Fall yard clean up.
Seriously, I have dreaded fall yard clean up every year we have owned our home. There is nothing fun about raking leaves into piles. Actually, raking wouldn't be that bad but right now it feels like my hands are going to start bleeding even with working gloves on... to which Alex always says "Well that's what happens when you avoid manual labor your whole life." And I then remind him that my dad always told me I was a princess...
Sadly, every princess probably has to rake leaves once she becomes the queen of her own castle and it hurts. But far worse than the raking is getting all the leaves into yard waste bags, ugh!!! I took a little break to blog, but I have to go back outside to do that part next. Again, UGH!!! I can only imagine my back is about to hurt along with my hands :(
Anyway, today seemed like the perfect day to complete this nagging task. Our trees have lost most of their leaves and it is a beautiful, sunny, 70 degree late October day here in Minneapolis!
At least one of us enjoys all the yard work and that's Sadie. Being a German Shorthair Pointer, Sadie is in her element when she is outside and LOVES running circles in the yard. She gets even more amped up when someone is outside to run circles around or in this case big leaf piles!
Our other pup Rocco doesn't feel as at home in the outdoors. He prefers the outdoor scenery from the safe cushy comforts inside our home. It's a stubborn Shih Tzu thing probably, we let him out and then he paws at the door to get back in. He's a goofy dude.
At least both my pups put a smile on my face while I suffered through the yard work.
Okay, thanks for letting me whine about fall yard clean up. Maybe once we're done I can turn this whining into a well deserved glass of wine later? HA!
Do you hate fall yard clean up as much as I do?
Were you out doing yard work today too?
Posts
I might be your only supporter of leaves in the backyard. Here in Arizona we don't get that great fall feeling. Leaves just don't fall here. I get by with seeing pictures of yours :)
ReplyDeleteI can send you some leaves :) just kidding of course! Yes, I guess I should appreciate the change of seasons where we live, but I do get envious of people that live in warmer climates when we are buried in snow and it is -30 outside. I hope you don't like the freezing weather part? Snow is pretty though!
DeleteWe have a pretty large lot with several mature oaks that don't all drop their leaves at the same time - some don't drop until spring, so we have fall and spring clean-up! When we first bought the house, the spring raking had not been done and we raked up 56 bags of leaves after mulching! Crazy!
ReplyDeleteOh. My. Goodness. 56 bags?!?! That is crazy! Thankfully our yard is a smaller city lot, I think we got 10 bags of leaves?
DeleteYou're so funny Carla... I also hate raking leaves, at least more than once. However, there are 2 ways to make this necessary chore better. 1) Think of it as excercise and how many calories you're burning and the long hot soak you can enjoy afterwards. And 2) Blower/mulcher! Seriously, since my fiance got this man toy, I haven't touched the leaves in 2 years! And I get all this free mulch to put on the low spots in my garden. It's a win-win! Bonnie
ReplyDeleteThat is a good point, it was like 5 hours of exercise, LOL! I didn't feel the need to run with the doggies after that. I hope someday we can get more yard toys, then Alex would be more excited to do yardwork and I get to stay out of it, right??!?!
DeleteCarla, I stumbled upon your blog and love it! Such cute ideas! And yes, I too hate raking leaves for the fall. This is our first fall in our first house here in Missouri and by the time we forced ourselves to finally buy a rake the entire yard was covered! Yes, we were "that" neighbor for about 2 weeks. I look forward to reading your future posts! And don't be afraid to stop by at firsttimediyers.blogspot.com !
ReplyDeleteI'm lucky enough to have more evergreens than oaks & such. I have needles (and they are a PAIN to keep out of the gutters) but generally not a lot of raking. -Andy
ReplyDeleteCarla, I haven't raked my lawns for years now! I just mulch the leaves into the lawn. I just set the deck at about 2 1/2inches and mow. Some areas may need multiple passes, but it does the trick! And it sure beats raking! For a final pass I drop the deck to 2inches a week or so after I mulch and catch those last few leaves. I Just bought a new "Gator" mulcher blade this year and it really turns the leaves to dust. I have found that if your mower has a plastic rear blade guard and you drag your mower backwards it acts like a beater bar on a vacum and really cleans those leaves up! Check out the attached link about this from Fine Gardening Magazine. http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/improve-soil-rake-less.aspx
ReplyDeleteHaha, I can think of a few things that make home ownership even worse, although I suppose it could depend on how many trees are in your backyard and how many leaves they drop!
ReplyDelete-Jon