Leave and Learn

This is what fall in Maine looks like... Leaves as far as the eye can see..

As previously noted, our house in Maine sits on a large piece of property with lots of (abused) trees.  Well, just because some of my trees are the horticultural equivalent of domestic violence doesn't mean that they don't shed their leaves come autumn.

I cannot even express the flood of leaves I witnessed when we arrived on Saturday.  So.  Many.  Leaves.  Zillions of leaves.  So many leaves that to walk through them required kind of a marching motion.  Children may scamper through leaves.  Middle aged people like me apparently march through leaves.

Needless to say, the OCD aspects of my personality required that the leave situation be dealt with immediately.  A quick call to my landscaper Brad -- do I need him on speed dial too? -- revealed that his guys had cleared the leaves about a week ago and that we were on the schedule for another visit this week.  Holy Moly.

So, this morning, bright and early, the guys were here with their leaf removal equipment.

A kid's dream leaf pile.

Blowing in the wind...

The leaf pile is as tall as the leaf collector.

Let's just say that leaf removal in Maine is not a job for a 12 year old and a rake.  Leaf removal in Maine requires a team of six big guys, various tractor like vehicles that push the leaves into gigantic piles, blowers, and two GIANT vacuum trucks to suck up all the leaves once they've been scooted into piles.  No number of Costco leaf bags could adequately tackle this job.

Okay, maybe six 12 year olds and six rakes could get the job done but there would, no doubt, be way more pile jumping and way less actual leaf maintenance going on.

So I'm a killjoy.  I have leaves to deal with.  Bring on the vacuum truck.  And the guys.  And the blowers.  And the tractor like vehicles that scoot the leaves into big piles.

The guys have now been working for a couple of hours.  They have already filled one vacuum truck and are now awaiting a second.  They are on their lunch break, totally unfazed by the mountains of dried leaves surrounding them.  Things are starting to look a little better.  That was until the foreman, Tim remarked "Gee, that oak hasn't really begun to shed yet. "  I guess they'll be back next week.