Q: How much air pollution does a power mower cause?

A: Garden equipment engines emit high levels of carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides, producing up to 5% of the nation's air pollution and a good deal more in many metropolitan areas like Los Angeles.

A conventional lawn mower pollutes as much in an hour as 40 late model cars (or as much as as much air pollution as driving a car for 100 miles).

A typical 3.5 horsepower gas mower, for instance, can emit the same amount of VOCs -- key precursors to smog -- in an hour as a new car driven 340 miles, say industry experts. A recent California Air Resources Board report shows lawnmowers statewide emit 8.28 tons of VOCs per day.

The replacement of every 500 gas mowers with non-motorized mowers would spare the air:

• 212 pounds of hydrocarbons
  (smog ingredient)
• 1.7 pounds of nitrogen oxides
  (smog ingredient)
• 5.6 pounds of irritating particles
• 1,724 pounds of carbon dioxide

To top it off, lawn and garden equipment users inadvertently add to the problem by spilling 17 million gallons of fuel each year while refilling their outdoor power equipment. That's more petroleum than spilled by the Exxon Valdez in the Gulf of Alaska. (all according to this website)

Kurt and I are buying a lawn mower this week. Luckily our lawn is small and manageable enough to buy this beauty:

We will let you know how we like it.

Wilkommen daheim Mutti und Vati

Well, the last couple weeks have been super busy for us. Kurt's parents got home from their two year mission in Salzburg, Austria last week. We are so happy to have them home, and have really enjoyed spending some time with them. I think that though they are glad to be home, they are still trying to adjust to no longer living in one of the sweetest cities in the world.

Their return did mean that we had to have their house in tact and spotless by last Thursday. We worked like crazy to get everything done, and all-in-all the house hand-off went pretty flawlessly (give or take). Now that that's done and we are all moved out of their house, it has been time to get to work on our own. We have been cleaning, organizing, cleaning, unpacking and cleaning during every spare second. It is coming along though...slowly.

I will post more pictures once our internet gets hooked up and we have a little more time. For right now though I just wanted another post on top of the previous spandex-y one.

LRRH

My friend Kate, sister-in-law Ali, and I drove up to Logan on Friday night, to wake up and do the Little Red Riding Hood ride Saturday morning. By 9:00 am we were on our bikes riding through the country side of Cache Valley. 5 hours and 65 miles later we were finished. The ride was so pretty, we really lucked out on weather, and we had such a good time. However, our bodies were definitely trying to tell us that there is nothing it wants to do for 5 hours straight... except for sleep.

It might be a few more days until I can get on a bike again.