Raking Leaves

When I dreamed of owning a home, I conveniently left out thoughts of raking leaves. The first time I saw our house, I loved the fact that it was on a tree-lined street. I never looked up at the towering oaks and considered that, every year, every leaf on them would fall to the ground.

The first few minutes of leaf-raking are fun. I enjoy being outside under the blue sky, smelling the leaves, and feeling the last autumn warmth before winter sets in. Ben putters around the yard, playing with his ball or his bike. Then, after fifteen minutes, my back starts to hurt. Ten minutes later, I can feel blisters springing up on my hands.

Despite the aches and pains, I like being outside. Today I discovered violets and little pink flowers under the leaves:



By the end of the morning, I had made lots of leaf piles.




Leaf-raking is only part of the process, though; once they're raked, you have to put them somewhere. Our town will pick them up, but they charge a fee for every bag. We decided to make our own leaf compost heap. We used Ben to help pack the leaves in.



As I stood up and stretched my back, I looked up at the oak tree in the back yard and knew how Sisyphus felt. I already have a good guess what I'll be doing next weekend.