Let’s Make Some NOISE!!

This is the time of year, the season’s change and nature starts to turn off. The flowers wilt and leafs turn a magical palette saying “Good Night” until spring.

As a chill fills the air those pesky leafs fall all over the place. Your Home Owner’s Association finds this unsightly and quite abhorrent in appearance so you hire a crew of day worker immigrants to remove brown carpet. With trailers full of mechanical devices, the choice of this time of year is the backpack leaf blower.

The leaf blower, invented in the 50’s, seems like a good enough tools to move light debris around but that is all it does. Blow leafs around.

It used to be small and have an electrical cord but someone needed more power so the backpack gas powered version was invented to go anywhere. The user has to wear headphone ear protectors because it sounds like a motorcycle. It makes a wonderful noise to wake up to on Saturday morning.

Now back in the day of black and white television and phones on cords, the idea of removing leafs from the yard became a family affair. Fathers would bond with their sons over rakes.

For those who do not know what a rake is, let me explain. A rake is about the size of a broom (you do know what a broom is?). A wooden stick with a bunch of blades attached at one end. The blades are fanned out in a triangle with the ends bent 90 degrees. With a sweeping motion leafs can be moved from one place to another. It does take a little exercise and still won’t pick them up but they do make wonderful piles to jump in. After pealing off layers of sweaters, a cup of hot cider was perfect to view you accomplishment of a clean yard.

In the forest leafs fall and become mulch for the trees. This is mulch that people will go to garden shops in the spring and purchase. In the old days, leafs were just raked to the curb. In the city you could burn leaves until environmental restrictions and the fear of catching the neighborhood on fire stopped that. Now people just wait for the city trucks to come by and sweep them up. The ones that get missed just root in the street and are gone by spring. (Note to bicyclist: these piles on the curb makes you ride further out in traffic and become very slippery in the rain)

Soon enough the snow will cover leafs in a wondrous winter land. 

Yeah, I know, there is a LOUD machine to remove snow too.