Raking leaves, and discovering a lawn obscured underneath is always satisfying. One can see the results of their labor because of the dramatic change. But I also remember the aching muscles....and the blisters. They are definitely not fun.
We live on a sandy ridge just east of the gulf coast in central Florida. We fell in love with this piece of property partly because of the nice mix of pasture/grass land and trees.
Most of our trees are Sand Live Oak and Turkey Oak, Slash Pine and Sand Pine. The pines are evergreen. The live oaks keep their leaves all year and in the spring drop most of their small, hard leaves as new leaves emerge. The Turkey Oaks drop their leaves in the fall, after a less than glorious display of color. These leaves are the large, lobed leaves one thinks of when you think "oak". We have oak leaf puddles under each of the trees. The leaves really need to be removed so that whatever skimpy grass we have there has a wee chance of surviving!
A few days ago I thought that I should rake them up. But no, I'm not going to blister my hands raking the darn things! I turned to a bit more modern technology....based on old standbys!
Do you remember these? My parents might have had one....in the 60's. I vaguely remember my mom pushing one around our yard.
But, the Mister found one to pull behind a riding mower.
So, off I went trying to drive the zero-turn radius lawn mower, pulling the leaf rake....it wasn't pretty! I rarely use the mower as the Mister delights in cutting the grass and pastures. I sometimes find it difficult to negotiate turns, and find my self wildly swinging left-right-left for a bit before I get straightened out and proceeding smoothly in a straight line. Were there any police in our yard I would certainly be pulled over for drunk driving! A few shrubs have fallen victim to my poor driving skills!
However, I do have a buddy who likes to go with me and keep watch. When the mower starts,
Kaitlyn trots up and asks to hop up on the deck of the mower. If I do have a wobble, she turns and gives me a dirty look!
We had a low spot in the pasture where I dumped the leaves.
Miss Kaitlyn had to hop off to check the area out!
At some point in time, these leaves will provide a smidgen of organic matter to our sandy soil as they break down - assuming they don't blow away in the interim!
That looks like a handy tool. I just mow the leaves into mulch. You keep yourself busy!
ReplyDeleteWe used to do that, and the dregs still get chopped up. The oak leaves are so big and just cover the area in such a heavy layer that I'm not sure the grass could handle that much mulch.
DeleteKaitlyn certainly is enjoying herself!
ReplyDeleteWe have a Cyclone Rake that attaches to the back of our John Dear riding mower and it got lots of use in the 15 years before DH drove the JD into the creek because the downhill grass was so slick. Then DH got environmental allergies and A-fib (heart arrhythmia) so cannot do all he used to do outdoors. Since I have lupus, I have to avoid sunshine and that's a bummer.
Hugs!
We also. had some sort of bag for our riding lawn mower, but that was in another world!
DeleteKaitlyn looks like she's having a ball! I would have no clue how to drive one of those machines, but if I needed to learn I would. All the best to you!
ReplyDeleteYou are right. She loves watching the world go by, and Lording it over her 'sister' who won't get on the machine!
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