The Annual Battle of the Leaves

[MartinH]

I don't know about the rest of you, but every year I have he displeasure of fighting the leaves which fall from the dozens of oak trees on my property. My front yard alone has five huge white oaks, and I don't even want to talk about the literal forest in my back yard.

To be truthful, the back yard is something I rarely deal with, at least in terms of leaves, as my dog has the run of it and it's generally poop central. I know it's gross, but it's so large that land mines seem to be everywhere, despite any efforts to clean up. But I digress.

So, back to the front yard. When I first moved into this house, I had no idea what I was in for. True I'd bagged leaves before, my grandmother had two large oaks in her front yard, but since I have a quarter of an acre in the front and almost an entire acre in the back, I was obviously completely unprepared for what awaited me.

Each year we bag, or had help bagging, over 100 leaf bags. Yup, it's back breaking, torturous work, and I'd rather go to the dentist. But alas, I have made it in to more enjoyable past-time. I've wised up now, and I have them vaccumed from the front curve at @$125, which is worth it to me.

As you can see in the pictures, this year I have a new helper, my little boy. He had grand time helping daddy with the leaves, and even held the leaf blower a few times. But here's the trick I discovered.

Leaf blowing time, is now also pipe-smoking time! See, I got there eventually! LOL. Since leaf-blowing is a relative sedentary job, not requiring much movement, other than a slow walk and moving the blower back and forth, I've come to enjoy quite a few pipes this way so far. Of course, it must be said that I'm an outdoors smoker only. My wife has horrible allergies and of course, there's me little boy.

Finally, here are some picture of the leaf pile and, of course, my little helper.









Martin

 

[docwatson]

Thanks for sharing the photos of you young one with us, and also the frustrations of dealing with the massive amounts of leaves. I'm an old duffer so my favorite recollections of fall is when my Dad and I would rake up piles of leaves and burn them. I loved the smell and it was a ritual of the season. I guess that's no longer allowed, the end of another era.
Anyway, our leaf season is over here in Maine and we are now covered in a blanket of snow as of last Wednesday. I prefer the leaves!!!! LOL

 

[RealtorFrank]

Looks like you have a good helper there. The best thing I ever did was move out to the farm, no more raking leaves!

 

[MartinH]

The deed is done, well for today at least. There are probably a few thousand more leaves on the trees on the property, but the bulk is at the curb now. To be honest, the pictures really don't do the mamoth pile of leaves justice. From the street level, it's almost four feet tall.

:affraid: :affraid: :affraid:

 

[Dave_In_Philly]

Those are some great pictures.

One of the few nice things about living in the city is that my front "yard" is roughly 12' square. So no raking for me.

 

[Hermit]

I just ride the John Deere with the deck
in the up position. It mulches the leaves
and they disappear and nourish the lawn.
I also have a sweeper that I tow to collect
pine needles for mulch.

 

[Hermit]

The deed is done, well for today at least.

What happens now, do they get picked up?

 

[MartinH]

The deed is done, well for today at least.

What happens now, do they get picked up?

Hermit: Yeah someone is coming by to vacuum them up on Monday. I hope my neighbors don't have a fit about the pile. Last year the people who rent across the street from me got very nervous about the pile of leaves. It'll cost me about $125 to get them vacuumed, but if that means I don't have to bag 100+ bags of leaves, I'm all for it.

Last year I asked the same company who vacuums them how much they'd charge just to do it all, and I think she quoted me like $300!!!! Yeah, I don't think so. I can handle blowing the leaves, especially since I get to enjoy some good baccy along the way, but there is no way I'm bagging those suckers.

Hey, if any of you live in my neck of the woods, and work for free beer and maybe some baccy, I'll gladly have you over to help me out next year.

Later brothers (do we still have sisters on this board?),

Martin

 

[alfredo_buscatti]

Never rake.
Grass.
Or leaves.

 

[jlong]

The trees around me are 50 to 100 years old and blowing is a 4 hour affair for approx 4 weekends in the fall. If it rains one weekend, I'm screwed. I got twice as much to blow the following weekend and the piles become waste high. The city vacuums it all off the curb (out of our property tax). I'm toying with idea of making my own leaf blower using a turbo prop mounted to a 454 Chev big block. That ought to cut my work down to an hour.

 

[J Soshae]

I have spent alot of time moving leaves myself. The fastest way is to make smaller piles and rake them onto a 9x12 tarp. A truckload of leaves can be moved from the backyard to the curb with one full tarp load. I try to drag across lawn areas to keep the driveway from eating a hole in the tarp.

White oak trees are some of the nicest trees with their peeling bark.

Your son is about the perfect age to enjoy that great pile of leaves. My sons would hide in the pile while I got my wife and she would play along at being surprised when they jumped up out of the leaves.