Blowing Hard About Leaf Blowers

Here's how it works:

It's VERY annoying when blowers are used in other's people's yards, but in mine, it's a necessary temporary inconvenience.

No one can hate leaf blowers more then I do! And those hedge trimmers. One neighbor thinks 8 am on Saturday is a fine time to blow and trim all kinds of things. Another has a landscaper who blows the leaves into the street - taking up a block worth of parking. I'm in Bloomfield where we don't allow people to dump leaves into the street and yet my block has piles along the curbs.

I have to blow my leaves so I have enough time to work my ass off and then give all back to the people blowing my leaves. To tell you the truth, I would rather be home raking them myself.

Q: What's more annoying than leaf blowers?
A: People griping about leaf blowers.

Nobama, I couldn't follow you. Do you use a leaf blower yourself AND pay a landscaping service to do the work again?

Oh, I wanna whack those who blow leaves and garbage into the sewers. I hope that their basements flood!

On Friday everyone on my street in Bloomfield recived a orange sticker on their garbage can claiming that their garbage contained recyclables. The same day we all got a notice in our door stapled to a copy of the Bloomfield Buzz telling us that we were in violation of the law that says we have to keep our gutters free of leaves. Good rules both, but as one who recycles just about everything and who clears the gutters all year round, I find the town's means of communication a bit lacking. A simple letter restating the rules for recycling/leaf collection, along with notice of their renewed vigor in inforcing the rules, would have done the job just fine. Bloomfield government - charming as always.

I wrote a completely incoherent message....I have to have someone blow my leaves because I am working my ass off and have no time to do it with the daylight hours available. I then have to take the money that I have worked for and give it back to the leaf blower under Pres Obama's new plan. What I would like to do is not work hard and enjoy a day at home raking my own leaves.

So Nobama, do you think the guys you pay to do your yard work don't work hard? And they probably get paid off the books , plus it's highly unlikely they have health insurance or medical benefits. What's your point? You're fortunate enough to be able to hire someone to do your yardwork?

Hey, Nobama! Yes, we can!

jerseygurl, I really have no point. But a ridiculous article about of all things like "leaf blowing" deserves a pointless and mindless response from me. Amazing that we make such an issue of that.

Lasermike, for all of our sake, I Hope He Can too. Let's see if he can make chicken cordon blue out of chicken shit.

Here's what I love: Having a blower-wielding "landscaper" make me step out into the street to escape the airborne debris. Waking up Saturday morning at 7:30 to the whine of my neighbor tidying his driveway (wonder how he'd like me doing it on a weekday at *5* when I get up?). Having [what Pat K describes as flying feces] particles blasted against the sides of my gleaming newly washed car as I drive down Christopher St. (hoping the passenger-side window's not open.)

But we're rakers (and none too fastidious, either) and our lawn keeps coming up just fine without all that care and feeding.

"But we're rakers (and none too fastidious, either) and our lawn keeps coming up just fine without all that care and feeding."

"and God-dammit, everybody ought to be more like me!"

Now that I'm a homeowner, I find that there are more upsetting things in life than my neighbors' leafblowers. Rising property taxes for one.

Wow; way to project delusions of censure onto the post of a technologically backward neighbor, RoC!

I had a neighbor that used a leaf blower for 30-45 minutes without pause as he pushed small quantities of garden debris from his back fence to his front walk.

He died in a recliner while watching a Yankee game.

I did not mourn his passing.

sounds like you're pretty busy too mellon head,,keep practicing, you might one day play at Tierneys.

wow, mellon, that's harsh. I had you figured a little differently I guess.

ROC, Why is it harsh to not mourn somebody you didn't know other than their annoying habit of making a lot of unnecessary noise.

It's not like I wished the guy dead or anything.

I wouldn't miss the leaf blower guy either. I hate those damn things!

We are truly fortunate if something this insignificant rates as a problem in our lives.

No, spicoli, it's just one of those minor everyday irritations that just adds to the burden, and with which we could easily do without.

