This is not lawn etiquette per se, but kind of.

I have been watching my sister in law's dogs this week. They are good dogs. They have taken to protecting the house, it seems. If they hear anything, they start barking and that makes my dog bark. This is problematic at night because I need to get my goddamn sleep. But it is Friday and we are making it through.

It is now Friday morning. All the dogs have been barking non-stop. I go out to see what is up and I see - without my glasses, so some shapes are not distinct:

1. A different dog on my driveway
2. Two or three little blonde girls playing
3. At least one adult hanging around

Like, the area we live in, I don't have this huge problem with people playing in the surrounding forest area. What is it for, if not kids and dogs. The driveway is a little much, I guess? Like, never in a thousand years would I take my nephew over to someone's DRIVEWAY and say, hey, have at it. But this is complicated by the fact that the dogs in this house are loud. There is no possible way the adult does not hear them.

We have new neighbors who seem nice and after getting my glasses, I haven't been able to see them. There are some times where, yeah, you can let an obvious situation go and then yell out "KNOCK IT OFF!" or whatever, and then there are some situations so incredibly egregious - like letting your nieces play in someone's yard to where the dogs inside are clearly going berserk - where you shouldn't have to say anything. A modicum of situational awareness should do it.

I will go out if it continues after posting this message I guess, but JFC.

I checked the thread and I have not posted this.

I asked my dad why he was such a lawn nut. He said that after his father died - when he was 14 or 15 - he was determined to not let a single neighbor think anything was wrong or that his remaining family of mother, brother and sister were wanting or lacking anything. It was a total pride thing. (Also his older brother, whom I never had a memory of meeting, was mentally retarded if I read between the lines). So the youngest kid took it upon himself to present an outward face that everything was fine.

I also, in reading between the lines, thatnas an adult, riding the mower for 2 hours was his break from the kids and wife. I get it.

You guys also get so much rain, Vark -- while some of these lunatics go crazy about it, it does grow fast!

I truly believe they care more about their lawns than their families, the State or Man's undying place in this world.

Did I mention the one neighbor has TWO riding mowers? A regular Deere (like mine) and a zero-turn. He cuts the lawn twice a week. I haven't figured out why, perhaps he's just bored?

Well, sure, but if I'm right, then it kinda makes you all look like dicks.

Something is going on. That is the fairest, most charitable explanation and it came from someone that hates us, hates this place, wishes that it would burn to the ground and take all of us, screaming with him.

Did we dimension shift? What is happening??

How is it pinback came up with the most compassionate explanation for this behavior?

Perhaps they are just being considerate, thinking that one mower is loud enough, but with two of 'em goin' on side-by-each, it may be significantly unpleasant for the non-mowing neighbors.

After three years that's the only remotely believable theory I could come up with.

Yesterday I waited until my left side neighbor started cutting his lawn then I started cutting mine. There were no issues, we even waved at each other. Maybe it's just the right side neighbor?

For the rest of the summer I am going to wait until one or the other has started and see what happens. I might also mow in sync with them, so we both are cutting in the same direction at the same time, like syncopated swimmers.

We have new neighbors up the hill.

Started chainsawing at 7:10AM today. Finished at 7:45. It's been cool and 65 degrees for two months so it's not a heat thing.

I feel any noise earlier than 8 AM or later than 8PM is wrong.

The neighbor just cut his lawn on Wednesday. I just finished cutting mine today ( Saturday). Ten minutes after I finish he starts cutting his again, three days later.


[media]https://youtu.be/54AywE4wOVI[/media]
Yesterday was just as nice, if not better than today. He could have cut it then.


Itt's moving into OCD territory

[quote=AArdvark post_id=137242 time=1682894355 user_id=20]
Update: my wife, who is retired, told me that all the neighbors around us mow their grass one at a time. I don't get it, is it too emotionally uncomfortable to cut your grass as the same as someone else? The guy across the street did his, then my next door neighbor. After that the guy on the other side of us did his then the guy across the street two houses down did his. I think we moved into an alien grass neighborhood.

THE
POD MOWER PEOPLE
AARDVARK
[/quote]

Maybe just be glad they're not shooting AR-15's into their grass at midnight then killing you.

This is infuriating that these people are like this.

You gotta ask him. This has to be intentional.

Or it's the Stepford Mowers!

