Leaf meh alone!

Perhaps the Fall posting should have come ahead of the Winter one, but in this state the weather is so fluid that it’s hard to tell just what season you’re in at any given moment.  With that in mind, let me offer up a few things to make the inevitable leaf clean-up more tolerable.  And less back-breaking, blister-forming, and allergy-inducing.

Rock & Roll ACE has rental lawn equipment – tillers, aerators and the like – which you can ‘borrow’ an hour at a time for the low price of $12.  In the stable of hp is the Husqvarna leaf vacuum – a handy implement for yard clean-up in the fall.

It won’t clean your yard like a Dyson does your home, but it will help pick up small twigs and even some pinecones and acorns and whatnot in addition to leaves.  It mulches that stuff down so that you have less bags to fill and have hauled away.  Bonus, right?

If you’ve got to do it manually I can’t recommend enough those goofy-looking toothy hand-paddle things (around $6).  And a lawn funnel (about $25).  Battling a paper bag makes me want to go Trix-zilla and crush things to fine powder instead of remembering how much more eco-friendly it is to NOT be running another small engine, and just enjoying the awesome thing known as Autumn in Nebraska.  Jumping into a pile of blower/vacs has none of the charm you might think it would. 

 

You don’t have to believe me, check out what real humans have to say at epinions.com

Winter’s a-coming

Now, you know I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it sounds as though they’ve decided to go ahead and have Winter this year.  I know that many of you voted against it – I’m sorry – it just wasn’t enough.  In order to make the transition easier, I’m going to give you a few pointers.

First of all, if you’re the jerk who goes to the store at 6:30 p.m. on the day of the first snowstorm to pick up your new shovel and ice melt, and you have the gall to ask for more variety or lower prices…let’s just say you deserve to get a Hummer up your rear bumper on the way home.  Be the bestest little scout you can be and buy that stuff now.  Get your windshield scraper, your wiper fluid, your tube sand for the trunk, your plastic for the windows…get it now.

Along the same lines (and we’ll go over this again in the spring when it’s time for lawnmowers and window screens) how’s your snowblower/thrower?  Does it need a spark plug?  Paddles?  Oil change?  Ditto.  Now. 

 

Opti 2 Enviro Lubricant

Here’s a little product that everyone should be turned on to.  It’s called Opti 2 and it’s an engine oil with a fuel stabilizer.  The primary beauty of Opti 2 is that you no longer have to worry about the mix ratio for 2-cycle engines.  You can use 1 can of gas with this in it for every 2-cycle engine you have.  I can use it in the Vespa.  You can use it in chain saws, mowers, blowers, vacs – we use it in our rental equipment at the store and every employee has switched over to it.  It has the highest ISO rating you can get and the stabilizer means the shelf life of the gas is longer – though you’ll worry less about it since you won’t have 4 different mix cans sitting in the garage getting old.  Tecumseh and B&S support it, as well as all other engine manufacturers.

Feel free to thumb your nose at the dude down the street trying to dig his car out in a 3-piece suit when the snow hits.  Or go down and bail him out, you samaritan, you.