Many people refer to this act as “cutting the grass.”

Over the last few years I’ve tried quite a wide variety of approaches to and implements for “cutting the grass,” and I’d like to share them with you now, because imparting unsolicited and only moderately useful information to a halfway-interested audience is what blogging is all about, no?

1. Not mowing the grass at all.
   This is the approach I always try first when I move into a new space.  As the warm season comes around and the grass gets taller and taller, you can see the land start to return to its natural state, and it’s exciting!  Unfortunately, I’m often not the only one watching this growth with anticipation, and the neighbors on either side of me are often not as excited as I about the prospect of a rewilded yard.  Some have even given me subtle hints about their concern by, oh, say, mowing my yard for me without asking.  I do suppose there is  utility in being able to walk across some parts of the yard without encountering snakes, dead mice, abandoned vehicles, warning flags placed by the City, etc.  So, as a matter of neighborly politeness and practical landscape planning, I’ve usually been compelled to take on some sort of mowing activity.  (A blog post for another time is why we put ourselves in that position in the first place.)
2. A neighbor’s gas powered mower.
   It seems kind of silly that in most every garage or tool shed up and down most every street in this country, there sits a mowing device that is used an average of twice a month, and otherwise collects dust and rust.  Having been exposed to the clever practice that some people refer to as “sharing,” for a while I decided to try “sharing” a neighbor’s gas powered mower with them.  It was generally successful – I would just call and make sure it was okay to pick up, pick it up and gas it up, and use it, and return it.  I won’t go into the details of why this “sharing” system became insufficient for my needs, but eventually I did decide that I had to break down and get my own mowing device.
3. My own gas powered mower.
   Oh, wow, there’s nothing like it is there?  Pour a little dinosaur juice in a hole, crank that puppy up, and you’re wreaking havoc on that grass left and right.  Let me show you exactly how tall you’re going to be, little plants!  Oh, and the smell! – oh, wait, no, that’s kind of gross since it’s that gas smell.  But the sounds!  Oh, wait, no, it’s actually kind of annoying and loud, and especially if you’re a neighbor trying to enjoy your back porch or have dinner or sleep in or meditate.  But the energy efficiency!  All we have to do is drill deeply enough in the Earth to convert ancient sunlight from millions of years ago into a highly flammable substance, truck it across thousands of miles, and sell it to each other all so that we don’t have to put too much physical effort into carving up the plant life that we voluntarily arranged around our living spaces.

   Oh wait, maybe there’s a better way.

4. The scythe.
   I asked myself, “how did people mow their yards before there were lawn mowers?”  The answer (when it wasn’t, “they didn’t”) was “with a scythe.”  I read about the amazing, almost meditative practice of standing in the grass, quietly whisking a scythe blade back and forth around you, falling the grass quickly and peacefully.  It sounded great, and I decided I wanted to try using a scythe to mow my yard.  I had one custom-built for me by the amazing craftsman at Scythe Supply, located in Maine.  I was giddy with excitement when it came and while I put it together, and then I realized, I have absolutely no idea how to use this thing. I read up on scythe usage on the Internet, and I read the book that came with it, and that was definitely helpful.  I tried my best to put it into practice, and did quite a number on my yard in the process.  Somehow “Figure 4-1″ wasn’t happening.  I tried it a few more times, doing my best to keep from turning red as the neighbors looked on at the crazy guy with the death blade next door, but the rhythmic cutting motion didn’t come to me.  I realized that this simple but useful knowledge – how to cut grass with a scythe – was something I would need to learn in person from someone who already knew how to do it.  And then I realized that the number of people with that knowledge in my area is probably minimal, and the psychological barriers to using my scythe built up from there.  I still want to learn how to use it for real, but after a long week and a unruly yard staring me down, I haven’t found the patience for that yet.
5. A human powered push mower.
   Ding ding ding – we have a winner.  This is the technology that I guess emerged post-scythe and pre-gas mower.  You know what I’m talking about, right – it’s the cylindrical blades that rotate around as you push the mower device, trapping the grass between the blade and another plate, slicing it off.  They’re quiet, mostly effective, and (for my yard anyway) a good balance of appropriate physical effort and time efficiency. They should generally last many years without maintenance or sharpening, and they don’t take up much space at all.  I settled on the Scotts 2000 Classic model, which has a 20″ deck on it.  You know this last size detail is a big deal because it is written in italics on the box AND on the mower itself.  It’s taken me around 45 minutes to mow my current yard with a gas mower, and tonight it took me 50 minutes to put the Scotts 2000 together AND mow.  (“Ah,” you say, “we’re being subjected to this blog post because you happened to mow your yard tonight?  Get a life!”)

