Saturday, October 18, 2014

Tired of Leaves

It has only been a week since the leaves started falling and I am already getting sick of it.  I should be glad because the leaves are dropping quickly this year.  In prior years the leaves took so long to drop that one of the trees still have about 30%-40% still on the branches when the snow started falling.

This spring, I took off all the screens from the gutters because I needed to get all the crud cleaned out and it was just easier to do so.  But without putting them back on, every couple of days I need to go up and clean them out, because they get filled with leaves.  And in addition, I can't just take the leaf blower and blow them out, because with the rain we have had, there is water in the bottom of the gutters and the first time I tried it, I got splattered with dirty water, dead leaves, and other mud/decomposing material.  It was quite gross.  So now I have to go up and scoop the stuff out by hand. 

Just getting them out of the gutters is half of it too, since they are also getting blown into the flower beds and window wells.   So then I have to go around the house with the vacuum sucking them up being careful not to suck up any of the cocoa mulch.  Though I am sure I'll need to add more in the spring anyway.  I have been bagging them up to take to the landfill for composting just because it is easier, plus I have the permit to do it.  But with all the neighbors around me just dumping them in the street, whenever we get a good wind, they all end up in my flower beds.  So the village had better get around here quickly and pick them up, because I am not about to take all of the neighborhood's leaves to the landfill.

With any luck all the leaves will be down in a couple of weeks and I can be done with it for the year.

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