Author Topic: Do neighbors ever comment on your Mustachian ways?  (Read 21599 times)

Philociraptor

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Re: Do neighbors ever comment on your Mustachian ways?
« Reply #50 on: August 22, 2014, 08:22:46 PM »
What natural resources? My maintained reel mower or my back when I pull the weeds in my lawn?

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Do neighbors ever comment on your Mustachian ways?
« Reply #51 on: August 22, 2014, 08:30:00 PM »
What natural resources? My maintained reel mower or my back when I pull the weeds in my lawn?

1. Well, you were the one who mentioned spraying weeds in your neighbor's lawn.

2. Watering instead of allowing it to go dormant. Xeriscaping is rad unless you're growing edibles.

3. Since you seem to care about your lawn so much, I assume you fertilize? Conventional fertilizers are natural gas-derived, or at the very least the N component is.

Philociraptor

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Re: Do neighbors ever comment on your Mustachian ways?
« Reply #52 on: August 22, 2014, 08:33:19 PM »
Keeping it alive and pretty for resale value, folks in Texas love their lawns. Relatively cheap to keep it looking nice unless weeds start to creep =(

Cpa Cat

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Re: Do neighbors ever comment on your Mustachian ways?
« Reply #53 on: August 22, 2014, 08:45:43 PM »
I've even caught him sneak spraying my weeds!  He likes to tip toe over and do the 18/24 inches on my side of the fence line.  I haven't called him on it because it's not near my food, but let go dude.  Relax!

Haha. I've caught my neighbor doing this too. I just want to say, "Dude, just lay out the pre-emergent herbicide on an appropriate schedule and forget about it." I don't, because I don't care - but he's not going to spray every dandelion in town. They're built to spread seeds on the wind, so they'll come in from everywhere.

Nords

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Re: Do neighbors ever comment on your Mustachian ways?
« Reply #54 on: August 22, 2014, 09:44:38 PM »
I'm low income and I live in an area of middle class people.  I get a lot of dirty looks for my dandelions and my clothes line.  I don't use weed killer, I don't water the lawn, and I mow only when I have too.  My poor neighbor looks like his eyeballs want to pop out all the time.  I've even caught him sneak spraying my weeds!  He likes to tip toe over and do the 18/24 inches on my side of the fence line.  I haven't called him on it because it's not near my food, but let go dude.  Relax!

For the love of all that is holy I want to spray my neighbors' lawns! I mow and edge my lawn weekly, so it's so infuriating when patches of weeds migrate into my lawn. Maybe you should do some weed pulling for his benefit?
For what it's worth, the birds and the wind will spread those weeds at least as fast as the plants will migrate themselves.

One of the big irritants of my end of the street is my neighbors who mow their lawns every week.  Not because the grass is high, or not because they need more salad ingredients, or not because the homeowner's association is after them but because... it's that day of the week and it's time for an hour or two of noise!  They start with a gas-powered mower, switch to a two-cycle gas weedwhacker, and finish up with (you saw this coming) a gas-driven leaf blower.  All at max throttle/RPMs.  Because, of course, none of those dead grass clippings could be allowed to litter a perfectly-manicured lawn. 

These are the same people who wash their car every week because... it's Sunday morning.  Not because it's dirty or because it's corroding or because their kids want to earn some extra cash but because... "Oh, look at the calendar, it's time to wash the car!  Hey, maybe the leaf blower will dry it faster!"

We mow our lawn about three times per year... and our growing season is 12 months long.  We use an electric mower and an electric weedwhacker.  I fire up the gas-powered weedwhacker about twice a year when the back slope's California grass gets about head-high.

I my daughter last washed our car in 2013.  So far so good.  She'll probably visit us again in 2019.

When I work on it in the driveway, I get some funny looks from people walking by.
Maybe they're just intrigued by your GU boxer shorts...
« Last Edit: August 22, 2014, 09:53:22 PM by Nords »

senecando

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Re: Do neighbors ever comment on your Mustachian ways?
« Reply #55 on: August 24, 2014, 08:06:22 AM »
Nords--

Whenever I drive through the country and see ACRES of lawn, I was always confused: why bother mowing that much lawn. Seems like such a drag.

And then I saw someone on a motorized lawn mower and I got it--it must be fun. Or, at the very least, no one is talking to you.

Paul der Krake

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Re: Do neighbors ever comment on your Mustachian ways?
« Reply #56 on: August 24, 2014, 08:22:50 AM »
And then I saw someone on a motorized lawn mower and I got it--it must be fun. Or, at the very least, no one is talking to you.
I get to mow a fairly large lawn every couple months when we visit family and quite frankly, the novelty and fun factor of the riding lawn mower wears out after about 20 minutes.

Nords

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Re: Do neighbors ever comment on your Mustachian ways?
« Reply #57 on: August 24, 2014, 09:55:37 AM »
Nords--

Whenever I drive through the country and see ACRES of lawn, I was always confused: why bother mowing that much lawn. Seems like such a drag.

And then I saw someone on a motorized lawn mower and I got it--it must be fun. Or, at the very least, no one is talking to you.
In high school I had a part-time job at a golf course.  I am so over mowing a lawn.

RetiredAt63

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Re: Do neighbors ever comment on your Mustachian ways?
« Reply #58 on: August 24, 2014, 10:57:14 AM »
About 1/3 - 1/2 of an acre of their lawn is their septic field - no bushes, no trees, the roots invade the leach field,  and you certainly would not want to grow edibles there.

