I know that. Have you seen the trailers? He isn't on fire, but appears enveloped by fire as he is walking away from an explosion.

It is possible that I confabulated that, but I really don't think so.

All garden professionals today agree: using the leaves as mulch is beneficial for the yard. So let's put an end to the era of the destructive polluting gasoline leaf blowers. Use a rake or a broom for your driveway, or, if you must, an electric blower. Mulch mow the leaves into lawn and leave the leaves everywhere else. Our advice: tend to your yard as nature intended; if you allow your yard to be a continuation of your local natural habitat, you will need to do very little, and you will support a healthy biodiversity, good soil and clean drinking water. And the birds and butterflies? They will be happy to call your yard their home. www.healthyyards.org

Sorry, wrong tab. Thought I was on Facebook

Lol, fair enough

I have an acre surrounded by maple and oak forests including about 25 50-100' trees directly on my property and if I want any semblance of a lawn or gardens in the spring I have to get rid of the leaves. There's far too many to rake/mulch as I have to spend 6-8 hours a week with a super efficient gas blower so it would be a full time job removing them without power. If what you're trying to say is don't have lawn or gardens and just let it go natural then you can take that up with my wife and the rest of the street lol. Also my driveway is about 150' long.

I blow the leaves into the forest FYI so they are still benefitting nature.

Nature wanted me dead before age 50. Screw that sh*t.

1 acre with a mix of deciduous (mostly maple) but primarily evergreen (mostly fir with a few cedar, pine and hemlock mixed in). the leaves i can deal with pretty easily, it's the piles of needles that blow down in the wind that require me to use a leaf blower a few times in the fall to clear them off of the front hardscape. brooms or rakes aren't going to work when they get wet. i also have a stihl kombi multi use tool that takes about three minutes with the leaf blower attachment...that thing's a beast.

my next door neighbor, OTOH, has the worlds weakest gas powered leaf blower and absolutely loves to use it. for 20 minutes at least three times a week. i'm pretty sure if he's outside and the dog sheds a bit of hair he'll use the blower to push it all the way across his back patio.

You’re both Eco-acoustic terrorists.

would you rather endure three minutes of leaf blower or 30 minutes of leaf blower?

here's a question for the homeowners ITT:

you have a light bulb blow out in a room.
it's not the only source of light, there are a couple more, but it's noticeable when it's out.
how long would you estimate it takes you to swap it out for a new one?

[_] less than a day
[_] i'll have it covered this week after i'm able to make a trip to the big box store or order something on Amazon
[_] my experience was really different for the first few days, but i'm kinda getting used to it and i'm close to the point where i don't think it's that unusual and i'm starting to wonder why the previous owners spent good money on that fixture in the first place?
[_] oh ****, i just realized it's three months later and i should probably find a way to buy a light bulb to swap it out. LED is a thing now, right? what color temperature should i get? a higher number must be better than a lower one, right?
[_] photophobia is real, and after six months i'm pretty sure i'm destined to be the leader of the mole people.

almost as important: how long have you owned the house that resulted in your choice above?

Owned my house three years. Would insta-replace since it’s noticeable. If I have a few bulbs on a fixture like in a bathroom, might let it go for up to a week. I’m not a fan of wonky lighting so my OCD would make me want to fix it.

thanks for the honest response Meh.
i'm looking forward to read how other folks react.

Less than a day or 6 months.

@RED,
Almost always less than a day. A burned out bulb bothers me. We usually have bulbs at home as we tend to buy them by the boatload to ensure we have matches available when one goes. I hate light bulb shopping in the days of led as I'm never sure I'll get a good match if I don't buy them together.

If we don't have a suitable bulb, we pick some up at our next Home Depot/Lowe's stop even if it is a few weeks later. No special stops for one bulb being out.

ETA: I should have said what 27 said.

thanks for the honest and sincere responses Tom and 27.
i'm curious to what degree you consider color temperature when purchasing light bulbs?

Yeah, I’m with 27o. I either have immediate access to a bulb; as in the same room, or it’s probably 6 months later.

Reminds me, one of the bulbs in the second bathroom is burned out. I bet it has been a year.

I'm very conscious of it but don't have the proper combination of knowledge and OCD to be 100% accurate. Mixing & matching is not my strong suit and why I buy bulbs in larger packs than I need. My rule of thumb is "daylight" or whatever the current term is in ceiling fixtures; warmer bulbs at eye level or below.

if it's not an issue then it probably won't get replaced until a major holiday is coming up, if it is then change at first convenient opportunity

re: leaves - i just went to a growing apples talk (Maine... so yeah that's the big social occasion), if you have saplings you care about then you should clear out all leaves/mulch at their base for winter because then the voles can burrow in and eat the bark and if they chew enough of a ring it'll kill the tree, leaves also allows for all the bacteria, fungi, and disease that was attacking the tree to winter at its base and easily rejoin the attack come spring time

My bathroom vanity light has 4 bulbs. 2 of them have been out for months, and one of them months before that. It's plenty light in there that I don't miss those bulbs. I may have replacements ones. Don't remember if I've checked.

I would probably be the leader of the mole people.

You will have to wait for my MIL to abdicate the throne.

@Redeyes,

Probably in the week category. Immediately if I happen to have a bulb in the house, else a trip to HD within a few days.

Caveat: I have very poor low-light vision, so even the loss of one bulb probably affects me more than the normal person.

As to the color, I've been transitioning to more efficient bulbs as I replace. Almost always get the wrong color/intensity/whatever it's called, then just live with that.

21.5 years in the house.

The soft white LED bulbs that look like “regular” older bulbs are way better than the regular LED bulbs they have now. They’re too bright and something about the color of them messes with my eyes. All about the softer traditional lighting.

Oh, and on a loosely related note, I can’t stand the purple color mixed in with new Christmas lights now. That and the weird blueish white color Christmas lights. Those are the worst!

I'll replace a bulb right away if I have it on hand. If I need to go get one it might take a few days.



The quality of light from a bulb is based on two things - color temperature and brightness. I prefer temperature on the warm side (usually around 2700k but nothing more than 4000k), but more important is the brightness of the area lit. For general lighting, 750 lumens for a single lamp is fine. For task lighting - like in a kitchen - the total lumens for all lights needs to be higher. We have six can lights in our kitchen with 800 lumens each and it works well.


One thing to avoid at all costs is mixing temperatures in one area. If the hanging lights over our kitchen island were colder than the can lights it would look terrible.


Note: For color temperature warm light (2700k) is a lower temperature than cold light (7000k). "Pure" white is about 5000k.

4000k is quite a bit different than 2700k or 3000k, and for many people it ventures into too white. 3500k is about as white as many people want to go.

here's a handy graphic:



and you're dead on about trying to not mix temperatures in the same area.