This is our third fall at this house. The last two years we cleaned up all the leaves (more or less) the first weekend of November. This year it rained…and rained some more…and then still more. Literally, every day we had a chance to get out and try to clean things up, it rained. Finally today it was sunny. It was 45. Sounds like leaf-raking weather.

My wife and daughter were on rake and removal. Little man had the shovel and wheelbarrow and did a great job going down the curb. I fired up the lawn mower and made a mess with a combo of its mulching ability, bagging capability and general ease of spitting leaves into the woods. Then I doubled over the entire yard – essentially mowing the week before Christmas.

It was still pretty wet. Leaves were packed and stuck. The yard was a mess, but we made an impact. It at least looks like we care now. It’s really only three months (probably less) until we need to start thinking about maintaining outside again. I hope we can get on top of it. That’s the one place I feel like we’ve let things go since we moved it. We started off strong that first spring/summer and then just petered out. It really needs some attention. I’d like to get some curb appeal going.