Raking Leaves --- Ahhh... the Memories....

Muh honey and I spent about an hour yesterday taking care of our backyard and driveway. It was a lot warmer than we anticipated and we enjoyed the crappy chore that is cleaning up your lawn. The back lawn was covered in leaves so we raked them up and put them in bags.

Believe it or not, but this is the first time that I have ever raked leaves and placed them in bags. I have extensive experience in leaf raking, but never have I been involved in a project where the leaves went into bags. We filled up our two big bags, went inside, peered outside later and mourned the big piles of leaves that replaced all the ones we had already picked up.

Our next door neighbor was raking the leaves on his lawn too. He was complaining but I had to smile as he doesn't know what REAL raking is all about. This all reminded me of the times my family used to get into giant raking days growing up.

We used to live on an acre of land in Hunterdon County which was surrounded by a woodsy area. Every fall, the front lawn primarily would be covered from front to back in leaves. Not just a small layer where you could see the underlying lawn, but a thick layer of leaves. Raking the front lawn at the Smelmooo residence was not a one hour chore. It generally lasted a good 7-9 hours -- two to three times a year -- with five people working the yard.

Our set up was simple. Muh father and I were the expert rakers. We would begin by making big piles. Muh mother, brother and sister were the "draggers." The rakers would put the leaves onto a large sheet and the draggers would drag the leaves through the backyard to a compost pile that we had on the border of the woods. They would dump the leaves and return to refill their sheets. Once the operation got going, the three draggers were constantly moving and didn't have much time to rest. Our raking was that efficient.

As a point of reference... sometimes the piles we would create would be as high as our waists. It was productive and we physically paid for it for the next two weeks. It really was worth it though. The lawn looked great and we had a GIANT pile of leaves that we could literally run and flop onto without risk of getting injured. The piles got to be over 6-7 feet high in some places.

You may wonder how they got that high considering no one in my family is over 6 feet tall. The pile was on a slope and we were able to drag leaves onto it and sort of maneuver to the other side. It was fun and worth it.

Raking leaves taught us the responsibility of hard work and finishing what seems a monumental project. Today, muh father has a leaf blower to help assist in the leaf raking but I am sure that he has some fond memories of the day long leaf raking projects.

At least I do....