Dandelions Everywhere!

We have a lot of lawn. It has a lot of dandelions. A lot. And we won’t spray them. I have spent a lot of time digging them out. And bending the little digging tool. And buying a new one. And bending it. A few days ago, while riding home from work, I saw an old man (because that is who lives in our neighbourhood) tossing dandelions onto the sidewalk using a pogo-stick looking device. I was intrigued. While perusing my Canadian Tire flyer (what a great store – have I mentioned this before?) I saw the pogo-spade he was using. Turns out there’s no spring, but instead some penny-nails that dig down in the ground, and tighten around the dandelion root, all with one simple step down on the stick. What a deal. Easily the best $15.72 I’ve spent in a long time. However, once I am done de-dandelioning my lawn, I don’t think there will be much grass left. Not much at all. But at least I didn’t fill our groundwater with pesticide.

A new bike

Part of our effort to become more environmentally friendly involves reducing our use of our car. So far, in the 8 months since we moved home, we have driven less than 8000km. This is a marked improvement over our previous mileage — over 45,000km a year between two cars. However, with the weather changing soon (at least it better!) we are looking at ways to further lessen our driving. As such, we have purchased bikes. Mine is pictured below – a Trek SU200. I have added fenders, a rack, and saddle bags for transporting things to and from work. It is 8km one way to work, and it is my goal to ride, once the snow melts. And by writing it in my blog, hey, I’ve committed. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.

Energy Star

Sorry, this post has moved to my new blog – it can be found here:

http://handymansdream.blogspot.com/2009/05/be-energy-star.html