Thankfully, leaf season is pretty well over for this year. The only thing we’re still playing with is the tree in front of our garage. It hasn’t completely changed yet. It didn’t even start turning until the beginning of November. The rest of them are all done. Yay.
I didn’t touch a single leaf last year and I really had no intention of it this year, either. Then I took a half day off work on a rare sunny and 75 fall day and kind of got in the mood to play with some leaves. When I get a notion like that, I’ve got to run with it, they don’t happen often.
My goal was just to blow the leaves off the bottom roof. That’s all, the boys can do the rest. I’m too old for this stuff anymore. I opened my bedroom window and shoved Dave’s leaf blower out and blew everything on this side right over the edge. I opened the hall window and got the other side of the roof cleaned off, too.
How cool was that? Very cool — until I went downstairs and out to my little fake grass area surrounded by the garden boxes and everything was buried in leaves. Are you kidding me? So, I used Dave’s leaf blower again and blew them over into the pine trees, where they can stay and turn into dirt in 30 years.
The ones that wouldn’t reach the pine trees, I blew into the yard where Dave can chop them up with the tractor. Everything was going great until the battery died on the blower. I put it on the charger and got my little blower out. That was a joke — it works fine on pine needles on fake grass, but it wasn’t doing diddly for a pile of leaves. I’ll have to wait for the charger to do its thing.
In the meantime, I went old-school and grabbed a rake and headed out front. We just have dirt and no grass in half the front yard thanks to a recent home renovation that is currently at a standstill. Between the rake and just shuffling leaves along with my feet, I got a ton of them shoved into the pine trees.
For the part where we actually do have grass, I grabbed the push mower. I started it on the concrete pad in front of the garage and walked it on its back wheels to the front so as not to kick up rocks out of the driveway. I didn’t need to, I could’ve started it in the dirt just as well.
I had some issues with which direction I should be mowing. I didn’t want to blow chopped up leaves into the street. You’re not supposed to with grass as it makes it slick for motorcycles. Is it the same with leaves?
I didn’t want to keep blowing it to the middle, it was getting too thick. The mower was eventually just pushing the pile. So, I lifted the front end and set it down on the pile. Poof — mulch. I still wasn’t done after the front yard. I went right down the gravel driveway with the push mower.
It was adjusted up high because it was the one we used all summer at the camper. The site we’re on now was gravel for the past 35+ years. I didn’t want to spend my weekends with a spray bottle of weed killer in my hand. So, I spread grass seed and we mow. But you can’t rule out kicking up a rock and taking out a window, so it’s set nice and high.
After the driveway, I was done. The little notion in me had run its course. During the next few days, I had pain in places I didn’t know I had and apparently haven’t used in a very long time. And then it snowed. And then it dried out and warmed up again. I don’t care, I’m done with leaves until next year. Or at least until spring when it’s a whole new game of leaves at the camper. Ugh.