In other words, with all the crap and "big" problems I have to deal with, I would at least like to enjoy being out in my yard on the weekend without having to put up with ear-splitting noise and choking fumes from somebody's stupid leaf blower. If I'm going to be bled dry in property taxes, at least let me bleed in peace and quiet!

Why's everybody jump to the conclusion that it's either rake your own leaves or pay someone to leafblow them?

When you've got four landscaper dudes with leafblowers who take an hour to leafblow a front yard that's about 20 x 40, tops ( as I have observed time and again), those guys could get that job done with rakes - quietly and without creating a pillar of dust and debris more than a house high that blows all over neighbors and their houses, cars, and children trying to play outside.

Raking it yourself or hiring dudes with leafblowers to blow crap all the way up the block are not your only options. Tell your landscapers to use rakes instead of leafblowers. You may not be home all day, but your neighbors may be at home trying to conduct a telephone call, or let their children nap or play outside. The sound and fumes of leafblowers will invade homes halfway down the block, not just next door.

What if there was a "green" landscaping service that sent burly hunkie men, with health insurance benefits, to rake your leaves by hand, and they charged triple what a "brown" landscaping service charged?

I'll bet they'd go out of business in a week.

Duh:
Leaf blowers=
Noise pollution.
Air pollution.
Brain pollution.

PS. Leaves make healthy mulch in the winter for your lawns and flower beds...and they're chemical-free.

I'm against them as I have to sleep during the day. Except, of course, on my day off when I use one on my yard. Although I wait until all the leaves are down and then blow them into a pile waiting to go into the composting bin.

pp,

I've got a 86 PRS standard for sale for 10k you interested?

I could never understand the concept of paying someone else to do landscaping (unless, of course you are elderly or disabled). I get so much pleasure out of working in the yard.

"...if there was a "green" landscaping service that sent burly hunkie men to rake your leaves by hand..."

...I'd have to be at home to watch in order to get my money's worth.

With the economy crashing into the black hole under Liz's porch (or so I read on these very pages, well maybe insinuated, but that's good enough for me); why not have the Doe Fund put all the soon to be homeless in the suburbs to work raking leaves?

If leaf blowers were banned and the mow and blow guys are adversely impacted and they are forced to lay off workers do they get to be bailed out too?

I love working in the yard too. Each year, my husband and I go up and help my father with the leaves in Bergen County. It's good exercise and good company!

At 7:45 on Thanksgiving morning, my neighbor began blowing his leaves. It woke up my entire house (including young children and barking dog).
I wish there was an enforcement of regulations for leaf blowers. Landscapping crews show up at 7:30 am and begin using loud and obnoxious equipment. I am so tired of contractors and home owners being inconsiderate of others. I do not mind the leaf blowers within reasonable limits but this is ridiculous!!
We cannot even have morning quiet on Thanksgiving!

Call the police
S217-6
Hours of use. Leafblowers powered by internal combustion engines shall not be operated in the Township of Montclair except as follows:

(1) On weekdays between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., except that leafblowers may be used by an occupant or owner of the premises between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on weekdays.

(2) On Saturdays between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., except that leafblowers may be used by an occupant or owner of the premises between 9:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.

(3) On Sundays and the following holidays, between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.: Good Friday and Thanksgiving.

2-stroke engines emit several pounds of particulate matter into air every hour they are in use. In addition to the pollution produced by the blowers themselves, they also force harmful ground-level substances to become airborne. Pollen, feces and other dust particles as well as particularly dangerous substances like lead, organic carbon, chromium, arsenic, cadmium, nickel and mercury which accumulate along street curbs are blown into the air where they are inhaled by pedestrians. Most leaf blowers operate at levels of 70-75 decibels, about 100 times the level to which health experts say the human ear can be safely subjected. Electric engines provide plenty of power, are 50 - 70% quieter than gas powered leaf blowers and emit no air pollution. If yardmen used electric leaf blowers to vacuum up and mulch yard debris, it would eliminate virtually all the air pollution problems and greatly reduce the issue of noise.