I raked leaves for about 4 hours on Saturday, and pretty much enjoyed the whole time. Weather was nice, the kids helped a bit, and took a break from time to time to talk with neighbors doing the same thing.
How about bloggers? What tales do they have about raking leaves? There's over 5300 posts on the subject... A sampling:
Lifechanges...Delayed declared that "Today was the first big rake of the season. "
Mindful Musings: All the oaks, maples and the cotton woods let their leaves down about the same time and I am left with a HUGE amount of leaves. Jennifer helped quite a bit over the week by putting them into piles. I slowly shuttled them to the front of house today. I spent almost ten hours raking off and on, and I am still not halfway done.
Thought Salad: What do you do to relieve stress and anxiety? My method of choice these days has been raking the yard. And believe me, there has been no danger of the leaves not being there when I get out there.
Dell's Diner: I was dreading coming home this afternoon because I knew I would have to rake leaves. However, once I got right near the driveway, I saw the boy next door just hanging out on his front steps. Idea!
I asked him if he would like to rake the lawn for $30.
True Blue Semi-Crunchy Mama: It was really windy yesterday, so I must get out and pick up leaves that have blown into my yard that weren't there before.
Last week I had the same wind result - I raked on Sunday morning, and Sunday night the wind picked up and blew everyone's leaves back in the yards. That's frustrating. In general, though, I like raking - it is one of the three season-related property jobs that most people do at the same time, and the only one that allows much opportunity to enjoy both the nature of your yard and offer community with your neighbors. Mowing is solitary and loud. And snow-shoveling gets to be a grumbling experience pretty quickly. Everyone wants to hurry up and get it finished, get back inside and warm up. But raking is more casual, more social, less physically intense, and is good for the sake of neighborhood.