Old-School Push Mower

Look what we found when cleaning out the basement! An old school manual lawnmower, the kind you have to push that runs on pure people power. There was an article in the paper a month or so ago about more people buying manual lawnmowers, and I was telling my husband perhaps we should get one. He agreed that it was certainly environmentally-friendly. As we have other things we need to get now for the house more important, we set aside the idea as something we'd get sometime in the future. Then lo and behold, we had a push mower in the basement all along!



The house we live in is his grandmother's house and basically the basement was a storage area of old things from his family. That's why we had no idea this was even there. It's rusty and we didn't think the blades would work without being oiled and sharpened first, but they cut the grass fine. It's not as heavy as I thought it would be but it does take some effort to get it going, but once you start pushing it takes up the momentum. It's great exercise, too. Out of curiosity I put on my exercise heart/calorie monitor, and my heart rate stayed between 125 and 140 for the twenty minutes I mowed part of the back lawn with this.

About Family Footprint

My name is Trula Breckenridge and I'm a 36 year old writer living in northeast Ohio. I'm married and we have 3 children ages 19, 13, and 10. I have been a vegetarian for 21 years and we're raising the children as vegetarians; that more than anything has been the primary influence to simplify our lives and commit to living ecologically. That and being poor for much of my adulthood. Not having a lot of money forced me to be creative with what I did have and to make full use of everything that came my way. Thus we produce very little waste and mostly buy the things we need.

Now that we are a little more financially secure and the kids are older, we want to keep that same sense of frugality that kept our lives simple and free of materialism. I also want to reduce our environmental impact. Yes, I do think it is important to still protest big businesses that pollute, but I also think it's important to acknowledge what we do as individuals and to do my part in this world. Grandiose? yeah, I'd like to think so.

This blog will include entries on reusing things, composting, growing food, transportation choices, housing alternatives, consumerism, hybrid vehicles, convenient habits, scarcity fears, supporting green business, organic food, budgeting, thrifty living, sustainability, DIY, and more.

Want to know your family's footprint? Check this out to get your family's footprint report!
http://www.youngenergy.org/pea.html