The Consumer Price Index fell 0.7 percent in April from a year earlier, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, and in March, the CPI dropped 0.4 percent year-over-year. These declines, says the BLS, are the first since 1955.

We're seeing a similar pricing trend for appliances. "Appliance manufacturers were planning in early 2008 to increase prices by 5 percent, mostly to pass on higher costs for commodities like energy and metals," says Michael DiLauro, a product-information specialist for Consumer Reports. "But since the financial crisis hit, we're seeing very few price increases."

So is now a good time to buy an appliance you've been coveting? As detailed in "Repair or Replace It?" (available to subscribers), if your appliance is eight or more years old, it often makes sense to buy a newer model. Federal, state, and utility company tax credits and rebates for energy-efficient appliances can provide further savings.

And when you're ready to shop, find the best stores to buy appliances.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter

Essential information: Find out how to maintain and extend the life of your appliances

Number of homes that several branches of the federal government own and are trying to sell, according to this May 14 article in USA Today.

Individual homeowners and banks aren't the only property owners sitting on unsold single-family and multiunit homes. Several branches of the U.S. government are looking to sell the tens of thousands of homes they've acquired through defaults, seizures, and other circumstances.

The federal agencies include the Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Agriculture, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of the Treasury, Department of Veterans Affairs, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, General Services Administration, Internal Revenue Service, Marshals Service, and Small Business Administration.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development alone has spent more than $12 billion to pay back lenders after homeowners defaulted on government-backed Federal Housing Administration loans but so far has recovered less than half that amount, said the USA Today story. HUD has about 38,000 homes for sale.

Essential information: Learn how to buy a HUD home or a foreclosed property. If you're having financial trouble and are concerned making your mortgage payments, read "White House Launches Mortgage-Assistance Web Site" for details on the federal government's Making Home Affordable program. Learn how to avoid becoming a victim of a home-related financial scam and find out what a "foreclosure vulture" is.

What it means. Cookprint takes the carbon footprint—the amount of greenhouse gas each of us generates through our daily activities—and plants it firmly in the kitchen.

Food writer Kate Heyhoe cooked up cookprint, defined as the energy needed to prepare the food you eat. That energy use encompasses the appliances and techniques used to prepare and store food, though the management of leftovers and food waste also factors in—you lower your cookprint by composting rather than tossing scraps into the trash. Low-cookprint meals should also be heavy on plant-based and locally grown, sustainable foods.

Why the buzz? A few new cookbooks—including Heyhoe's Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen—the New Green Basics Way; Big Green Cookbook: Hundreds of Planet-Pleasing Recipes and Tips for a Luscious, Low-Carbon Lifestyle, by Jackie Newgent; and Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating, by Mark Bittman—have stirred up interest in eco-conscious cooking.

Besides food enthusiasts, appliance manufacturers are in on the cookprint movement, though it's worth noting that cooking appliances as a category account for just 3 percent of a home's energy consumption, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Whirlpool says that for its induction appliances, "90% of the energy [is] expended into useful heat to reduce utility costs. (With gas ranges up to 60% of the heat is normally wasted through indirect gas combustion.)"

It's easy to cook more efficiently. On the cooktop, blanch green beans first and then cook pasta in the same pot of boiling water. In the oven, roast vegetables for tomorrow's supper alongside tonight's baked chicken. And when preheating a gas grill, throw on some potatoes or corn on the cob or heavy-duty-foil packets of vegetables instead of letting all those Btu go to waste.

Or when you're cooking small portions, use your toaster oven, which will consume less energy than a conventional oven. And reheat leftovers in a microwave oven. As covered in our February 2009 report on microwaves, microwave ovens can save up to 80 percent of the energy used by a typical oven. Indeed, the Environmental Protection Agency is considering making microwaves eligible for Energy Star qualification.

Remember, it rarely makes environmental sense to replace a working appliance just to take advantage of a new, more-efficient model. Still, if you do need a new refrigerator or dishwasher, the latest versions will reduce your cookprint. The average 2008 refrigerator or dishwasher uses 30 percent less energy than the average 2000 model, according to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers. Just don't fall victim to the Snackwell's effect when shopping.

