MY FAVORITE TIME OF THE YEAR?

I've always said that Fall was my favorite time of the year. But for the last 10 years, that has meant a lot of raking and bagging of leaves from our backyard maples. 

In 10 years, our trees have doubled in size to the height of about 60' and the width of 30'! That means lots more leaves!

In years past, we've raked, ground and stored a good portion of them for mulch. It now takes at least three full days of raking and blowing the leaves, usually a week apart each time, with a final cleanup after the trees are bare. Most years we're not done raking by Thanksgiving. One year we had it all done by Halloween because a big Pacific storm came through and dumped all the leaves at one time. I was knee deep in leaves that time! Usually I have to rake out the paths before I can blow leaves over to the south fence where they collect for bagging. Then it's all hands to the pumps to get them in big garbage bags and up to the street for collection...usually 20 or so bags of compressed leaves make it up to the street. I do keep some for mulching in the mulch bin. Good times! Sore shoulders! Irish whiskey in our coffees! And don't forget the Aleve!