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Use a Robomower or Lawnbott on your lawn – free up your time

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Summer is here and the weekends are for having fun, going to the cottage, beach, sporting events, visiting friends or just plain relaxing. If cutting the lawn is a chore that you’d rather not do why don’t you get a Robomower?

I was asked to do a short write up about Bamabots.com – Robomower and Lawnbott #1 Dealer – and to tell you the truth, once I started reading about these amazing machines I was hooked. I love the idea of Robotic lawn mowers.

We have such a small lawn that it really wouldn’t be practical to get a Robomower. I mean our backyard is 17 feet wide by approximately 30 feet long, but the perimeters have raised garden beds that are 3 and 4 feet wide, and then there’s a 20′ x 20′ patio area, so you can imagine how little lawn is left.

Now if I were back at my parents house with their good sized yard that probably took at least 45 minutes to an hour to cut both the front and back lawns a Robomower starts to sound like a good idea.

The Bamabots site has a top ten list of reasons why owning a Robomower or Lawnbott is a good idea. As an ER nurse I truly appreciate #8 on the list “They are safe. In 2005 there were 72,000 emergency room visits involving lawn mowers. ZERO involving robotic lawn mowers.“. Now that’s got me thinking. My elderly neighbor always pulls out her electric lawn mower while keeping an eye on our windows. I swear she does this on purpose. She then proceeds to begin cutting her lawn while in bare feet. Of course this brings me running outside. I’m certain she does this on purpose. If anyone in my neighborhood needs a robotic lawn mower – she does!

Other nifty tidbits on the top ten list that caught my eye was the fact that all of the Robomower and Lawnbott parts are replaceable, plus they really never wear out since there’s no motor to break down it’s said that they could last for decades. All you really need to do is change the blades once a year and replace the batteries when they no longer hold enough of a charge to cut your lawn.

Many of my recent posts have been about going green and doing our part to lower our carbon footprint. Well you could consider the robomowers “green” as they don’t use gas or oil so they do not contribute to pollution. I didn’t know this but 5% of pollution is caused by lawn mowers!

The best reason to get a Lawnbott or Robomower is because it will free up your time. Since the robotic lawn mowers can mow autonomously without human help all season long you could literally go away for the weekend or go about your business and your lawn will get cut on it’s own. These mowers actually go out on their own, mow your yard and then head back home to their charger. They’ll do this repeatedly throughout the season without any help from you.

professional175.gif Bamabots.com sells many different models of Robomowers and Lawnbotts. Each have different mowing capacities. The RL850 model that I’m showing to the left are great for lots that are up to 3/4 of an acre, where as the Robomower RL1000 is perfect for yards that are up to an acre in size.

Speaking of the RL1000 there’s a Robomower review that discusses all the features of this model in full detail.

rl1000-176.gifIf I were thinking of buying a Lawnbott or Robomower I think I’d take a serious look at the RL1000 since it is one of the models that has the autonomous feature where it can be programed in advance and cut your yard and returning to it’s charger on it’s own.

It just so happens that both of these mowers are on sale right now.

Just like any other type of lawn mower these are not inexpensive but when you consider what you’ll save on fuel and or electricity, plus gain in free time I think the price becomes comparable to a good regular lawn mower.

Have you ever seen a robotic lawn mower in action? I haven’t, but I’d like to as I’m sure it would be kind of cool to see.

Oh if you visit the site you must check out The Garden Groom – a hedge trimmer that self cleans, and the Electronic Venus Flytrap that burps when it catches a fly. Both items are near the bottom of the main page.






Living green can save you money

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As a follow up to the post I wrote about whether the Live Earth concert would make a difference in the way people live I thought I’d write about one of the comments on the Go Smell the Flowers site that inspired my post in the first place.

One of the posters seemed to believe that changing over to a green life style would cost a lot of money and might discourage people from making such changes.

