good five minutes as they are driving away from the neighborhood.

Mowing lawns is killing pollinators.

People put so much energy into growing grass. Seeding, liming, fertilising, watering... so they can create endless, mindless busywork and destroy biodiversity.

Lawns were originally a status symbol. A "hey lol look at me I have enough land I don't have to grow food." Shameful that it took off as a defacto standard.

Leaf blowers strike me as a very American thing. People do use them here in the UK, but rarely

It's warm enough here that we can open the windows and turn off the heating. Not hot enough to need AC yet. So what do I hear all day today?

Lawnmowers.

I mean, we have a lawnmower too, but ours is 100% electric. So we basically mow the lawn in stealth mode. I don't think anyone realises we're doing it unless they physically see us out there with it. We're good neighbors. As for our neighbors.... Ehhh, not so much.

In my case it's the AC units that ruin it for me. We have nice weather that would cool the apartment if we open the windows but if some of the closest neighbors has their unit on it makes it unbearable for the rest

not just fucking leaf blowers, but mowers, weed wackers, and edgers as well, they're all so fucking loud.

I can't believe the house i currently live in is considered to be worth more than 150-200 thousand dollars. It's 1.5-2x the price of that btw.

Me: opens windows

Saws, ATVs and motorcycles: Doom Blood Swamps noises

I like the German approach of having silent Sundays.

When I was younger I spent an afternoon hanging out with my grandfather. We sat on the porch of my fathers house smoking cigarettes. My mom came outside and asked me to clear the fallen leaves off the porch. Well, young me went to the garage and pulled out the awesome backpack leaf blower my Dad had. Proceeded to spend a few very noisy minutes trying to get some leaves out of a corner, when my grandfather laughed and said, "you know, sometimes the harder way is easier." and handed me a broom. Took all of a 5 minutes to sweep everything off nicely, whereas I was getting nowhere blowing leaves every which way.

I don't even own a leaf blower now, don't need one.

I know it’s spring because that’s when the drone of small gas motors starts up. Non-stop mowers, blowers, trimmers, and chain saws.

I’ve started moving towards electric. Some of the newer, smaller equipment like trimmers have gotten really good with good power and longevity. I prefer it to gas. However, bigger equipment like mowers haven’t caught up yet, there are quite a few for smaller lawns, but bigger lawnmowers are quite expensive so far.

Hope that continues to improve.

E: it takes me an hour to do my lawn with a gas ZT mower, we have a large lot with lots of trees. Thank you, northeast US, for large lawns being in style when this house was built. Yes, we’ve looked/are looking at low/no-mow lawn alternatives. The closest in performance replacement mower in electric costs nearly $6k. It’s just not in the budget.

Yeah, I am always surprised when I visit friends in the suburban parts of Germany. We live in an appartment in the middle of the city and it is so much calmer here. :)

But German suburbia at least has sundays when lawnmower (etc.) are illegal to be used.

2 stroke bees

The timing of this post could not be more perfect. I'm sitting at my desk at home, with the windows open for the first time this year, sipping coffee and browsing Lemmy... and the duet of leafblower and weedwhacker begins next door. The most infuriating part: the property in question is a NEVER-used artist's studio/gallery that nonetheless gets multiple visits per week from landscapers/caretakers/contractors/etc. I've lived next to the property longer than the studio has even existed, and I've seen the owner once.

Related: AC. I live in an apartment complex in which each unit has a shitty, absurdly loud AC unit. Come 17 °C and one jackass ruins it for everyone else who might to sit outside or have their windows open. Between that and landscaping....

I used to have a neighbour who would use a leaf blower purely to blow away litter from his driveway, which would then blow back onto his driveway shortly after.

I'm not sure why you wouldn't just use a brush like a normal person.

I get the sentiment of being anti 2-stroke leaf blower (at least for personal use. Electric isn't feasible for industry/city use quite yet). I don't get why this comic is anti all leaf blowers though?

Leaf blowers in spring?