   Anyway, I know that not everyone can take the time to use a push mower, but if you can at least see all of your yard from one place without needing to walk for a mile, or even if you can’t and just want some more quiet outdoors time, I recommend it.

Okay, that’s my mowing history.  I welcome your comments, suggestions, alternate realities, etc.  If you want to try out any of these implements or strategies (remember, “sharing”) just let me know.  And remember, ask about someone’s mowing history before you get too close to them (and especially before you mow together) – it could save you a lot of heartache later.

There’s a new amusement park ride opening up in town!  It’ll take you on a thrilling journey through ups and downs of successful projects, communication failures, happy long-term partnerships, and total failures in competence.  It’s called THE CONTRACTOR EXPERIENCE and you can hop on it today by opening up the phone book and calling pretty much any contractor you want to try to get some work done on your home or business!

Okay, I know that it might be a little pretentious or worse for me to sit on my high blogging horse and tell the folks who are willing to do some pretty hard, dirty work how to do their jobs when I’m not able or willing to do them myself.  But at the same time, I can’t help but see it from the perspective of how poorly some of these folks are running their small local businesses, and how their customer service values take a total back seat to their own preferred ways of doing things.  Some war stories:

The most common failure in competence that I experience is that the contractor doesn’t even show up at all.  These are people who have access to the same scheduling and calendaring technologies as the rest of us (paper and pen much loved among them), and who still can’t seem to make it work when they agree to show up at a certain time and place.  With one contractor recently, I’ve had them not show up once, and then show up late to the rescheduled appointment.  He then missed a follow-up appointment, and after I called three times to get some sort of explanation, I still haven’t gotten a call back.  If I were trying to make a really bad impression on a potential client, that would be a great way to do it.  How can you run a business that way?

Another failure I regularly experience is that the contractor doesn’t listen to what’s being asked of them, or doesn’t hear the customer’s particular interests and needs.  I tend to be on the overly-organized side of things, and so even with my written-down, clearly spelled out requests, I still often have to correct the contractor’s course once or twice in the estimating and/or work phases.  I know there’s some amount of give and take that’s normal here, but too often for me it’s all give and no take.

And then there’s just total dishonesty, abject incompetence, etc.  I’ve blogged about some of that before.  It’s also included things like using my lawn for cigarette butt storage, or showing up to work in an altered state.   Here’s another episode:

ME ON DAY ONE: While you’re replacing that window, please make sure you put a big cover down over the new carpet here, okay?

CONTRACTOR ON DAY ONE: Oh yeah, definitely, we’ll put a big tarp out.

ME ON DAY TWO: I see you don’t have a tarp out and that you’ve started pulling apart the old window.  I’m worried about dirt and debris getting in the carpet.

CONTRACTOR ON DAY TWO: Oh yeah, we’ll definitely get that cleaned up and don’t worry about it.

ME ON DAY THREE: (grumble grumble grumble)

ME ON DAY FOUR: I see you’re done now, and there’s this big dirt spot on the floor where you were working that isn’t vacuuming out.  What happened?

CONTRACTOR ON DAY FOUR: Oh, that must have been there before, I don’t think we did that.

I mean, come ON!

The hard part is that it takes so much time and “overhead” sometimes to even find the right point of contact for a job, I’m willing to stretch my tolerance of this stuff pretty far in order to not have the churn of saying “well I guess that person isn’t interested, I’ll just find someone else.”  And sometimes there ISN’T a someone else.  The contractor who didn’t show up this morning (“ah,” you say, “that’s why he’s writing this”) is someone who I know, really like personally, and who is uniquely qualified in the area for the particular work I’m interested in.  For relational and practical reasons, I can’t just say “next” and move on.

No, not all contractors are bad and some of them are even quite excellent.  I recently had a GREAT experience with a contractor who was friendly, listened well, always showed up when he said he would, and did excellent work for a reasonable price.  I have whisked him and his family away to an undisclosed location for preservation, as this is clearly the exception and not the rule, at least here in Richmond.

