This highly trained circus dog has been introduced into the picture to show the massive scale of a leaf mountain I raked up yesterday. Bear in mind that this is only one in a veritable Appenine chain of such mountains that were all around my yard by noon.
Here's a record of my mental states during annual leaf-raking:
1. Isn't this fun? Out in the fresh air, enjoying the work, I love fall yard chores! (first 20 minutes)
2. This is hard work and there are a lot of these leaves. But it's still great exercise. I coudl be out riding a horse though... (about 40 minutes in)
3. Those noisy leaf-blower things might not be such a bad idea after all; wonder if they produce greenhouse gases? (60 minutes on the dot)
4. Why doesn't someone invent a giant machine to hover over your yard, suck up leaves and send them into outer space? (hour and a half, partway into the leaf-mountain transport operation)
5. I swear I would like to cut down all these #@% $#@* trees. (remainder of the afternoon)
It was such a perfect leaf day that I could hear all around the neighborhood, the swish of lawn rakes, the sighs of the oppressed.
9 comments:
That is a bunch of leaves! I use the blower, but I have seriouly thought about those sweeper things. Oh well you got in some good cardio and tons of fresh air!!
yes that's the good side...The lost day of riding, one of the bet in the last two weeks...hmmm not so cheery. Let's invest in space vacuums.
Isn't that what husbands/boyfriends/children (yours or the neighbours) are for?? ;)
Cdn: Yes, and you should see the lovely disappearing act they do on Saturdays. Neighborhood kids become invisible, husband skulks away, college son home for the weekend arises at noon and is attacked with a need to study Biostats, etc.
Keep reminding yourself of how many calories you are burning, how in the obese world we live in today clearing leaves is a lot cheaper and dare I say it more fun that going to the gym!! Perhaps you could market it as an exercise plan and get people to pay YOU to do it.
That's a lot of leaves! On the plus side I'm sure your yard looks great(until someone else's leaves blow in). On the down side you didn't get to ride and your muscles and back are probably aching right? Raking is not one on my favorite jobs either.
c2b: Yes, this is a consoling thought: burnt calories. I love the idea of marketing this: Aerobic (Raking).
GHM: The other folks' leaves blew over immediately and all is to be done again, but somewhat lesser volume. I hope you are doing well -- thinking of you.
Oh what a beautiful King Charles!!! Looks like it'd be too easy to loose him in that pile there too ;)
We cheated. Our Snapper has a sweeper thingy that hooks behind the mower. We have the yard (3 ac. of it) "swept" in an hour. The pine leavings here are just amazing, and take over the lawn. And we only hand a small number of pines here!
Hope that all the leaves that blew back on, can blow back OFF... to the neighbors... ;)
Mrs. Mom: notice how he is standing there so patiently - that is the fruits of doggie boot camp last summer! Before that he would always rush to me when I was trying to take a picture of him... I envy your Snapper sweeper. One hour sounds about right.
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