Completing the cookprint cycle, conserve energy and water with your dishwasher by not prerinsing dishes before loading them, running full loads, and skipping the heated-dry cycle.—Daniel DiClerico | e-mail | Twitter

Essential information: Visit our appliances hub to find the most energy-efficient refrigerators and dishwashers. Look for our special report on kitchens, in the August 2009 issue of Consumer Reports, online and on newsstands in July.

But with the May 13 unveiling of its PlantBottle, the Coca-Cola Company is trying to do something positive for the environment if not for your waistline and overall health. The company claims the new plastic bottle is 100 percent recyclable and made from a mix of petroleum-based materials and up to 30 percent plant-based materials, including sugar cane and molasses. Compared with the production of petroleum-based PET bottles, says Coca-Cola, making the PlantBottle relies less on a nonrenewable resource and reduces greenhouse-gas emissions by up to 25 percent.

(Learn more about recycling plastic.)

Later this year, the company's North American division will start using the PlantBottle for Dasani water and other brands in certain markets and will roll it out for Vitaminwater in 2010.

"The PlantBottle is a significant development in sustainable packaging innovation. It builds on our legacy of environmental ingenuity and sets the course for us to realize our vision to eventually introduce bottles made with materials that are 100 percent recyclable and renewable," said Muhtar Kent, Coca-Cola's chairman and CEO, in a release. e-mail | Twitter

Essential information: More states are moving to add a deposit for bottled water.

The Microsoft Home, located in the company's the company’s Executive Briefing Center In Redmond, Washington, is designed to show you how technology will influence your home and your life on a day-to-day basis.

The BBC recently visited the facility and got a tour from Janet Galore, senior program manager of Microsoft's Strategic Prototyping group, gave the BBC a look around some of the prototype features. Watch the video (right) to see how your home might look over the next five to 10 years. e-mail | Twitter

Essential information: If you're more concerned about taking care of your home of the present, use our Home Improvement Guide interactive to find information on key products and services.

To date, Louisiana-Pacific has received reports that 37 decks have broken, causing 14 injuries that include a broken wrist, a sprained ankle, and minor lacerations and bruises.

The recalled products were sold at the Home Depot and building-product dealers nationwide from January 2005 to August 2008. Colors include Tuscan Walnut/Chestnut, Driftwood Grey/Greystone, Pacific Cedar, and Western Redwood. Veranda is made by several companies; only Louisiana-Pacific-made Veranda has been recalled.

If you own a deck made of the recalled materials, contact the manufacturer for a free inspection; call 888-325-1184 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday. If your decking has prematurely deteriorated, Louisiana-Pacific will arrange for free replacement. (To determine whether your decking is subject to the recall, look for tags or stamps at the end of boards. Your invoice can also help the manufacturer's customer-service reps identify the product you own.)

For more details on the recall, go to the CPSC's recall page or the manufacturer's Web site. e-mail | Twitter

Essential information: Veranda was one of the materials covered in our last report on decking. Read the story for more information on choosing a decking product and advice on deck-construction safety.

In April, foreclosure filings were reported on more than 342,000 properties across the country, less than a 1 percent increase over March but a 32 percent hike over a year earlier, according to Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac. That means that 1 in 374 U.S. homes got a foreclosure filing last month. (Foreclosure filings include default and auction-sale notices and bank repossessions.)

"Much of this activity is at the initial stages of foreclosure—the default and auction stages—while bank repossessions, or REOs, were down on a monthly and annual basis to their lowest level since March 2008," said RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio, in a release. "This suggests that many lenders and servicers are beginning foreclosure proceedings on delinquent loans that had been delayed by legislative and industry moratoria. It's likely that we'll see a corresponding spike in REOs as these loans move through the foreclosure process over the next few months."

