Have you asked them? I would - can't stand the things either! You might be surprised BTW, to find that some of them still do go to work (esp. these days).

Well, it could be the 50% who do work who are firing up the lawn tools. Or they are waiting for the cool part of the day, not wanting to be out in the heat of the noonday sun.

I feel for you--my neighborhood is mostly 2 family homes and with the lawn mowers (how can it take an hour to mow a lawn the size of a two car garage?), the leaf blowers and the constant, unending renovation construction, plus the tree people sawing away, the noise, now that it's warm enough to open the windows, is a big pain.

Check your town ordinances. My town has pretty strict rules about when "maintenance" equipment, like mowers and leaf blowers, can be used, plus leaf blowers must be certified to be under a certain decibel level. However, 5 pm is definitely an acceptable time to mow or blow.

To Larke and Camlan: Oh, I know of course they have every right to mow/leaf blow at 5:00 p.m., it's just that it's the people right next door to me whom I know for a fact do not work and are home all day.. oh well... and as for the leaf blowers, you know how annoying those are. And Camlan, you hit the nail on the head, the yards are also the size of a postage stamp!! LOL.

Lynwell, I don't know if if helps, but your neighborhood may not be all that quiet while you are away at work. I work from home. Today, the guy across the street is getting his roof worked on, which seems to require a truck, a pickup and a van all idling on the street, plus several men on the roof hammering away. The hammering echos off the other houses.

Three houses down, they are renovating something inside the house. All the power saws and drills are outside, so there is random intermittent sawing and drilling and sanding going on, plus shouting back and forth and a lot of hammering.

Last week the people next door had a tree surgeon in their yard for three days, sawing and wood chipping.

Add in all the delivery trucks idling in the road, the oil delivery trucks, the beeping of trucks backing up, the yappy dogs from the backyard neighbors, and it's not quiet. It looks like a lovely tree lined street, with some picket fences here and there and you would think it would be peaceful and quiet. But during the day, it isn't. The noise starts at 7 am and some days it goes until 8 pm.

Camlan, wow, that sounds awful! I guess it's one of the "rites of spring" correct?

I Bought An Earth Wise Mower Cordless Can Anyone Tell Me How To Hook The Batteries Up In It It Came Without The Batteries

I moved to a neighborhood where I cannot go out an mow my lawn without at least one or the other neighbor getting out their lawn mower!

My name isn't Smith or Jones and I'm not the least bit interested in 'keeping up' with either!

Have you met these neighbors? Perhaps they are mowing at this time of day because its good for the lawn? So long as they aren't doing this before 8am or after 8pm I don't think there is much one can do.

Do they like kids? Perhaps you and your child could bake a plate of cookies, go over for a chat and introduce yourselves!

They might share with you that mowing at 5pm is done because they don't like to mow in the heat of the day (or some other plausible excuse). Just saying.

I personally don't like to mow more than I have to. If you were my neighbor and told me you liked to read to your child at that time of day I might mow a bit earlier to show consideration.

One good thing about having so many folks at home during the day is that you have many eyes and ears keeping an eye on things.

I like that about my neighborhood. Nothing gets past the neighbors. I don't leave a key with them but I know their first names and feel comfortable talking to them.

Hope this helps!

This reminds me of how it was when we lived in Atlanta. Our immediate neighbor behind us worked for the IRS and I noticed once that until other neighbors saw movement in/around that home on Saturday mornings, no one fired up their lawnmower! We followed suit!