If you saw my earlier post on sweeping leaves you'll remember that the 200+ trees in our yard produce, well, somewhere between a million and a billion leaves, give or take a few hundred thousand, every spring, and they all loudly crash to earth every October. The leaves, not the trees. (Although we do occasionally have trees fall into the driveway or the street, so I pull out my trusty hand saw and get to work.) Now, most of these leaves we leave to their own devices, but the ones that clog the driveway and sidewalk need to be contained and removed before we're wading through waist-deep piles (no exaggeration) and we tend to lose the dog, along with a couple Girls Scouts and an encyclopedia salesman or two.
So every day the dog and I are out there with the industrial-strength push broom shoving leaves to the end of the driveway. This is easiest to accomplish after a rain, since the leaves stick together instead of puffing over the broom and out to the sides; plus it's valid exercise for me and Miss Puppy. You may also recall that our driveway is approximately 170 feet long, so that's a lot of leaf pushing, but by the time 90% of the leaves have taken their leave of the trees, the leaf pile stretches halfway up the driveway, no less than six feet wide and four feet deep (also no exaggeration), which adds up to, let's see... carry the 2... more than 4000 cubic feet of leaves. Every year. At least. Not counting sticks, branches, twigs, beer cans tossed in our yard by friends of the neighborhood teenagers, Jimmy Hoffa, a few more Girl Scouts, and sundry other pieces of detritus.
This year I've resolved to stay on top of the leaf gathering if it kills me, which it probably will. Therefore, today, as well as six other days of the week, such as Wednesday, Thursday (my birthday), Friday and more, Miss Puppy and I will be out there pushing leaves and rescuing Girls Scouts.
Remember to leave a comment on my October 26 post to win a gift certificate to FeeFiFoto.