Ten states accounted for more than three-quarters of April foreclosure activity, said RealtyTrac, with California (96,560), Florida (64,588), Nevada (16,266) and Arizona (16,245) having the greatest number of filings. These states were followed by Illinois (13,647), Ohio (12,324), Georgia (11,521), Texas (11,314), Michigan (10,830), and Virginia (6,254).

Las Vegas alone saw filings on 14,073 properties—or 1 filing for every 56 homes, the highest foreclosure rate among U.S. metropolitan areas with at least 200,000 people.

"In order to really stem foreclosure, you have to arrest the downdraft in jobs and reduce the amount of negative equity homeowners are struggling with," Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Economy.com, said in "The Next Wave Of Foreclosures," on Forbes.com last month. e-mail | Twitter

Essential information: If you're having financial trouble and are concerned making your mortgage payments, read "White House Launches Mortgage-Assistance Web Site" for details on the federal government's Making Home Affordable program. Learn how to avoid becoming a victim of a home-related financial scam and find out what a "foreclosure vulture" is.

Read the rest of the story and get all the details on the dangers of pet doors in "Doggie Doors and Crawling Kids Can Be a Deadly Combination," on the Consumer Reports Safety blog.

The new All-in-One Recycling Centers from Mode Products could help you wrangle all that waste, and at 30-inch-high x 17-inch-deep x 15-inch-wide, they're designed to fit in a kitchen or mudroom. (A premium model is shown; the deluxe version is 2 inches shorter.)

The units can reduce your trash volume by as much as 66 percent, depending on the structure and thickness of the containers, claims Larry Kahn, president of Verde Home Products, which makes the recycling centers.

A hinged cover hides a foot-operated compacting unit that, says the manufacturer, can crush up to 12-ounce aluminum cans and 8-ounce to 2-liter plastic bottles. The compacted containers then fall into an 8-gallon bin, which you can line with low-density-polyethylene bags that are themselves recyclable. You deposit glass and steel containers directly into the bin through another hinged cover, which has a built-in charcoal filter that's supposed to control odors. A front-mounted 5-gallon bin serves as a repository for newspapers, cardboard, and junk mail, and a built-in battery-powered clock that you can program to alert you on recycling days in your neighborhood.

The premium model, $250 to $300, can even track the weight of the materials you've recycled to the nearest half pound. The deluxe version, $200, lacks the compaction unit. A 20-pack of bags costs $8.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter

Essential information: Learn about "precycling," which can help you cut your waste stream. And read about How Can I RecycleThis?, which offers neat uses for all kinds of items that would otherwise likely end up in the trash.

Price of a 1×1-foot piece of live sod from the old Yankee Stadium (shown) being sold by the Yankees-Steiner Collectibles partnership. That's about 85 times the price of the already expensive Yankees grass being sold by DeLea Sod Farms, a subject we covered in "Yankees Sod and Grass Seed Go on Sale."

I am lifelong fan of the New York Yankees, support that's not only part of my DNA but also a family tradition I've handed down to my three daughters. I'll even admit to being something of a blind Yankees loyalist, even during the most cringe-inducing moments of the 36-year Steinbrenner Reign.

But I'm also something of a cynic and skeptic. As much as I've been captivated by the magnificent new Yankee Stadium, I am equally bothered by the ticket and concession prices.

So I wasn't surprised to learn that the Yankees and New York City, which owned the old stadium, had reached an agreement for the team to sell and auction off the soon-to-be-razed ballpark piece by piece. But the deal seems to benefit the Yankees more than it does the taxpayers: The city will get a paltry $11.5 million, not nearly enough when you consider that a pair of seats from the 57,000-plus-capacity old stadium cost $1,499 to $1,999. (For details on the "Yankee Stadium Legends" auction, go to http://auctions.steinersports.com. May 13 update: Check out this New York Post photo and article, which show prices on all the memorabilia up for auction or sale.)

Others take issue with the deal. "The carcass of Yankee Stadium is city property and it's clearly worth more than $11.5 million. I know no good reason why taxpayers, having built the new stadium, should not benefit more from the sale," Richard L. Brodsky, a state assemblyman from Westchester and a vocal critic of the financing for the new stadium, told The New York Times.

