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As loud as the commercial landscape crews are, I almost wish one of my neighbors used landscapers instead of doing his himself...at least that would only be once a week.
This man is retired and mentally ill. From October through February he will use his commercial grade backpack gas leaf blower to blow his entire property of leaves every_single_day...its about an hour to an hour and a half process. Let me repeat that...every single day for 5 months (and then sporadically the rest of the year too). We are adjacent to woods so he can just blow them in. There can be 7 new leaves on the lawn, but he will do the entire yard like some kind of ritual. Nevermind it would be faster, and more beneficial for the lawn, to mulch them into the lawn with the mower every so often. And when I say "every day", I don't mean it like an expression, I literally mean it (only exceptions are days of heavy rain and if he goes away for a few days). Heavy snow cover will stop him too, but once it partially melts, he is at it again. In the fall, I clean my leaves once per week, and I still got yelled at to better maintain my property.
I do my own lawn work...and do own a gas blower...but use it maybe 5 -7 times per year, tops, and for brief durations. Often it is easier to sweep or rake...and I enjoy the fresh air and hearing the birds chirp.
This neighbor's home is only about 15 feet from mine and I worry about the air pollution from the DAILY use of this machine.
Wow, I really feel for you.
When I moved back out to the Island 20 years ago, I was literally shocked how much noise pollution there is here in the suburbs. Primarily from cars and trucks along the major highways and sometimes secondary roads as well. Take a look at a map of Long Island and trace the Long Island Expressway, Southern State, Northern State, Sunrise Highway, the SOB, Nicholls Road, 110, 454, 347, the other parkways etc. and then widen it two or three blocks away. That is how much of the Island is affected daily by the noise of vehicle traffic. In some places it sounds like your at Niagara Falls or something.
Then there is the noise of jet planes near the airports as well as the railroad. Its especially bad it at night when the trains blow a huge horn at grade crossings.
But all the above is unavoidable to some extent (although the walls along the LIE must help). That is why the noise from landscapers is so annoying. I am sorry, you do not need to cut somebody's grass early in the morning, especially on the weekend when some people might be trying to get a little sleep.
But even worse IMO is the leaf blowers like you said. First, they are just ridiculously noisy for what they do, blow leaves from one place to another. Second, sometimes all they do is just blow the leaves down the street or onto the neighbor's property. Third, sometimes they are used out of pure laziness, I see leaf blowers being used for a handful of leaves when a rake would have sufficed.
I do not know your neighbor but retired people sometimes are bored and get set in their ways. Maybe you can approach him diplomatically. Maybe thank him for maintaining his property so well, it really helps the neighborhood look nice. But then ask him why doesn't he use a rake for the smaller jobs? It would be less noisy, does not waste energy (money!) and it will give him a little exercise. Explain the benefits and maybe he will think using a rake is a good idea, maybe he will think it is his idea!
There are other issues with this neighbor that prevent any calm, diplomatic discussions. He hates our guts. He harrasses us verbally.
He went nuts on us because we put up a fence (on our property) seeing as the previous owners lived here for 40 years and also had kids and didn't feel the need for a fence. He's criticized my wife. He cut down one of my trees and then asked me to pay for some of it. That's just the start. He's all alone, and he displays many traits of mental illness. It makes me worry about my wife and kids when I am not here. I just ignore him now...hard when he is 10 feet away at times. But I recently got yelled at for ignoring him and also for making a 3 point turn using the end of his driveway...only time I've done that in 6 years.
As far as stealing the leaf blowers, he buys a new one every few months as it is because he wears them out. I'm not kidding. Every few months that there will be a new cardboard box for a new blower out for recycling.
There are other issues with this neighbor that prevent any calm, diplomatic discussions. He hates our guts. He harrasses us verbally.
He went nuts on us because we put up a fence (on our property) seeing as the previous owners lived here for 40 years and also had kids and didn't feel the need for a fence. He's criticized my wife. He cut down one of my trees and then asked me to pay for some of it. That's just the start. He's all alone, and he displays many traits of mental illness. It makes me worry about my wife and kids when I am not here. I just ignore him now...hard when he is 10 feet away at times. But I recently got yelled at for ignoring him and also for making a 3 point turn using the end of his driveway...only time I've done that in 6 years.
As far as stealing the leaf blowers, he buys a new one every few months as it is because he wears them out. I'm not kidding. Every few months that there will be a new cardboard box for a new blower out for recycling.
Status:
"Let this year be over..."
(set 24 days ago)
Location: Where my bills arrive
19,219 posts, read 17,099,287 times
Reputation: 15538
Quote:
Originally Posted by isles08
Old thread, but I'm reviving...