Update: my wife, who is retired, told me that all the neighbors around us mow their grass one at a time. I don't get it, is it too emotionally uncomfortable to cut your grass as the same as someone else? The guy across the street did his, then my next door neighbor. After that the guy on the other side of us did his then the guy across the street two houses down did his. I think we moved into an alien grass neighborhood.

THE
POD MOWER PEOPLE
AARDVARK

Just to mess with his mind and as a social experiment

Here's my suggestion to Aardvark. Next time you mow (it's getting late in the season, I know), mow half your yard and then park the mower. Wait until your neighbor starts mowing and then go out to finish the job.

(claps hands twice)

OK, people, everybody take a drink!

FYI, I can fix my mower if something goes wrong with it. I got mad skillz and access to industrial tools

[quote=AArdvark post_id=115663 time=1602351900 user_id=20]
Dear Ann Landers,
I never noticed this before when I was living in the city but now that I'm in the 'burbs I feel that there is a different set of rules. Every week I mow my lawn, so does my neighbor on the right and my neighbor on the left. But if I'm mowing my lawn they will not mow theirs until I have finished mine. A couple times I have started to mow my lawn when my right side neighbor has already started his. He will stop mowing and do other stuff, like picking up sticks or maybe tending to the mulch in the flowerbeds.[/quote]
Dear Mower,

You broke one of the unwritten rules of mowsterbation (the technical name for mowing lawns.) The practice is something that is usually done in secret, because other people don't want you to watch them when they mowsterbate. They are also afraid you'll get into a "lawn measuring contest," with them, as a sign of dominance.
[quote=AArdvark post_id=115663 time=1602351900 user_id=20]
As soon as I finish he will fire up his mower and go back to cutting his lawn.[/quote]
Okay, he's gotten over his fear of being seen, but he's afraid the two of you will end up engaging in "mutual mowsterbation" and if they're seen doing that, people will think they're homograssual.
[quote=AArdvark post_id=115663 time=1602351900 user_id=20]
This makes me feel like I have committed some suburban faux pas. I noticed it with the left hand neighbor as well.[/quote]
They're also afraid if you would mow at the same time as either neighbor, they'd be considered bi-mowtual.
[quote=AArdvark post_id=115663 time=1602351900 user_id=20]
I mean, I bought the John Deere so I would fit in, (disco lights aside) but since then they have both switched to Kubota zero-turns.[/quote]
People don't like John Deere. They actively fight "right to repair," trying to do anything they can to make it impossible for people who buy their equipment to either be able to repair it themselves or have whoever they want service it. Their intent, like so many other manufacturers, want to force you to only use their dealers to repair their equipment, at whatever price they want to charge, as if you never own anything, you only get to use it as they see fit. There are farmers, who have half-million dollar harvesters or planting equipment, that when something on it fails, the only thing it will tell them to do to be able to get it to work again is to call a dealer to reset it. This can cost hundreds of dollars, might require a service tech to travel hours to get there, leaving an expensive piece of equipment unusable during the most critical part of their entire operation. Or worse, they have to have it towed to the dealer who might have a two week delay before they can get to it, after they spent hundreds to get it towed. (Note from TDarcos, I am not kidding, John Deere does the same thing to owners of their equipment as Apple does to owners of its computers and iPhones.)

Avoid John Deere equipment like the plague it is. Support Right to Repair.
[quote=AArdvark post_id=115663 time=1602351900 user_id=20]
Is it wrong for me to start mowing if my next door neighbors have already started? Is this something like letting a bowler on the next lane go before you start your roll? Am I offending them in some unwritten yard-work manner and making myself look like a suburban newbie?[/quote]
No, it's like asking your neighbor if he wants to engage in wife-swapping when he has never shown an interest. It's frowned upon, but it's not inherently wrong. Just like mowsterbation, lots of people do it, they just pretend nobody does.

The guy usually starts up his mower within a half hour after I'm finished. The one time he did three rows and I started mowing my lawn. He stopped his machine and puttered around his garage, like he was doing related yard stuff, and only started again after I put my mower away.

Maybe I paranoid but it's just weird

[quote="Ice Cream Jonsey" post_id=124480 time=1634261726 user_id=3]
Does he sit out there and watch you cut yours?

I have been asking around. Nobody else has a neighbor like this. But EVERYONE is fascinated by this.
[/quote]

I sometimes watch the guy behind me but from the inside of my house and through the blinds if that counts. Reason being he waits til his shit is like 3 feet high and then it becomes this entire ordeal involving the mower hitting something and breaking, having to move at a snails pace, etc.