Or at least that is the main part of my front lawn.  Side lawn is for dog Frisbee.  Back yard is filling in with gardens - it was bare lawn when I moved in.  But actually lawn is the easiest green space to maintain unless you are fussy - cut it, be sure the clippings are short so you don't need to rake it, it decomposes in place.  I don't water, I don't use weed-and-feed, I wait until late afternoon to cut the areas with lots of clover and trefoil so the bees have gone home.  I love my gardens, but they mean fertilizing, weeding, digging, watering as needed, harvesting, all sorts of work.

Whenever I drive through the country and see ACRES of lawn, I was always confused: why bother mowing that much lawn. Seems like such a drag.

Primm

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Re: Do neighbors ever comment on your Mustachian ways?
« Reply #59 on: August 24, 2014, 06:18:10 PM »
And then I saw someone on a motorized lawn mower and I got it--it must be fun. Or, at the very least, no one is talking to you.
I get to mow a fairly large lawn every couple months when we visit family and quite frankly, the novelty and fun factor of the riding lawn mower wears out after about 20 minutes.

Friend of mine has 5 acres of old macadamia nut farm. They don't farm it, they give the nuts away to friends and family. It's mostly manicured grass in between the trees, and about 1.5 acres out the front.

He has a ride-on mower set up with a beer cooler and an MP3 player, and spends a good 3-4 hours on it every weekend. His wife works weekends and the kids are old enough to be self sufficient, so that's his relaxation. He starts out the front though, the bit that you see from the road, so if the beer kicks in too early and he misses bits it's amongst the trees and not so noticeable.

senecando

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Re: Do neighbors ever comment on your Mustachian ways?
« Reply #60 on: August 25, 2014, 09:21:39 AM »
About 1/3 - 1/2 of an acre of their lawn is their septic field - no bushes, no trees, the roots invade the leach field,  and you certainly would not want to grow edibles there.

Thanks. Never quite put that together.

RetiredAt63

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Re: Do neighbors ever comment on your Mustachian ways?
« Reply #61 on: August 25, 2014, 05:01:54 PM »
Yes, rural life is different.  My well is in the back yard, so no trees or bushes near it (don't want roots invading the well or the pipe to my house).  Septic tank and leach field in the front.  Location can vary, but there are minimum distances between wells and leach fields for health reasons.  This is also why minimum lot sizes are big, there has to be room for all this.

There are times it would be nice to have municipal services (during power failures there is no water), but when houses are far apart it is just not reasonable to put in the infrastructure.  It also means that the homeowner has to be ready to replace a well pump (we did that one Easter weekend, what fun) or the leach field, and to be careful of the plumbing.  We had friends whose pipe from the well to the house froze one winter, the frost line went deeper than usual, and deeper than their line.

Rural life is wonderful, but not simple, or easy.

About 1/3 - 1/2 of an acre of their lawn is their septic field - no bushes, no trees, the roots invade the leach field,  and you certainly would not want to grow edibles there.

Thanks. Never quite put that together.

Gerard

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Re: Do neighbors ever comment on your Mustachian ways?
« Reply #62 on: August 25, 2014, 05:18:29 PM »
Some of these comments make me happy I live where I do, in a traditionally working-class neighbourhood with small homes and no front yards. And, typically, neighbours who are into "live and let live".

Another nice thing: I'm pretty sure spraying weed killer on your lawn is illegal here, so everyone's got beautiful shaggy backyards full of clover and stuff.

oldtoyota

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Re: Do neighbors ever comment on your Mustachian ways?
« Reply #63 on: August 25, 2014, 08:31:26 PM »
Some of these comments make me happy I live where I do, in a traditionally working-class neighbourhood with small homes and no front yards. And, typically, neighbours who are into "live and let live".

Another nice thing: I'm pretty sure spraying weed killer on your lawn is illegal here, so everyone's got beautiful shaggy backyards full of clover and stuff.

Same here. I can't imagine my immediate neighbors bothering to use pesticides. Yay!

We have zoysia grass. It's magical. We never water or fertilize. Its grows so closely together that we do not get weeds. I actually do not mind the dandelions that grow in my garden. We eat the leaves in salad.

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Do neighbors ever comment on your Mustachian ways?
« Reply #64 on: August 26, 2014, 05:44:18 AM »
At least here in WI, plantain is a super common lawn weed, and some people use it as a salad green. It's also supposed to be good for minor cuts or burns if you crush it and apply to the wound as first aid.

Silverwood

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Re: Do neighbors ever comment on your Mustachian ways?
« Reply #65 on: August 26, 2014, 12:48:08 PM »
What do you do with your bedding in the winter? Or if you have dogs that leave hair on things? That's pretty much all I use my dryer for.

wild wendella

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Re: Do neighbors ever comment on your Mustachian ways?
« Reply #66 on: August 26, 2014, 12:59:18 PM »
My husband does most maintenence on our cars, and the neighbors always comment (oil changes, brake jobs, tire rotations).  They aren't judgemental though, they just comment about how handy he is.  I've been riding my bike to work, and people comment about that as being good exercise.  "Are you just coming home from work?  Good for you!"  Oh, and people regularly comment about how good we are about getting cheap, used toys and stuff for our son.  We're in a pretty middle class area, so the neighbors are friendly and unpretentious, luckily.  Behind our back they may be saying something else, who knows!  ;)