Tons of leaves and two dogs
Our yard has three trees, a large magnolia, a very tall tulip poplar, and a sweet gum tree. In the spring and summer, I love them. They shade our yard and house and keep us cool. In the fall, I’m not so fond of them. In the fall, they drop a ton of leaves.
I raked leaves today. Raked, and raked and raked them. I raked leaves until I thought my arms would fall off. I raked up enough leaves to hide several bodies in the piles if I wanted to. Each pile is waist high and at least twelve feet long.
Ah, yes the piles of leaves. If you have kids (I don’t), they are a magnet. You would think I’d have it easy without kids around. However, I have two dogs who think they are kids and—you guessed it, the leaf piles are magnets to them.
Our city will pick up the leaves if they are out on the street. I need to haul those two huge piles of leaves out there. Well, I will move them if I can keep the dogs out of them.
I raked leaves. Patty flew out the door and leapt into the nearest pile with great glee. I raked the leaves back into the pile. Gavin decided that she looked as though she was having fun so he followed suit and barreled into the other pile of leaves. I raked again. They both dashed through the first pile of leaves. I raked. With every trip outside—they played and I raked.
My work gloves didn’t prevent the blisters from appearing on my hands. I’m pooped. Tomorrow the pups will be going outside on leashes until I can move the leaves out of the yard.
Posted on November 4, 2009, in Dog related, Misc, My blog, my garden and tagged Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.
Doggonedmysteries 
Too bad you can’t “harness” all that energy and let them haul the leaves (suitably contained) out to the front? 🙂
I love sweet gums, especially the doodads that are so much fun to make stuff with. Only I’ve always lived either too far north, or too far south for them to feel at home.
I’ll quit now, I have a feeling that if you could raise your aching arm I’d be looked at a knuckle sandwich.
Two red maples, two pines, one birch, one lilac, one forsythia.
Our answer: Mulching mower.
It’s a lot easier and faster than raking.
Dave, you can’t exactly run a mulching mower over a solid 2 feet deep yard full of leaves. It seems the magnolia dropped most of its all at once. I still have plenty of leaves left on the other two trees.
Elena, those seed pods from the sweet gum are painful to step on, they are the only thing I don’t like about the tree. In fall the leaves are pretty and in summer it shades the side of the yard nicely.