Ode to the Leaves

Last weekend, Ben spent time out in the yard trying to manage the leaves on the ground and clean out the gutters. Mind you, it was about the 3rd or 4th time he'd done this. We already had about 6-7 bags of leaves collected, w/ the remaining pile of unbagged leaves never picked up as promised by the Alexandria waste collection "service."

So, a few days later, it rained or the wind blew a lot during the day, and when I got home from work, I saw that it looked like he hadn't done anything. The leaves are a little bit of stress for Ben b/c we re-did the basement due to some water damage after the place was vacant and not kept up w/ for over a year (ie clogged gutters and drains not allowing proper flow of water). So, we've tried to be vigilant about these types of maintenance....it's why we've had the gutters re-structured and why we clean up the yard and roof pretty consistently. So, anyway, I called Ben at work during the week, and told him not to worry about the leaves....I know (and the Lord knows) how hard he worked....no matter what the yard looks like when he gets home. He gave a pitiful ok in response.....I think there was a sigh in there too.

So, on Friday, during Rachel's naptime, I decided to get a little exercise and fresh air and rake out the front yard and bag it all so that he had a clean yard to come home to. I think I did 4 bags worth of leaves. I felt helpful....especially since he had okayed a cleaner to come the next day, so this seemed like a great way to support Ben. Yeah, so it got REALLY windy over night, and the next morning, it looked worse than the way I found it. Arg! Now, I feel his pain too! Mind you, none of our neighbors are doing anything w/ their leaves....we are the dumb new people on the block who look a little OCD about leaves compared to everyone else.

But alas, we are not like everyone else......we have a measly bit of grass under the leaves we are trying to preserve and grow come spring, and we fight the leaves! So, here we are on Saturday.....adding more bags to the pile (which are still sitting on the curb.....Alexandria waste "service" has been sketchy on leaf collection this year). Thankfully, the Lord showed kindness to us by bringing in a windy and blustery Saturday night (which kept me awake worrying about the state of the leaves) that blew everything out of our yard. Our neighbors' yards (w/out ever yielding to a rake) look about the same as our yard now. You'd think we'd learn our lesson, but we'll probably be out raking again this weekend:-)

Four of these I did on Friday.....and we had like 9 by the time we were done on Saturday. Check out our neighbor's yard.....yeah, they clearly don't care about the problem at hand, and now w/ the change in wind on Saturday night, their yard looks similar to ours.....and they never lifted a finger!

This is after Ben had cleaned everything out of the gutters....he did a great job....before the wind blew it all back on the roof. If you look up, you can see that large oak over us....which conveniently sits on our neighbor's yard. If it was on our yard, it would so be cut down by now. Instead, Ben is just threatening to run a covert operation that involves some strategic placement of root rot. Kidding (for now).
He refused to look at me.....he wasn't ready to laugh yet:-)