Given the home- and yard-related topics we cover on the Home & Garden blog, I thought you might be interested to learn that an original brick from Monument Park will cost $150 and that "Final Season Crystals with Genuine Dirt" will run $80 (quantity unspecified). A quick trip to your local home center will tell you that as with the Yankees' payroll and tickets, those prices are inflated.—Steven H. Saltzman | e-mail | Twitter

After visiting a friend’s blog, I discovered that I had completely forgotten Mother’s Day. I’m not a mother myself, and have no mother or maternal relations, so I often forget. But I think fathers are getting a raw deal.

Mother’s Day gets splashed all over the television, newspapers, and internet advertising like a second Christmas. You’re encouraged to buy jewelry, flowers, flashy cards, expensive dinner reservations, vacations, etc. But come Father’s Day, what do advertisements push? A lawnmower. A leafblower. A new golf club. What’s Dad likely to get? Some god-awful tie and a pair of socks or, if he’s lucky, a wrench set. And since Father’s Day comes about six weeks later, all the money seems to get sucked up by Mother’s Day and the Memorial Day binge that marks the beginning of summer.

What’s left for dear old Dad?

I don’t enjoy the commercialization of holidays but I do think it can be a useful indicator of our society, namely in that the level of commercialization is dependent on how important that holiday is rated. And Mother’s Day would blow Father’s Day right out of the water any day of the week. I’m not against mothers (please, how could anyone be?) but I think fathers are becoming more and more marginalized in our society. Their roles are considered expendable.

Movies, television, and commercials paint men as lust-hungry fools. And while, true, some men are lust-hungry fools, many are not. Nor are fathers’ roles quaint but expendable.

With relatively few restrictions, single mothers can draw thousands of dollars in local, state, and federal aid each year to supplement their household, in addition to receiving various other subsidies. Single fathers can’t. Two people, of identical race, income, background, number of children, medical issues, etc., are judged unequally based on gender alone.

The man is expected to work and bring home a paycheck whether he is trying to raise children alone or not. With that check he is expected to pay the rent, or mortgage, and utility bills; keep food on the table; pay medical, dental, and optometrical bills; provide suitable clothing, shoes, school supplies, etc.; pay for child care and or hire babysitters; make vehicle payments and provide for repairs, maintanence, and fuel costs; and, of course, pay his taxes.

The woman is expected to be a stay-at-home mother. In most cases, the state will cover her mortgage or rent payments; pay most or all of her utility bills; provide hundreds of dollars of food stamps per child; provide full coverage for medical, dental, and optometry; pay for child care; provide transportation; and supply her hundreds of dollars, per child, for other expenses. All tax-free, of course.

Fathers are forgotten.

On television sitcoms, it’s Dad who makes all the idiotic blunders, who is usually cast on a couch or behind a grill or clumsily fooling in a garage. Mom is Heroine Extraordinare while Dad is, at best, Bumbling Sidekick.

I’m all for Mother’s Day. I think parents are terribly overlooked and under-appreciated by their increasingly rude and selfish offspring in today’s world…

But don’t forget Dad.

My husband Mike destroyed our lawn mower last fall.  He isn’t very mechanical and he forgot to check the oil level.  He heard the valves clicking but he only had “a little more to do.”  To no one’s surprise, he heard a loud pop and found a gaping hole in the side of the mower’s engine.  Into the garbage it went.  This Spring, Mike called my sister Kat to see if he could borrow her lawnmower since we hadn’t bought a new one yet.  She did him one better.  It turns out that Kat had 3 mowers in her shed.  She felt bad for Mike and gave him one of her “extra” mowers.  It was a red MTD mower.

