Monday, November 10, 2014

Weekend chores

About twice a week we need to do a complete leaf clean up or it simply gets too deep to handle. It has been about 8 runs to the dump with the truck loaded to the gills so far in the last four weeks. The routine involves raking or blowing the leaves away from the house, fence and bushes and then mulching them with the mower. Then I set up my fifty gallon bags on the back of the mower and vacuum them up.
I usually fill about twelve of these fifty gallon bags.
On Sunday Annie ran the leaf blower which cut the job down to about three hours.
Mulched and mostly cleaned up
I can even clean up leaves that get caught on the curbing with the mower deck
Also got the snow-blower fired up and running.
Got the mud room/entry foyer ceiling insulated in preparation for drywall.
And a couple of new security lights wired and installed on the front of the house.
I had run the wires for the lights back when I rebuilt the house and boxed out the sophits, but never got around actually putting up the lights. Well its now done and we can light up the front yard nicely. I also added an outlet over the front door to plug in christmas lights.
I even changed the oil in the Jetta and got all my chores done. Takes a bit to keep it all clean and tidy but it looks good for a couple of days . . . . then we got to do it all over again.


6 comments:

  1. Hi Michael, it almost sounds like a part time job. I listen to a lot of radio and I hear the lawn care people say, it's better for your lawn to leave the leaves on the ground and/or make compost for your garden and flower beds. Your place is looking good.

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    1. Yes, seems kind off silly but there simply are too many leaves that if not removed would smother the lawn and kill it. Besides it looks like a mess. The ironic thing is we take them to the dump where they compost them and sell it back to us as compost next year. In an ideal not so suburban scenario I'd have a gully on the property to dump them in and then can come back an use the compost. But with near twenty four 50 gallon bags full a week, it simply is way too much for this property. One day, when I grow up I will have a property where the only mowing will be to cut the weeds back on a runway twice a year.

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  2. It's so wet here if I got the mower out it would sink. I think I've missed the last chance to mow the lawn this year!I'd like to collect the leaves to make a mulch though.

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    1. Yes it has been quite wet here as well. It has been raining just about every second day. So yard cleanup has to be timed just right when things dry up enough to not make a mess, and just before the next deluge.

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  3. Leaves are a pain. I use a leaf blower to clear my parking pads, for the rest of it I just let them rot . I think it adds to the fertility of the soil, particularly in the meadow.

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    1. Hi Harry, yes in your situation where you have nature virtually against your door step that works. Here in apple pie green acres suburbia it would just be a big mess and would eventually juts kill the lawn. When I grow up I will have a place like yours.

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