We’ve started our raking leaves routine that will now continue through till December when we finally give up until Spring returns. We rake not just the leaves from our trees, but also all that blow from our neighbors’ trees that they don’t rake, which blow our way. The first week or two or three, I can deal with it, but by the fourth week, it’s very old, and by Thanksgiving, it irks me that they don’t take care of their own leaves. Being a gracious neighbor becomes a little harder those weeks.
“Being a gracious neighbor becomes a little harder those weeks.”
At a past house I owned in a suburban setting, I had two Silver Maples that produced enough leaves to cover the lawn to knee-high every year. That was a PITA and something I dreaded. Dad would help me once a while, just for something for him to do, and I had bought the house from him in the first place, so he was well aware of the PITA-factor involved!
He rigged up a winch on the back of his truck, we’d lay down a tarp that was tied at the corners to the winch, then we’d rake the leaves onto the tarp, and he would dump them in the back of the truck and cart them off to the dump.
Pretty nifty, and made quick work of things. However, it was a waste of some perfectly good leaves, though I had nowhere to use them all.
My neighbor was the persnickety one, so I spent a lot of time raking MY leaves from HIS lawn, too. ;)