Fall Leaves and an elegant solution

A part of last year's effort.

I have documented in my annual leaf battle here and elsewhere in this blog. Our property is surrounded by several large maples, an enormous hickory, and various other trees. I love them, and the privacy they provide. Then fall happens. The amount of leaves that these trees produce is staggering, and it takes a mighty effort to gather them. When we first bought our home, Cindy and I would rake the entire yard, at least twice, bag the leaves, then drag them to the curb. Next, I bought a lawn tractor, got my dad's old wagon, and we were at least able to wheel them to the curb. Last year, I purchased a pull behind rake for the tractor, which worked nicely, but the leaves still needed to be bagged. Most years there are more than 40 enormous bags of leaves at the curb. 

In 2019, the City of Binghamton changed the rules. They would no longer accept plastic bags for leaves. Now, I completely agree with concerns over plastic bags and their impact on the environment. However, the bags could be re-used. The truck would come by, empty the bags into the truck, load all the bags into one bag, then leave them on the curb. I would refill the bags the next week. This way you could use the bags over and over again. Now, the city will only accept the leaves in paper bags, the large ones you purchase at Agway or Home Depot. Problems are that they are much smaller, the city has not raised the bag limit, they are not reusable, and they are expensive. Other local municipalities have you rake the leaves to the curb, then they come by with a huge vacuum truck and suck up the leaves. That would be great.

So, my solution this year has been to stay ahead of it, an option now that I have retired. So I have been out with the tractor every few days raking and bagging, trying to fit the leaves in garbage cans (which they still accept) to avoid using the expensive bags. This is what I was doing last Thursday when I was approached by a woman and her young daughter. The mother said they had two questions for me. The daughter, somewhere around 6 or 7 years old I would imagine, went first. She wanted to know if we were going to celebrate Halloween this year because she would like to visit our house again, and she would not be afraid.

Now, a little back story. We have been visited by this mother and her daughter almost every year since she was a toddler. She got a bit spooked in the past by the haunted house sounds I play, and by the motion activated talking/singing/howling werewolf head we have hanging by the porch stairs. Cindy felt so bad about that scare that the tradition has started where we invite her into the house, show she her our cats and otherwise realize we are not scary people. It's our annual Halloween highlight and the main reason we sit on the porch. We would rather not deal with the rude teenagers that grab a handful of candy without even a thank you. Anyway, of course I told her that we expected to be here and we hope she stops by.

Free delivery.

The second question was even easier to answer. The mother wanted the leaves. Uh....yeah. Turns out she runs the community garden at the end of the block and needs the leaves for mulch. She said she would be up with her wheel barrel to get them. Of course I insisted that I would deliver them and did just that. It was a bit awkward driving the garden tractor down the length of the block, but then a few of the neighbors were out and they waved as if I was just out or a walk; nothing unusual here. I do have to be a bit careful here and do not want overwhelm them with leaves. Would like to keep that option open through the fall, and the Norway maples are still green.

So sometimes you struggle to find a answer, sometimes the answer finds you. This answer was particularly nice.