Does Anyone Know Where I Can Find Some Leaves?

Front Yard leaves









Back Yard Leaves







Oh, you mean I have a whole mountain range of leaves on my curb? Who knew!

Well, I suspected we had a lot of leaves when I started raking on Monday afternoon, but I did not know we had this many leaves. I did the backyard on Monday and the front yard on Tuesday, a total of FIVE HOURS to rake all the leaves in the yard! Now, I don't know if it should take 5 hours to rake our yard and I think ignorance definitely played apart in it taking me so long. My engineer husband was out of town on a business trip and we desperately needed to rake the yard. I joyfully volunteered since I had the time so we bought a rake. I have raked before but never by myself. I was prepared to be really sore and for it to take awhile, but not FIVE HOURS. I just kept laughing to myself because there were SO many leaves! Neil was amazed when I talked with him Monday night and then more amazed Tuesday night when he got home.

I actually enjoyed raking the yard. I think it is because I can see progress. It's like cleaning, BUT BETTER! When I clean the house it doesn't always look dirty so I can question if it was worth it or if I 'accomplished' anything. Will Neil be able to tell that I cleaned? Can I tell that I cleaned? But with raking it felt good to 'accomplish' something. Each time I pulled the leaves with the rake it felt like I had just scrubbed a section of the yard.

The most difficult part was figuring out how to get the leaves from the back yard to the curb in the front. There's a house in the way of the most direct route. Do I rake them all the way around the house? Tried that and didn't like it. Do I rake them around the other side where its a shorter distance? Tried that too and didn't like it. Do I carry a pile of leaves by hand? Man, that takes a long time and I know its not the most efficient. I kept thinking- I need a wheel barrow or some kind of bucket to put the leaves in and carry them to the curb, but I have neither. Then my next door neighbor came home and told me that I could use my TRASH CAN! BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!! He also lent me his leaf blower, but I was pretty intimidated by it so I went with the trash can idea. It was a life saver, especially on Tuesday when I did the front yard which has SIGNIFICANTLY more leaves than the back. So if you are raking leaves soon, use a trash can.
Also Neil said that his family would use a big tarp to drag the leaves. Both are WONDERFUL ideas and I will use either of them next time. Which may not be very long from now because if you noticed that one tree in our yard has yet to lose leaves...