Well as someone who has changed her own life style over the years to live in a greener manner I can tell you that a green lifestyle can actually save you money.

Sure the energy efficient light bulbs cost more, but they last four or more times longer than regular light bulbs and barely make a blip on your energy bill so you’ll end up saving money by using them. Plus, if you’re a little bit afraid of heights like I am you won’t have to stand on chairs, step stools or ladders as often to change bulbs.

We compost our food scraps and then use the compost. We also add grass clippings, a small amount of paper product and leaves collected in the autumn to keep our compost going then we use the compost on our garden each spring. The compost is rich in nutrients and acts as a natural fertilizer for our garden.

Growing your own food is cheaper and less fattening than buying processed food or even veggies and fruit that have been transported from the other side of the country. The fruit and veggies that you’ll grow will be full of nutrients and fresher than those you can purchase in a store, plus the act of gardening is good exercise.

If you have a small space you can grow veggies in window box planters – whether they are mounted in a window area or not. If you compost you can use the compost that you’ve made on your own to fertilize your home grown veggies. Once you purchase your initial materials the cost of growing your own food is very low.

Hanging your clothes outside on a line to dry in the sun is cheaper than running the dryer and your clothes smell fresher. Our dryer is very old and uses a lot of energy – we save a ton of money by not using it very often.

Walking, or biking more often is good for you and doesn’t cost you a cent.

Taking public transport is cheaper than paying for gas and insurance for your car and has a lower C02 footprint.

Buying a re-usable bag to bring to the grocery store has an initial cost, but if you shop at a store that charges 5 cents per plastic bag you’ll save money in the long run and keep plastic bags out of landfills.

The law says we must recycle here in Toronto – at least if you are a home owner. The city provides the various recycling containers that we use so it doesn’t cost us any money to perform this task.

If you convert your house to an alternative power source it will be expensive, but in the research I’ve done on this I’ve learned that many homes in my city that have converted actually make surplus energy and the local energy company ends up buying it back from them. So in the long run that saves money or possibly even makes you money.

All of what I’ve mentioned above can save you money and I don’t find them difficult to do at all.

Do you have any more tips or ideas?

Do you think Live Earth will make a difference?

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There’s an interesting conversation going on about the Live Earth concert at Go Smell the Flowers.

The blog author asks the question:

Live earth is kicking off around the world today with performance in all 7 continents with over 10,000 events promised globally. Will it really help? Are we too late or no need for concern?

There’s been quite a few replies to that post. Some people are being quite pessimistic stating that whatever we do now won’t make a difference and that the message of the concert won’t really get through to many people. Others are more optimistic stating the changes they’ve made in their own lives towards becoming more green and how every little bit will help.

What do you think?

Do you believe global warming exists?

Whether you believe in global warming or not, do you think that if we all made a few changes in our lives it might help the environment or that it might really be a better way to live?

Chris and I aren’t totally green, but we’ve made a lot of changes in our lives over the years toward living green.

Here’s just a few of the things that we do:

  1. Almost all of our lights are energy efficient, as are our appliances.
  2. We turn the heat down in the winter
  3. We live a few blocks from work so we walk to work
  4. Our car is a 4 cyl and because we live so close to work and many small shops we really only use our car once a week or so for short trips to get groceries etc.
  5. We have a few small trees in our yard
  6. Not all of our plants are drought resistant but many are so I don’t have to water a lot
  7. We grow many of our own veggies and fruit
  8. Our garden is organic
  9. What we do purchase in the grocery store is local whenever possible
  10. We don’t eat much meat
  11. We rarely eat processed foods,
  12. We recycle and use recycled products if they are available
  13. We dry many of our clothes on the line instead of using the dryer
  14. We bring our own reusable bags to the grocery store.
  15. We try to use eco-friendly products whenever possible ie no harsh cleaning chemicals etc.

Do you do any of these things? Perhaps you have some more ideas on how to live green for those who read this site?

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