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Make Like A Tree And Leave

by Shelly Kneupper Tucker on December 30, 2008

autumn_leavesWhy do they call them “leaves?” The leaves at my house never do! Leave — that is. Not until I make them. No, as soon as they are ready each fall, they dive bomb into my yard and that’s pretty much where they stay. Some of them decide to settle into the rain gutters around the house, and usually some of them go dancing and twirling across the yard. But, for the most part, they just pile up knee deep against the fence, and ankle deep across the yard.

Often, they are joined by my neighbors leaves. I have seen neighbors on both sides of me with their leaf blowers. They thought I wasn’t looking, but I noticed they were blowing their leaves into my yard. I guess they thought my leaves were lonely.

My natural tendency would be to ignore those piles of leaves and figure that if God doesn’t want leaves in my yard, He will send a wind to blow them away. He never does. Come summer, you don’t want to get out in that yard with the leaves so deep. Fire ants and snakes lurk in my yard, and I don’t want to tangle with them.

The trees really only shook loose the last of their leaves in early December, and I don’t see any point in raking more than once. The last three days of our schizophrenic Texas weather have been balmy, so I’ve gathered around 70 bags of leaves. That’s not quite half of what I have out there. It’s a lot of work, and I’m durn sure getting my exercise.

Now, before you go telling me I should compost those leaves, let me tell you it would take a half-acre plot to compost them all. What would I do with the compost? Fertilize the trees so they can make more leaves for me to rake next year? I’m not as dumb as I look.

I could mulch them, but I don’t need that much mulch. The city will take them to their own site where they mulch them, and I can buy back what I need. Makes perfect sense to me.

Other posts you might enjoy:

  1. All The Signs Are There
  2. Endangered Species—The Bottle Tree
  3. Bottle Tree At Last? Maybe.
  4. Dandelion Whine
  5. Am I Doomed To Trash This Project?


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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

janeywan December 30, 2008 at 8:11 pm

Do like we do and mow over em!

It would choke the mower to death!! :lol:

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Robin December 31, 2008 at 3:52 am

Seventy bags??? Holy smokes, you’re going to sleep through New Years Eve lol!

Nah…if I sleep through the evening it will be the eggnog, not the exercise! But, New Year’s Eve has never been one of my most celebrated holidays :lol: It’s just another day….

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Stacy December 31, 2008 at 7:31 am

I hear ya! Here in Burleson we’ve raked a few times. But I’ve got myself some strapping young men in the house to do it for me. :)

I’ve forgotten how crazy Texas weather is!

Stacys last blog post..Christmas

Stacy, we’d ALL like to forget how crazy Texas weather is! I wonder how many bags of leaves one tree produces? I shouldn’t complain. If it gets to expensive to heat the house, I’ve got “firewood.” I’ll just chop those trees down and never rake again! :lol:

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Comedy Plus December 31, 2008 at 12:16 pm

Have a terrific day and a very Happy New Year. Big hug. :)

Big Hugs to you, too, my friend. I hope your new year is fabulous!

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Jamie December 31, 2008 at 12:24 pm

Why do you pay taxes if you can’t get the city to do your mulching for you. Perfectly sensible arrangement except that they should do the raking as well.

Happy New Year.

:lol: The look they gave me when they saw those 70 bags piled up at the curb told me I can forget about the raking! I hope your New Year is wonderful…with NO back problems!

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