When Michelle Stahl, 44, of Bismarck, laughs, it's a happy clap of thunder capable of drowning other noises.

Noises like low-flying aircraft and tornado sirens.

But where was her jolly self in May when Stahl was seen sitting on her stoop, looking dejected and disgusted? A neighbor wanted to know.

"What's wrong? You don't look like yourself,"Stahl remembers the neighbor, Mary Mitchell, asking her.

The problem:Stahl - a social worker and a homeowner in central Bismarck - has a lawn.

And it needed cutting. And she had three lawnmowers to cut it. But on this day, at the height of her lawn's need, none of them worked.

The two gas mowers were wheels up, dead. One needed $160 worth of repairs. The other gas mower, who knows?

And her brand-new electric mower was unusable because the key had fallen into the gear box and was impossible, for the time being, to retrieve.

Mitchell, 51, who also has a lawn, never has those problems. And she invited Stahl to try out what she does.

Stahl was sold at the first push.

Mitchell uses a non-motorized push reel mower - and now, so does Stahl.

Recently, Mitchell and Stahl demonstrated how pushing the manual cutter, a modern lightweight version of what Grandpa used, is as easy as taking a walk.

"It doesn't take me any longer this way than it took the other way,"Stahl said. "It does as good as the other (mowers)."

And the sound of it - like the whirring sound of scissors - is quiet enough that she can use it late at night or early morning without disturbing anyone.

Some weigh as little as 16 pounds. Two children, ages 5 and 8, who live next to Mitchell, can easily push Mitchell's, she said. Also, push reel mowers are self-mulching, no bagging of grass is needed, and many are self-sharpening. And these mower owners say they like what they're not doing to the environment.

"It's clean all the way around," said Kris Kitko, of Bismarck, who owns one. "No fuels are used, and the noise is pretty much zero."

Chad Bourgoin, 34, of Mandan, who is an environmental protection specialist for the U.S. Department of Energy, shared information with the Tribune:A gasoline mower pollutes as much in an hour as 40 late-model cars.

That's because there are no emission standards for lawn mowers, no catalytic converters.

"They have absolutely no emissions control,"he said.

He said in some major cities, such as Chicago, that are having trouble complying with federal clean-air standards, lawn-mower exchange programs have started, some with federal grant money help. People who turn in their gas mowers get a rebate to help them buy electric or push reel mowers.

"People think that because it's a small engine, it's not a problem,"Bourgoin said. "But if everyone mows their lawn on a weekend, with the right atmospheric conditions, that can make a really big problem."

He said the Bismarck-Mandan area doesn't have the population to create that level of pollution. But for the operator behind the mower, there can be health risks. People with asthma can be affected, and there have been incidents of cardiopulmonary problems directly linked to the use of gas mowers.

He said a step beyond a push reel mower - for people who want to be "really environmentally conscious"- would be to consider xeriscaping their yard, putting in landscaping that requires little or no water and little maintenance.

Bourgoin said he has a lawn, uses a gas mower, but it is a mulching mower.

He said when people bag grass, typically in plastic bags and then take it to a collection site, they're using fuel to drive it there. Also, the plastic bags left in the clippings are a problem. And the end result of not mulching:People have to put more fertilizer on their grass because they're basically pulling all the nutrients out of the grass.

"We haven't hauled grass at all… and the lawn actually looks healthier," he said about his yard.

Stahl said at the time she was looking for a push mower to buy, in all of Bismarck there was only one push reel mower for sale at a local big-box store. So she went to Fargo to be able to pick and choose. She didn't find her mower at the Fleet Farm store in Fargo. There, they told her they sold so fast they couldn't keep them in stock.

A Fleet Farm saleswoman confirmed the high demand in a Wednesday phone interview. She said the store now has one in stock, but she expected it would be gone within a week. She said customers tell her they want one because, "They're easy to use, they have a little yard and they want the exercise."

It's a different type of mowing experience. Mitchell said she has seen someone talk on a cell phone while mowing. Another push mower owner likes that she can listen to the birds while she mows. Stahl, baby-sitting a 3-year-old recently, was able to keep the child close, about 15 feet away from her, while she mowed. She didn't have to worry about debris flying, or other dangers, and was able to sing nursery rhymes with the child while she mowed. "Isn't this a hoot,"she said she remembers thinking.

Kitko, a local musician and guitar teacher, researched the Internet to find a mower and decided to buy top of the line, the Cadillac of push mowers, Mitchell says - the Brill brand, made in Germany.

Kitko said she originally was shopping for a gas mower because years ago, a push mower she had bought for $99 was really hard to push.

"It was torture,"she said.

She also attributed that bad experience to the condition of the yard, a rental property that had a lot of weeds and rocks.

She said her experience with motorized lawn mowers hasn't been good, either. "We found that to be more hassle,"she said.

It needed gas, needed to be oiled up, cleaned and needed a place to be kept.

She said it was environmental reasons that pushed them to get a push mower. Now knowing what she does about the ease of mowing with it, she said she doesn't know why people, particularly those with small yards, would do it any other way.

To keep push mowing easy, fans acknowledge there are a couple musts:

You must keep up with the lawn. Overly long grass is hard to cut with a push mower and it doesn't cut weeds with wiry stems, Mitchell said. And debris needs to be picked up before mowing.

"They don't like sticks,"Mitchell said. "Sticks, even small ones, stop it cold."

Kitko said push mowers are better for the health of grass since it cuts like scissors, doesn't chop it like gas mowers.

"It doesn't kill any part of the grass, no brown tips, doesn't hack it,"she said.

That's why top golf courses often use push mowers on their greens.

Kitko thought people would shake their heads and think she was crazy when they saw her mowing with the push mower.

But she said curious people who stop, mostly men, tell her they're all for it with the price of gas and the time they spend repairing their mowers.

She said they literally had a crowd of neighborhood children form a line to take turns for a chance to push it across the yard.

Mitchell said she felt old one day when a neighbor, a woman in her 30s, saw her with the push mower and asked her what that was.

Stahl said she gets the same question, and people have laughed when seeing her mow with it.

But, guess who's laughing now?

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at virginia.grantier@;bismarcktribune.com.)