So, as to avoid making this post entirely complaints, I’ll offer some simple suggestions to contractors for improving THE CONTRACTOR EXPERIENCE:

1. Show up when you say you’re going to show up, on time. If you make an appointment, please write it down somewhere you’ll see it again, and if you have to reschedule, please call your customer in advance, and be ready with a few new times to reschedule.
2. Make sure you’ve heard the customer’s technical requests, but also make sure you know what their larger goals are. If they’re clearly trying to “make this room more cozy” or “create a more useful workspace,” there are opportunities there for you to respond to their “big picture” needs, and perhaps even make a little more money in the process.
3. Treat the space like it’s your own. I won’t try to be any more specific on that one, but if you’re in someone’s house or business, and you’re about to tear some stuff apart or make some changes that they’ll have to see every day of their lives, put yourselves in their shoes and ask “how would I do this in my personal space?”

On a larger scale, I wish that there was some better notion of standards or certification for contractors in my community.  I know there are websites and associations where you can rate contractors, file complaints, etc. but in this town, for now, it seems like we’re just one bent nail short of total chaos when it comes to having any hope of knowing what kind of quality you’ll get when you make that call.  The good contractors out there deserve better, and the bad ones have gotten away with too much for too long.

Just as I was finishing this post up, the contractor who missed this morning’s appointment called.  He’d gotten the days mixed up, and we’re rescheduling accordingly.  Life goes on.

1) The Fireplace Shop at 1000 North F Street in Richmond is an amazing little brick complex that showcases all that can be done with wood and other heat sources. From traditional fireplaces to wood burning stoves to corn pellet stoves to crazy other conflagrant configurations, it was quite a wonderland of temperature control. With the added bits of atmosphere like lazy cats sprawled across warm surfaces, fireplace and chimney sweep nostalgia everywhere, and the hustle-bustle of workers in workshops catering to the demands of the cold season, it was a nice place just to be and observe. The store also adjoins a ceramic tile store (which sells the locally made Terra Green Ceramics line) and a brick/stone store, so you can knock out quite a bit of home improvement planning in one place. I can’t imagine there’s one of these in every community these days, and I’m certainly grateful to have one here.

2) Rohan India is a new-ish Indian Food restaurant in Oxford, Ohio that offers slightly faster access to this cuisine from Richmond than similar options in Dayton, Cincinnati or Indianapolis. The Chicken Shahi Korma with Mushrooms dish I had was probably the best Indian dish I’ve had at any location in the region, and when I got a spice level of 6 (out of 10), they really came through with that. The proximity of this dining option may be just enough to balance out the problems with the atmosphere and service – several large screen televisions blaring music videos, sports games, etc. dominated the visual landscape, and we had to play the “forced eye contact and hand waving” game at times just to get a server to pay attention. But overall, it was a fine experience, and quickly becoming a destination for Richmondites – I’ve heard at least three other distinct mentions of it this weekend alone.

3) At Home Kitchen and Gourmet at 414 North 10th (in “The Loft” where Ghyslain is) is a new location brought to us by the folks at Warm Glow Candles. Right now the shop features a variety of kitchen and bath items with Warm Glow candles sprinkled amongst them. Many of the items seemed “pricey” for Richmond, but they were generally quite unique and beautiful, and compared to a Williams-Sonoma visit in Chicago, probably a good value. The clerk who checked us out indicated that the inventory was largely just overstock from the main Warm Glow store in Centerville, and that after the first of the year, they’d be reworking it to focus much more on being a comprehensive kitchen and bath supplier. Even though I’m not one to go shopping for such things regularly, it was just great to see a locally owned place like this pop up here.

On top of that, I got to attend the Alternative Holiday Bazaar at the Clear Creek Food Cooperative, which showcased locally-made crafts and gifts on Saturday against the backdrop of live music and smiling faces – the items will be on sale all this week too.

Seeing these places, these events, these people reminds me that there are people investing anew in this community and in the surrounding ones, people making a living here and doing it in such fun and interesting ways – I’m thankful for that.

I don’t publish this information as any sort of prescription for anyone else; there are millions of ways to make changes in our lives to do less harm, and not all of them look anything like the below (and some of them contradict the below), so I fully respect that this is what works for me as I experiment, and it may not work for anyone else. There is no one right way to be more sustainable. However, if you find this list useful, or have suggestions or feedback on it, I hope you’ll contact me to let me know.

