Going "Green"? Nah.

As I was cutting the grass in my front yard recently, a neighbor walking by stopped to chat. First from his mouth was, "Going Green, huh?"

Prompted by my use of a Scott reel mower, he wasn’t seeing what he thought he was seeing. Even though I've been known to hug a tree or two (I'm particularly partial to Carpinus caroliniana Betulaceae and Fagus grandifolia), I wouldn't want my sister to marry one. Green is not a big deal to me.

I use the reel mower on my postage stamp front yard primarily to avoid the noise and dust cloud generated by my power mower. I still crank up the 5HP, self-propelled beast for the much larger back yard. There’s also a bit more exercise with a reel mower, and that doesn’t hurt. Well, not too much.

Unless you have environmental personality disorder, green is achieved by making it affordable and reasonable. Even AlGore, a classic case of EPD if ever there was one, hasn't moved into a yurt because it isn't reasonable. Of course, he thinks it's reasonable that we move into yurts, but that's between him and his shrink.