I have always said that I am a pretty quick study and in just a few short days, I have learned a lot about living here in Oregon. You can't wait for a "nice" day to do yard work, and you are lucky to get a break in the rain for things such as picking up leaves. With the trees shedding their leaves at rapid speed the neighborhood has quickly become covered; in the streets, on the sidewalks, and of course on all the lawns! I can actually tell when there has been a lull in the rain just by listening for the motors reving up of the leaf blowing machines! There are others, however, who don't even wait for that lull, they just go out and get it done. I saw a lady working in her lawn, she must of been in her 60's and it was just pouring down rain, no rain jacket, no hat, just getting wet and working. Now, I have my limits and that is one of them. But Friday, I decided before getting out of bed that no matter what the weather, the boys and I would put a dent in the raking that needs to be done!
So, I did the smart thing and put on a hat and some warm clothes and we headed out after our Language Arts lessons. The boys are at that stage where it was "SO FUN" for them and luckily the rain did cease for a while and we worked our tail off in the front yard. We quickly had 4 huge piles ready to go but only 1 and 1/2 fit in the can! Luckily I had two neighbors the same morning tell me about leaf bags and the strategy of filling them up and dumping one or two in the disposal can each week to get picked up. The neighbors across the street accumulate an average of 60 bags of leaves! Anyway, I was not going to let the wind pick up and ruin all our hard work, so we were off to Wal Mart to get those bags, only 2 boxes on the shelf....whew...that was close! So, when we got back, we filled the can and 4 more bags...a pretty good start if you ask me! I could not of done it without my hard working helpers!
Connor likes to work the rake! He does a real good job!
Brody worked out a system to fill a bucket then stand on the other to reach the can to dump them in.
Today is Saturday and looking out my window, it is hard to tell that we raked anything at all. Luckily I have the pictures and the full bags to prove it!
I guess we will be back at it again soon...you can be sure I will wait for the beautiful sound of those engines running and the chance to stay dry!
4 comments:
What fun! We have a few leaves on the ground. The weather was only cold for two weeks, then it warmed up again. We worked in the backyard today, but the kids had other chores since the leaves just aren't "bad enough" yet. It is neat to read about your life in Oregon - I think I'd enjoy the seasons and even that rain!
Looks like a lot of work! I'm glad it was fun for the boys though. We have a large pecan tree and a persimmon tree in our backyard and the leaves haven't even turned colors yet. Can you mulch or compost the leaves? Our mower mulches so we never bag cut grass or leaves. It cuts everything up into itty bitty pieces and puts them back on the ground which is suppossed to be good for the lawn. The mulched leaves don't look bad. I don't know if thats an option for you. I'm sure you have more leaves than we do.
thats so fun! Makes me miss living up in WA as a kid. Lots of leaves and good weather. :)If it makes you feel any better it is reaning here today as well. Twice this week! Holy cow!! ;)
We had a raking "party" here today in our yard. Just from the back yard alone, we filled up the bed of our pickup truck FOUR TIMES to transport it from the back to the front street. [made for a great, huge wheelbarrel - lol!!)
ay yi yi!!
(& the leaves are only about 1/4 off of the trees thus far)
Our town is going to mandatory yard carts next spring. $60 per pop we have to pay, and they're only the size of a large garbage can. I can't imagine how many cans it would take to fill the 4 truck loads. SO....THANK YOU for the tip on the yard bags. We'll probably be starting that practice as well!
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