Things I do in my life to reduce my unsustainable resource usage:

• I’ve created, participate in and financially support multiple community-oriented programs that promote and educate others around messages related to sustainability.
• I have a rain barrel in my yard to collect rainwater for use in gardening and yard work. It reduces the amount of filtered and treated city water I use by just a little bit, but rainwater is also better for my plants.
• I mow my yard less than neighborly convention might dictate. I’m working on using a scythe to replace my gas-powered mower (and increase my physical exercise!).
• I replaced the old drafty windows in my house with newer and more sealed ones. This helps reduce the energy needed to keep me comfortable inside. Unfortunately, the replacement windows are made up significantly of petroleum-based products.
• I had a super high-efficiency furnace installed in my house.
• I don’t use air conditioning at my house more than 3 or 4 days per year, and use ceiling fans, window shading, and other methods instead. (I do, however, work in an air-conditioned office, so I can’t claim to be braving the heat every day.)
• I live in a small town that is easy to get around, has the potential for great community-building, and has a heritage that involves peace and justice, sustainable agriculture and entrepreneurial solutions to difficult problems.
• I’ve replaced all of the conventional incandescent light bulbs in my house with compact fluorescent bulbs. These are supposed to last much longer and use much less energy.
• I wash my dishes by hand.
• I purchased a high-efficiency front-loading washing machine
• I also purchased a high-efficiency drier, but there really isn’t such a thing, so I try to use a clothesline to dry my laundry in the sun when I can.
• I have been working on putting my appliances that use phantom power on power strips that I can turn off when I’m not using them.
• I participate in my city’s recycling program
• I compost all organic waste from my cooking and store it in the big compost bin next to my garden.
• I try to buy goods and services from local businesses when possible. This reduces the amount of resources required to bring those items to me, and supports a strong local economy that can be more resilient to fluctuations in energy prices. I especially try not to buy goods and services from businesses that I feel are actively harming local/regional/national natural resources, engaging in slave labor, or participating in the cultural trends toward sacrificing our planet and its lifeforms in the name of increased consumerism.
• I support my local food cooperative by volunteering and serving on their board of directors, and by ordering household staples in bulk from them.
• I try to avoid eating food that will poison my body and potentially increase the resources needed to keep me healthy (now or in the future)
• I avoid buying new products and clothing when I can find them in like-new condition by shopping at Goodwill or the Salvation Army.
• I have installed or am installing low-flow shower heads in my showers.
• I avoid using household chemical products that pollute and cause medical problems
• I ride my bicycle when I have time. Having time to ride a bike is a relative/subjective/complex thing, so I’m working on ways to make more time for riding instead of driving.
• I walk places when I have time. Having time to walk is a relative/subjective/complex thing, so I’m working on ways to make more time for walking.
• When I do drive, I drive a car that gets reasonably high gas mileage (i.e. not an SUV) and I try to minimize my trips.
• I have a garden where I sometimes grow my own food instead of buying it from retailers who have produced it with a variety of chemicals, packaged it with a variety of non-reusable materials, and shipped it from all around the world using a variety of petroleum resources.
• I work on sharing tools and equipment with my neighbors when we can.
• At the company I co-own, I direct our management and “human resources” practices to encourage community and sustainability in our business activities.

Things I do in my life that aren’t so sustainable, or areas where I could improve (a beginning list…I’m sure this could be quite long if one looked at all the details):

• I live in and contribute to a culture that is inherently unsustainable
• My day job is centered around the use of computers and related electronics equipment , which are some of the most wasteful and energy-intensive products to produce in the world. Their production, usage and disposal is one of the top contributors to environmental pollution, workforce exploitation, and global consumerism in the world.
• I still buy lots of goods and services from non-local businesses, and/or businesses that actively participate in harm against the land or against other people.
• I have too much stuff in my house. Too much stuff means more time and energy spent managing and repairing that stuff, and less time having fun. I need to have more fun and less stuff.
• I don’t bike or walk nearly as much as I could if I made more changes to support that lifestyle.
• I don’t grow nearly as much food as I could if I made more changes to support that lifestyle.
• I still eat foods that poison my body.
• A significant portion of my income helps to fund violence and oppression committed against people around the world.
• I don’t put enough energy into being a more active participant in my community – getting to know my neighbors, developing relationships that allow me to give support and get support, etc.
• …

The adventure of doing all of the above is certainly not reflected in these simple bullet listings. In some cases, they were simple changes that required little or no money or time. Others were significant financial investments or major lifestyle changes. And many are ongoing, where I’m still feeling out the effects of my decisions and still finding ways to do better.

A female voice replies: “Is Michael there?” “No, you have the wrong house.” “Are you sure?” I almost laughed. “YES I’M SURE.” “How long’s it been since Michael lived there?” What the hell, is this the best time a neighborhood history lesson? “I don’t know, at least a few years, now please stop banging on the door before I call the police.” And then I hear a car door slam and they sped away.

Always nice to have visitors over to the house.