Fall Has Befallen Us...

...along with about a ton of leaves. It was pretty warm out today, low 50's, and I had intended on finishing our front door and door frame, then I heard my wife sweeping leaves on our side patio. Oh-oh I thought, I had better get my arse in gear and get the rest of the leaves cleaned up since it had not been done in way too long. I had wanted my son to do it for a few weeks now, but I will admit he works on Sundays, and has been busy at least 4 hours each Saturday in school with SAT preparation and I had let him slide thinking I would do it. Then it was one delay after another. So I figured what the heck, I had better do it, and his turn starts next weekend. So I grabbed my trusty Toro electric leaf blower, and got to ot. I started at 1125, and was gung-ho to get it done, and man oh man after 3 weeks it sure needed it. When I was done, and mind you I only cleaned up the front yard and along the sides of my house, on our very small lot (40x100 I think), I looked at the clock and I had been at it non-stop for 2 hours and 25 minutes. Wow, where did the time go on such a small lot. I guess most of the time went to my using the vacuum function on the leaf blower to pick up virtually all the leaves once I had blown them into 4 nice sized piles. It sort of takes forever using that, and it would have been much quicker just picking them up and putting them in a trash bag, but I like to have them chewed up by the blower/vacuum before I bag em, and the Toro does that pretty well. Uses more electricity, saves on plastic bags - a standoff maybe, then again maybe not. I figure I could have chopped of an hour on my time had I just scooped em up after I had blown em into piles. Oh well. If I decide to use any for my compost pile, and I am pretty sure I'll use at least one of the four 50 gallon bags full of leaf litter for the compost heap, at least it will have been chopped up and start to compost faster because of it. Yep, that was right, I filled four 50 gallon bags with leaves, and a few twigs, today - and out lots is only 40x100 and I did not even touch the back yard. The sad thing is, that the tree out in front of my house still has at least 75% of all its leaves; it usually drops them well after the other trees on the block are bare. I cannot wait, more fun, next time though watching my son do it. As for this time, I did a good enough job to have my wife compliment me on how nice the property looked after I was finished. That made the job worthwhile.

While I have some other odd jobs that need to be done, like the front door and door frame needing finishing, I think they can wait for a later time. Right now I need to clean up, then go out and buy a nice cake for my wife's birthday. It actually falls during this week, but we are having a special dinner today (she is cooking it), so I figured I'd at least buy a nice b'day cake for her. Then I think I'll take some time getting ready for hunting season, cleaning guns, cleaning hunting clothing, packing things so they are ready. Sure hunting season is still two weeks away, but I like to be able to grab and go, without having to pack the night before I leave.

All the best,
Glenn B