Raking

On a cool, brisk, sunny fall day there are few things more pleasant than raking leaves. I can honestly say that for the first five or ten minutes, I enjoy raking. After that, the thrill fades a bit. Our yard isn't very large and it doesn't take long to rake it but, even so, my enthusiasm for raking disappears long before the leaves do. This past Saturday, my wife and I and my youngest son raked. We started with the back yard, which is the largest of the two. We have no deciduous trees in our back yard but the neighbor's maple provides plenty of leaves for both them and us.

Even though the back yard is larger, I find raking it less annoying than the front. The back yard has two attributes that are helpful when raking: gardens and a fence. Gardens are handy when raking because, in my mind, the worst thing about raking is trying to figure out what to do with the leaves. I've convinced myself that it's beneficial to cover the plants in the garden. I don't know nor do I care to know if this is actually true. I just know that things go pretty fast when you can just rake everything to the edge of the grass and into the garden. Now, it is true that come spring I'll have to contend with these leaves again. But, that's an issue for then, not now. For now, I will rake as many leaves onto our gardens as seems reasonable. And then I'll add a few more.

A chain-link fence marks the perimeter of our yard and provides an effective barrier against yard to yard leaf travel. There's nothing worse than raking your yard clean only to have the wind deposit new ones from down the street.

Our front yard only has a couple of small gardens and no fence. Early in October, I set the lawn mower to a very low setting and gave the grass a buzz cut. I do this every year in a feeble attempt to provide a few less places for leaves to latch onto. Maybe, just maybe, most of them will blow on by and find more comfortable accommodations in my neighbor's yard. Lately, I've noticed my closest neighbors also cutting their grass shorter. We've convinced ourselves that it is helping, if only a little, mostly during the early part of the season. When the trees really start shedding their leaves there isn't much you can do but wait and rake.

As we moved from the back yard to the front, I took a moment to appreciate the array of colors strewn around the yard. It was quite beautiful - a mix of red, yellow, green, brown, and gold. It was a beautiful day and I felt a renewed enthusiasm. As I began raking, I noticed that the leaves were different in this yard - more variety. In particular, there were small golden leaves that refused to go with the others. With each sweep of the rake, these little guys would jump over the tines and propel themselves in the opposite direction. Like a stubborn three-year-old, they would not be coerced into playing with the others. As my frustration grew, I took a moment to study one of these leaves. I scanned the neighborhood, trying to ascertain this fellow's origins. Finally, my eyes rested on the culprit, across the street and two houses down. About half of this leaf's siblings were still precariously dangling from the tree. I glared at the tree and then briefly at the house behind it.

By noon, we had raked both yards. Our lawn stood in stark contrast to my neighbors on each side, where leaves abounded. It was windy and by two, our front yard was once again covered. On Sunday, my neighbors cleaned their yards. I just didn't have it in me to re-rake and since the leaves weren't too thick I fired up the lawn mower and mulched them this time. There are still a couple of trees in our neighborhood that have not dropped their leaves and I know my lawn will not stay leaf-free but I don't really care. In my mind, I made a good faith attempt - if the leaves aren't going to cooperate I can't be blamed.