The Fall of Autumn

Sam and I finally made it outside to rake leaves on Sunday. It was less than fun. It had rained all day on Saturday, so the leaves were nice and wet. It took us about three or four hours to clean up the front yard (with another four days and counting, to loosen up my stiff back).

If I hadn’t had Sam’s help, it would have taken me no time at all - literally. This is because I probably wouldn't have bothered to rake at all. Instead, I would have let the leaves gather on my so called “lawn” and let them decay on their own, naturally - for the next decade or so.

But I had Sam's help, and I’m really grateful for it. And, if it doesn’t rain this weekend, we’ll try to tackle the leaves in the backyard. The backyard is more of a challenge than the front yard.

The front yard has one lone maple tree. I’m told this is a red maple - though it doesn’t look red to me. The leaves on this “Red Maple” drop earlier than most of the other trees in the neighborhood. This makes it slightly easier to rake up because, first of all, the damage is fairly contained and secondly, being a lone maple tree, there are fewer leaves to rake.

The backyard is a different story. I don’t have any maple trees in the backyard. In fact, I don’t have any deciduous trees in the backyard. My neighbors, however, have plenty of them - all maple trees. I’m told that these maples are "Norway Maples". Nothing against the Norwegians, but according to this article, these trees are not well loved. I can see why - at least leaf-wise.

My tiny backyard is plastered with these leaves. (Did I mention that not one of these trees is mine?) The problem is that,while there's a ton of leaves on the ground, there are still a bunch in the trees, refusing to let go. I suppose I could attack them in waves, over many weekends, but to me, this just prolongs the agony. Instead, I would rather rake them up all at once - and only once. But they take their sweet time falling. They fall late, they fall slow and they never end.

But right now, there are enough leaves on the ground that I guess it'll be a worthwhile investment of our time. I guess. Maybe.

They're predicting rain for Saturday. We'll see. If we can't rake leaves on Saturday, we'll try for Sunday. This will make it a full week since we raked the leaves in front yard. And by then, hopefully all of the leaves will have fallen - though I doubt it. But maybe, if nothing else, by waiting that extra day or so, my stiff back will have loosened up - though I doubt that, as well.