This Is Amazing

I got home this morning after having breakfast with my sister and saw what looked like a large truck for hauling leaves at the end of our block. I had no idea it was that time of year already. I honestly believed that the trees in our front yard were dropping their leaves incredibly fast and early. And I thought this early leaf drop was precipitated by record-breaking cold temperatures, wind, and lots and lots of rain.

So within just a few days the front yard was about knee deep in wet leaves.

Normally, I prefer to mow rake. In other words, use a mulching blade on our lawn mower to make the leaves virtually disappear, while enriching the soil at the same time; but with leaves about a foot deep and wet, mow raking (I think I invented that term. lol) was an impossibility. I had raked and bagged two large garbage cans and 3 huge, tightly stuffed bags of leaves and hadn't even made a dent.

Therefore, when I saw that truck at the end of the block, I panicked. I reasoned that if I could just get a few bushels of leaves out to the street, it would be that many that I wouldn't have to bag or leave laying in the street alongside the lawn for another week or more, since the city picks up leaves by area. If we were the first area, we might not get another pick up until some time in November.

So I'd rake a few strokes, gather an enormous armload of leaves between the large rake head and my other arm and dash it out to the street. I had a fairly respectable pile for a short period of work when two people got out of a pickup truck that was part of the leaf pick up crew. They were carrying big, POWERFUL leaf blowers and they walked into my yard, up to my house, and started blowing leaves out to the street.

The leaves were so deep that they'd kick them along in places because there were too many to blow so I kept carrying loads out to the street. In about twenty minutes, these two angelic city employees and I had our front yard clear of leaves - no small feat when there were so many! Then the rest of the crew helped blow them into the front loader so they could be dumped into their truck. Here they are just finishing up:




And I was the most grateful citizen in town.

I gave them all the pop and water I had in the refrigerator, a box of Ritz Crackers, and the big bag of really good Halloween candy that had been earmarked for beggar's night. I just needed to find a way to tangibly show my appreciation.

Unfortunately, I couldn't take a picture until they were virtually finished because it might not have seemed right to stand around taking pictures while they did all the work; and that's a shame because it's hard to adequately describe the mountain of leaves that they moved in a short period of time. And a picture would have astounded everyone almost as much as this story.

These people didn't have to help me but I suspect that my neighbors, with two leaf blowers were trying to get their lawn done and the city employees wanted to give them a chance to finish so while they were waiting, they helped me.

I'm speechless with gratitude and impressed beyond measure. What wonderful people!