Sunday, November 05, 2006

Man vs. Nature

We have a lot of wonderful trees in our yard. Different sizes. Different kinds. And right behind our house is a big patch of woods, so looking out our windows we see nature everywhere. And on one side of our property there is a stream surrounded by more trees. In the spring everything is glowing green as new leaves bud on the branches. In the summer it is lush with a cooling shade. And it reaches it's peak in the fall when it explodes in reds, yellows, browns, golds, and oranges. Just beautiful.

And then those leaves fall. And fall. And fall. A carpet of leaves. Piles of leaves. Leaves from our trees. Leaves blowing in from the woods. Leaves blowing from the stream. And the battle begins. The leaves trying to cluster in the gardens, on the deck, against the house. While I try to put them back in the woods or pile them near the street for the giant leaf-sucking truck. Choosing the right time to rake is more of an art than a science. Clearing the yard too soon just means I'll have to do it over and over. Too late and I run the risk of an early snow that turns them into a thick, heavy, wet clump that is almost impossible to move. (I speak from experience having used the snow shovel one year to 'rake' the leaves!)

My Magic 8 Ball told me this was the weekend. Working along with Son19, two rakes, a pitchfork, a hand-held blower, and the big 5 horsepower blower, it took us seven hours to turn that thick carpet of leaves into The Great Leafy Mountain Range - mounds of leaves all along the edges of the yard and in the woods. Well, to almost accomplish the task. Some leaves will blow back in the yard and need to be cleaned up. And there is still one large tree in the back that hasn't dropped any leaves yet. Maybe by Turkey Day. But most of it is done.

Anyone got some Ben Gay?

6 comments:

Cristina said...

My favorite part of Fall is all the beautiful leaves on the ground. You must have a lot of trees to have worked 7 hours raking. No wonder you need some Ben Gay!

(Thanks for visiting my blog the other day.)

Creative-Type Dad said...

Woods? Leaves? Streams?

What's this mystical place you speak of....?

Michelle said...

OMG 7 hours of leaf raking?? That's a boat load of leaves!! (WHich, of course I am sure you are WELL aware of...lol) I think I like the look of leaves ON the trees rather than ont he ground!! Well, ok, they look pretty as long as someone else gets to rake them up...hehe

Hope the Ben Gay helped!!! lol

Anonymous said...

The trees in my yard have little teensie leaves...honey locust trees and it takes millions of them when the wind blows.
Do come visit with your raking equipment. :)

Jill said...

Reminds me of the enormous amount of fun we used to have jumping and playing in big piles of leaves when we were kids. As you might suspect, I didn't have to rake the leaves. Otherwise the memories might not be so pleasant. :)

Em said...

Ah, the mystical place with woods and streams. Probably a sprite or an elf hiding behind the corner. But they didn't help with the leaves. For those of you who expressed concern, thanks! All better now. And Cyndy, I'm sorry but you are on your own with those teensie leaves. Maybe you'll get a big gust and wind and they'll go visit your neighbor. :)