As loud as the commercial landscape crews are, I almost wish one of my neighbors used landscapers instead of doing his himself...at least that would only be once a week.
This man is retired and mentally ill. From October through February he will use his commercial grade backpack gas leaf blower to blow his entire property of leaves every_single_day...its about an hour to an hour and a half process. Let me repeat that...every single day for 5 months (and then sporadically the rest of the year too). We are adjacent to woods so he can just blow them in. There can be 7 new leaves on the lawn, but he will do the entire yard like some kind of ritual. Nevermind it would be faster, and more beneficial for the lawn, to mulch them into the lawn with the mower every so often. And when I say "every day", I don't mean it like an expression, I literally mean it (only exceptions are days of heavy rain and if he goes away for a few days). Heavy snow cover will stop him too, but once it partially melts, he is at it again. In the fall, I clean my leaves once per week, and I still got yelled at to better maintain my property.
I do my own lawn work...and do own a gas blower...but use it maybe 5 -7 times per year, tops, and for brief durations. Often it is easier to sweep or rake...and I enjoy the fresh air and hearing the birds chirp.
This neighbor's home is only about 15 feet from mine and I worry about the air pollution from the DAILY use of this machine.
You could start leaving pamphlets for no maintenance communities in Florida in his mailbox or you could actually talk to him and ask if he could cut back on his routine. As for pollution concerns try getting the LIE shut down that will have a far greater effect on cutting carbon emissions .
You could start leaving pamphlets for no maintenance communities in Florida in his mailbox or you could actually talk to him and ask if he could cut back on his routine. As for pollution concerns try getting the LIE shut down that will have a far greater effect on cutting carbon emissions .
See my second post on the subject, there is no way to have an actual discussion.
Also to add to that, he said he's been living here since before I was born and can do what he wants when he wants when I had asked him to at least not do the blower when my daughter is in our driveway waiting for the bus.
I'm not so much worried about carbon emissions as it relates to the environment. I'm worried about all of the carcinogens 2 stoke engines put out. A half hour of leaf blowing puts out something like what a car does in thousands of miles. That plus all the debris it blows around. Once in a while is fine...like I said, I own one too. But ever single day...makes me worry about the air my little children are breathing in our own yard.
I have a similar problem neighbor except it's a woman. She is also obsessive and compulsive about her yard. She also is a loner. My problem with her is not the leafblowing (she does it too) but the excessive use of weedkiller.
She loves to spray and even sprays over into our yard. Just last month I had to call the police on her because she literally dumped what seem like jugs of that stuff over onto our side of the fence. It reeked of Roundup for two weeks and I have a two feet wide by 30 feet long streak of brown dead grass that's still there one month later. Literally a dead zone.
We keep our windows open (no central air) and I think some of the spray fly into our house and made our cat sick. She was puking, had diarrhea and loss of appetite, lethargic, etc. Thankfully she recovered.
Unfortunately all the police could do was write up a report of my complaint because no one saw her do it and I didn't have evidence it was her.
I have a similar problem neighbor except it's a woman. She is also obsessive and compulsive about her yard. She also is a loner. My problem with her is not the leafblowing (she does it too) but the excessive use of weedkiller.
She loves to spray and even sprays over into our yard. Just last month I had to call the police on her because she literally dumped what seem like jugs of that stuff over onto our side of the fence. I reeked of Roundup for two weeks and I have a two feet wide by 30 feet long streak of brown dead grass.
We keep our windows open (no central air) and I think some of the spray fly into our house and made our cat sick. She was puking, had diarrhea and loss of appetite, lethargic, etc. Thankfully she recovered.
Unfortunately all the police could do was write up a report of my complaint because no one saw her do it and I didn't have evidence it was her.
This guy is a prolific use of lawn chemicals as well. I take an organic approach as I have children. I have the same concerns as you do with drift.
Every bad neighbor thing someone can do, this guy does. But then he also yells at me for ridiculous stuff.
He thinks I insulted his dead wife too. When he was going on his fence tirade he started insulting my wife and was mentiong things that his wife had noticed about her too. I said your wife wasn't very nice to my wife (she was dead at that point). Backstory is the dead wife would make nasty comments to my wife due to my wifes choice of being a stay at home mom. Now, we went to this dead wife's wake and everything despite that, as it was before things got really bad.
Just don't talk to him. I don't talk with this neighbor of mine either (we used to say hello originally when I first moved here).
IMO it is pointless and accomplishes nothing when you talk with these people other than incense them and perhaps make them do things to you out of spite.
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