It was like Christmas to Mike.  He happily brought home his “new” mower.  His joy dimmed an hour and a half later when he came into the house with two of his fingers rubbed raw.  It turns out that the mower would not start.  Mike tried everything that he knew how to do.  He finally realized that he would never be able to start the mower.  Mike called Kat and asked her “Kat, was is the trick to start this mower?”  Kat replied, “It doesn’t start.  It hasn’t run in two years.”  Mike says, “Ohhhh, ok.” and quickly says goodbye.  He turns to me and starts grumbling, ”What the hell!  Why would your sister give me a lawnmower and forget to tell me it doesn’t work?  She knew I was planning on mowing.”  He was pretty hot about it and I could not stop laughing.  He forgot the cardinal rule when dealing with my family, assume nothing and ask lots of questions.  There is always a back story.

It all started when Kat purchased a red MTD lawn mower at Hechinger’s in 1996.  She paid $200 for the mower.  It worked fine for a few years and then it became “problematic”.  My sister Sue and I suggested she take it to Gary the lawnmower guy.  Gary is the best small engine repair man and is super fast and inexpensive.  At the time, he would fix anything for $25.  Kat wouldn’t listen.  She needed the lawnmower “NOW” and she didn’t have time to drive it to Gary’s.  She took it to a tool shop down the street.  Three weeks and $88 later, her lawn mower was ready.  She took it home and it would not start.  She took it back to the repair shop so that they would fix it for real this time.  Another week later they called to tell her that it was ready for pickup.  She took it home again and of course it still didn’t work.  She took it back a third time and of course it did not work when she brought it home.  Kat knew she wasn’t taking it back to the tool shop but she couldn’t trash it either as she felt she hadn’t got her $288 dollars out of the mower.  She placed it in her shed and borrowed my husbands for a week or two until she spotted a Lawn Chief lawn mower in the trash that had a sign, “FREE, needs new cord.”  She scooped it up.  Neither she nor her husband knew how to repair the mower themselves and she couldn’t take it to the tool shop that she had used.  She broke down and called Gary.

Gary had the Lawn Chief ready in a few days and for $25.  And it actually started when she got it home.  The problem is that the Lawn Chief is a beast.  It weighs 2 tons and I swear the wheels are square.  It doesn’t move.  You might as well start it and tie it to the front of your car and use the car to propel it over the lawn.  It is the nastiest lawnmower imaginable.

After a few weeks of mowing with the beast, Kat saw another lawnmower in the trash.  She threw it in her car and figured she’d gamble on Gary again.  He told her that the previous owner had put the wrong oil/gas mixture in the tank.  A few days and $25 later, Gary called to tell her the lawnmower was done.  It was perfect.  She never moved the Lawn Chief or the MTD mower again, until she decided to do Mike a favor.

Mike and  I took the MTD mower to Gary’s.  A few days and $30 later, the mower has a new carburator, pull cord and primer bulb.  Free lawnmower, inexpensive repair, fast service and a happy husband.  I ? Gary.

No not plastic turf, Luxus is offering PDM visitors the chance to enter a free prize draw and win the very latest in grass cutting technology with its new robotic Husqvarna 230 ACX Automower™ which it will be unveiling from stand H22. Besides its environmentally friendly design with a chassis moulded with 30% talc filled Luxus PPC compound, the Husqvarna also takes the strain out of gardening as once switched on it automatically cuts the grass! 

Don’t know about you, but I am certainly going to enter!

“To be honest, you look at our situation, Brett Favre is a great one-year-type deal. You get to play with him, and say, ‘Hey, I played with Brett Favre,’ and tell your grandkids one day, ‘I was Brett Favre’s teammate.’ But I look at our team the way we’re stacked right now. We have a good group of veterans and a good group of young guys. We have a solid team for the next four or five or however many years we stay together.” — Minnesota Vikings DE Jared Allen, on rumors that Brett Favre may join his team.

The curtain appears to be closing on the theater of the absurd.

We hope!

Please!

