"Rake" Leaves - Not Me

There are many ways of dealing with leaves. Most are not on my "FUN" list. Yes, I do own a leaf rake, but I prefer to let it hang on a nail in the shed. Many of my neighbors have leaf blowers. Those seemed like a good idea at first but, judging from the noise every weekend, they require nearly continuous operation. Raked or blown leaves simply will not stay put. The wind continues to blow them every which way. I have better things to do with my time than chase the same leaves around the yard for 16 hours or so every weekend.

There are ways to minimize the amount of actual work. This is a war folks! Plan your attack as if the yard is a battlefield. Those leaves are the insurgents. The goal is to get the leaves off the grass with minimum effort, in minimum time, and just ONE time if possible. Leaves are good insulation and fertilizer so bagging and hauling them away is a complete waste of energy and natural resources. Most yards have low spots that could stand to be filled-in. Those are natural compost spots. If you have leaves, you must also have at least one tree. Trees are a minor pain to cut around and grass often does not grow well under the trees anyway.

My lawn mower is by far the best weapon for this battle. It is set up as a mulching mower for most of the spring and summer months. My grass clippings disappear back into the lawn to make more soil and nutrients.

In the fall, I change my mower deck to side discharge, then carefully plan my attack. The mission is to move the enemy the minumum distance necessary to clear the yard, chopping and piling the insurgents around trees and into flower beds. The chopped insurgents stay where I put them much better than leaving them whole, only to return on the next breeze.

The ground up stuff looks better than most mulch to me. It's FREE, and does a better job of insulating flower bulbs and roots from winter frost.

All of my trees end up with a "ring" of mulch that naturally fills in with things like violets, buttercups, and ivy. The random assortment around each tree suits me just fine and is almost completely maintenance-free. Yes, sometimes the wild growth does turn out to be poison-ivy.

If I could figure out how to turn poison ivy into a cash crop, I'd be a rich man. The stuff grows extremely well around here in every form. We have individual plants, ground cover, and climbing vines. Fortunately, I'm not grossly allergic to the stuff, it tends to stay in the original spot where I came into contact with it and runs it's itchy course. I shoot it with Round-Up and hope for something better to come up next time.

Fall Fun

We are well into Fall now, Thanksgiving is only about 10-days off. The house is mostly buttoned up and ready for cold weather. I still have one screen to replace with storm window on the shop. All teh windows on the house are dual-or triple pane so closed is closed.

Have you closed your foundation vents? Even if you have the automatic kind, check them. They can get hung up or broken. The mud daubers like to build nests in ours. I often have to chisel out the combination of dirt and whatever the bugs use for glue before our vents can be closed.

My list still has a few things like "re-insulate the plumbing you just fixed". I've checked the finishes (particularly on the north side of the house.

The chainsaw is ready for tree trimming. We expect this year will be no different from the past few and we will get at least one ice storm that drops Virginia Pines across the driveway.

Run your emergency generator. If the fuel has been in there for more than about 6-months, drain it off and replace with fresh. The old fuel will probably burn ok in tractors, lawnmowers, or even your car as long as it looks ok and is the correct type of fuel (obviously). Mix the old fuel with plenty of fresh and use it up. All of our vehicles and equipment use the same regular grade pump gas. That's another reason I stay away from diesels. The main reason I no longer own a diesel is I got tired of every stitch of clothing I own smelling like diesel fuel. If you see a bunch of water in old fuel, get some DryGas from the parts store to mix with it. At around $3 per gallon, I'm going to try to use every gallon I buy no matter how old it is.

It took over a year, but the 2N tractor is ready for action. I was really slow fixing this one up, the big difference was I didn't need it. The 52 has been taking care of all the weekly chores. Here's a photo of the tractors:

Step-by-step photos and descriptions of the repairs to each tractor can be found on my tractor site at myfordtractors.com.
Kevin