Butchers Blog

Steve Butcher & wife Carrie Eubanks Butcher's postings of our life from Vermont, Tennessee, Michigan, Alaska, St. John or wherever we may be.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

What will you do for Earth Day?

Remove a weekly fossil fuel burner from your life?
After looking high and low (and even demoing a friends DR Neuton), i finally took the plung and bought an electric walk-behind (push) mower.

i had $51 worth of credit at Home Depot, so i strolled in last night and found a nice Ryobi RY14110 Self-Propelled 48V electric lawn mower. I triple checked all the details that have kept me from converting for years:



  • Battery capacity
  • Weight
  • Ease of use
  • Warranty
  • Design
  • Blade
  • Discharge
  • Body material

The Ryobi actually seemed to impress me on nearly all of the above. It's sleek and sharp looking, weighty (90 lbs?), has a 48V removable rechargeable battery, 90 day return policy at Home Depot, 3 year Warranty and a 20" blade - all for $399.

So i picked it up, loaded it in the jeep and brought it home. It was pretty much pre-assembled in the box and only required some plastic removal and unfolding of handles. I plugged the mower into the 110 outlet and let it charge overnight.

This morning (yup, Earth Day 2010), i got up and put the screws to it at 7am. She starts easy (hold a start button down and pull back the bail, then release start button) and is really quite quiet. I started out slow, pushing on the thinly grown flats of the lower yard, then tackled the 25% grade hill with thicker 3-4 inch grass. The Ryobi rolled right along and kept spewing grass out the side without grumbling.

On the steepest part of the hill, i pulled the drive bail and the back wheels kicked in and steadly guided me and the mower along the bank, cutting as we went.

About 70% of the way through the whole lawn, i checked the battery (with onboard light button) and saw that i was down to 25% or less, so i picked up the walking pace. Over the next 10 minutes, i could hear the blades slow and the motor start working less and less...power was running out. I got all but the 800 sq.ft behind the house done - and considering i used the self-propel for at least 30% of the lawn, i am duly impressed. Nice job Ryobi!

I wiped her down, put the clippings into the Compost stack and came inside to check on spare batteries. The DR Neuton's are $129 and, since i didnt complete our 3/4 acre lawn on one charge, i know a second battery will be needed.

So, i get onto Ryobi Tools Support Page and am forced to call the Toll Free line (877-545-4110). A very nice woman answers and i explain that i bought this mower and would like a second battery. She gives me Ryobi Part# 36601250G and says it is $59. Alright! Now that's affordable.
While i've only got one mowing in, i already think this puppy will work - even considering the steep hill, thick grass and larger than recommended lawn. Thanks Ryobi, and there's a sweet personal contribution from the Butcher's on Earth Day...recycle the gas cans and sell the Cub Cadet gas guzzler.

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Friday, March 12, 2010

Apple iPad - yep, i'm an early adopter


Well, this morning I did the nearly unthinkable.
I spent 45 minutes clicking my browser’s refresh button every 30 seconds or so as Apple updated their storefront to pre-sell the iPad. While often an early adopter of technology over the last 3 decades (Commodore 128, Apple Mac SE, Cisco 17xx series routers, Satellite pager, original Blackberry, VW New Beetle, etc), this has been by far the most exciting early adoption ever.

As soon as I first tested out the iPhone in October of 2008, my brain said “boy, if this was 4x the size and had a real keyboard, I would barely need a PC except to run work software on.” Then, merely 18 months later, uncle Steve Jobs announces the iPad…and I was smitten.

Having just bought my wife, Carrie, an iPod Touch for Christmas, I spent the last few months recognizing the diminishing need for desktop software in our home. Recipes, newspaper, paying bills online, credit card statements, mortgage and investment information – these can all be accessed using a simple web browser now. I don’t think she’s opened Microsoft Word for months. It’s all Outlook for email, contacts and calendars - and Internet Explorer or Safari on Windows for everything else. So why be tied down to the power hungry Dell Dimension tower and flat screen….humming every night while I try to sleep.

Oh, and let’s not forget about the Apps! From C25K for her jogging interests to USAToday and the New York Times, as well as a few games….the App Store doesn’t have it all – but it may very soon. And if there is something I am missing…well I am on Chapter 3 of “SAMS iPhone Application Development in 24 Hours”….i’ll make it myself!

So, at 5:33am PST, Apple Order#W68718696 was placed by yours truly. I am positive she will love it. For all the things mentioned and so many more: driving to Tennessee each winter, air travel, rainy Sundays in the spring, wedding photos, emailing friends, trying new recipes and even listening to music or watching a movie…I may sound like a mad dork run amok, but I am pretty confident this thing is not only a building block on the existing iPhone OS and very successful App Store….but also the next step in human-information-technology interfaces.

Hello future – I can see you.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

VT Compound un-gridlocked

Brian from B&H Electric spent the day yesterday cleaning up electrical work and connecting our home to the barn’s Kohler 12K backup power generator. We are now connected with Automatic Transfer Switches in both buildings and nearly ready for anything the weather (or power grid) can throw at us. Finally!

 

 

Monday, December 14, 2009

Re-launch of SmartBeetle

In preparation for the 10yr anniversary of the SmartBeetle trip around the fringe of America, I’ve just started the re-launch of the SmartBeetle.com site! While there are only 8 days of travels up so far, I hope to get at least a page or two of the journey a day uploaded over the next 2 weeks.

 

Friday, November 6, 2009

RIP Rico

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Sunday, October 4, 2009

Carrie and Sue in the kitchen

Cooking chili on the left and apple crisp on the right. After a long
day of leaf peeping, it is time for a nap before fondue night.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Fall foliage westie

Sadie relaxes in the sun with a cool autumnal breeze blowing