Well, ol’ No. 4 could conveniently change his mind when the Minnesota Vikings are done with mandatory minicamps and OTAs. There’s a disturbing report out there that Favre has sent X-rays of his busted shoulder to the Vikings for further evaluation. And … And!?! If there is no major damage, and if Favre does not need major surgery, ol’ No. 4 will un-retire to play for the Vikings

Yup, before you think that Favre is riding that lawn tractor off into the sunset …

The over-under on Favre rearing his grey-haired head back into the national spotlight?

June 30.

No rhyme or reason behind this date, just seems like a good time for him to start things up again so he gets to training camp with his new team on time.

For the time being, Greatest Pro Bowls of all time, and other stuff is going to give it a rest.

View Poll ]]> http://www.successfulmowing.com/brett-favre-watch-day-10/feed/ http://www.successfulmowing.com/word-of-mouth-marketing-%e2%80%93-it%e2%80%99s-a-web-development-thing/ http://www.successfulmowing.com/word-of-mouth-marketing-%e2%80%93-it%e2%80%99s-a-web-development-thing/#comments Fri, 15 May 2009 21:03:05 +0000 admin http://www.successfulmowing.com/word-of-mouth-marketing-%e2%80%93-it%e2%80%99s-a-web-development-thing/ Everyone knows that Word Of Mouth is the best sales and marketing tool.
Leads and referrals are qual

Deanna Favre goes for a ride a nice lawnmower.

What went down? An insanely informative and enlightening debate with a group of friends who also happen to be astute football enthusiasts on NFL.com.

The topic … will Brett Favre return to the NFL in 2009?

It was a spirited debate that was all over the board, touching on such subjects as the Vikings’ laughable lot of QBs, Willard Scott, Can’t Buy Me Love and tractors.

With minicamps opening this weekend … It appears that Favre talk will slowly fade away for the time being as rookies get their first taste of life in the NFL. That’s a much more intestesting talking point. So, let’s change the subject.

Something that came to mind after two beers last night: The Packers received a third-round pick from the Jets as a result of the Favre trade last summer. That pick, No. 83 overall, was dealt from the Packers to the Patriots with a host of other picks when Green Bay moved back up into the first round to pick USC LB Clay Matthews. The Patriots, meanwhile, selected North Carolina WR Brandon Tate, a long-term project for Bill Belichich and crew to eventually mold into a contributor in the Patriots’ victory machine.

What struck Greatest Pro Bowls of all time, and other stuff was this … did the Packers intentionally unload this pick? Given the nature of the Favre trade last summer, and the hard feelings that followed, the tag of “he’s the guy the Packers got in exchange for Favre” might be too much to bear for any rookie, much less a third rounder who likely may never be a major contributor in Green Bay.

What went down? Brett Favre was released by the New York Jets.

Favre took the time to hop off his riding lawnmower to give New York Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum a call during one of his busiest weeks of the year.

The topic … his release.

It was granted.

The Jets selected their newest franchise quarterback — USC QB Mark Sanchez — with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. It should be noted that Sanchez was born in 1986, when Favre was a two-sport star at Hancock North Central High School, where Favre ran the wishbone, an offense that is currently filed under “whatever happened to …”

What Favre said: “Nothing has changed. At this time, I am retired and have no intention of returning to football.”

Early favorite for Favre’s services if he does unretire … again: The Minnesota Vikings. Their current allotment of quarterbacks — Tarvaris Jackson, Sage Rosenfels and John David Booty — makes people laugh out loud. Despite this obvious shortcoming, the Vikings are among the early favorites to represent the NFC in Super Bowl XLIV.

What will transpire today: Endless banter on the sports networks. PTI rundown alert on Twitter already indicated prominent placement of Favre discussion.

This should be a fun ride.

Perfect!  Now I just need something that can do my laundry.

Thanks for the link, Joe!

via Digital Trends

If your grass gets really
high!

The stealth-like Automower 260 ACX automatically trims your garden, sending progress updates via text message. The lawn-lover is battery powered (although a solar powered one is coming soon) and can trim half an acre of unkempt grass in around 45 minutes. It will even hunt down moles, slugs and other dastardly creatures, texting you before your garden comes to harm.

[via Crunch Gear]