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Most motor home owners are concerned about what they are coming home to, or rather what they might not be coming home to, after a long trip. We notify the neighbors, plug-in the timers on the lights and set the alarm system as we walk out the door. Our biggest concern was not our landscaper, but the people he hired to help.

Let's face it, most landscapers are not going to do a thorough criminal background check on their help. It was probably the weakest link in our home protection scheme, after all it is obvious when nobody's home. A few times seeing the RV and occupants missing is an invitation to the less scrupulous.

We saw an advertisement for a robotic lawn mower on the internet and figured we'd give it a try. It worked out better than we expected. In fact, it worked out so well I decided to start selling them. Like 80% of robotic lawn mower owners, we gave it a name, Moe.

We have the best neighbors anyone can ask for, okay the nosiest neighbors any can stand to live near. Now not only do they watch the house while we are gone, they watch Moe while we are home.

It has been more than six months since we set Moe loose in the yard and I still get almost daily reports of where it went and what it bumped into and the, 'I thought for sure it was going to..' If Nielsen started rating Moe it'd probably rank above the Braves games in our neighborhood. Woe be the neighbor who missed a Moe outing!

Moe doesn't trim hedges and doesn't weed eat or edge, but it does a very good job keeping the yard cut. When we are going to be gone for any length of time we have a neighbor kid come over and weed eat. The hedges only need to be taken care of twice a year, so we do that ourselves.

We hadn't missed the money we were paying the lawn service, but we noticed it when we stopped. It was like a nice little tax-free pay raise. It was so pleasurable that next year we are going to stop paying the mortgage.

We also hadn't noticed until recently, it is kind of nice when some one else is taking care of the yard, but there is a bit of stress as well. When strangers are in and around the house- whether we are home or not- just makes both of us a little bit nervous.

This way we have the best of both worlds, the yard is professionally being taking care of and you can hardly call Moe a stranger.

Now if we can only get our neighbors to get one!