12 November 2008

Tools or toys?

Fall. It's like going back to school. Traveling and summer play time are done. Time to get back to work. The projects that have been left for a rainy day can now be done. One project has waited maybe a little too long this year. Raking. Growing up in Colorado I never raked leaves. Our largest tree was maybe six feet tall. The seedlings my Dad had planted around the property I remember dragging three connected hoses around the yard to water, but not raking. We moved to NH and our first house had about 1/3 of an acre to rake, but hubby cleared most of the trees so we could mostly mulch. This new house has a lot of grassy areas. We only rake in front of the stream but there is the South yard, the back yard, the front yard, then up by tree and fruit trees, then all around the raspberry patch. Phew! Tired just thinking about it. I have a little sweeper that fits on the back of our lawn tractor. The problem is that if the leaves get more than a couple of inches deep you can't make it across the yard without overfilling the sweeper bag which starts to cause a fire as the leaves back up... That point passed maybe a month ago. So the alternate way was with rakes and sheets and lots and lots of sweat and elbow grease. Or??? Yup. Leaf blower. Probably a little embarassing, but it is saving time and at very least a lot of sweat and elbow grease.
We got the backpack version because holding a twelve pound machine would get old after about twenty minutes. Hubby was able to blow the south yard and the back yard yesterday. Hopefully we can get the upper yard done today. I think the front yard will still have to be done the old fashioned way since there is nowhere to blow to, but it is the smallest so I am o.k. with that!
I took the day to rearrange the office. I didn't like that my upstairs computer had to be on for us to print anything. I also didn't like running up and down the stairs to have to turn the computer on, remember to turn the computer off, go get the print job... So, I got a wifi printer/fax/copeir thingy- about two months ago. Thought it was about time to hook it up. Sounds easy, but it involved moving the Vonage hub and cable modem across the room, then moving the wireless router down into the bar where I have the wifi printer.

Hubby has also been operating out of a postal box (the kind Lizzy likes to sleep in!) So I moved his desk out of the cottage and up to the office. They both fit along the windowed wall so we both have a view!
I still need to take a trip to the used office supply store to get yet another filing cabinet for me- thanks to Uncle Sam who makes me keep 7 years of paper for the biz (about two file boxes a year!). and of course, bring the USPS their boxes back! (oops!)

Then we move on the ever fun project of diggin down a couple of feet to put wire mesh and gravel around the outside of the coop to keep out the weasels that have begun tunneling in (frat-a-rata-frata...)

7 comments:

Jan said...

I solved the raking problem by having our trees trimmed every year before the leaves fall. It's California, they all grow back.

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed your fall pictures, and I am really glad I don't have to help rake the leaves up :)
Yvonne

Paula said...

A leaf blower is definitely the way to go!!

nikkicrumpet said...

The leaves are so pretty when they turn colors...not so pretty when they fall on your yard! It's been raining here every weekend so the leaves keep piling up but they are to wet to remove. What a mess! Sorry about your weasel problem...what a pain to try an outsmart the little buggers!

J said...

My sister in law lives in Juneau, Alaska, where it rains and rains and rains. She says that when the sun is out too many days in a row, she feels obligated to be outside enjoying it, but when the rain returns, she's secretly relieved because she can get inside and get to her rainy day chores. ;)

Uncivil said...

I learned the hard way about leaves. Had a house with a wooded lot and it kept me way to busy cleaning up the leaves and broken limbs and pine cones, not to mention the sap staining the driveway.
I'll settle for no trees except for the outside perimeter of the property now!!!!

Renna said...

You guys are such busy people! I always feel a little lazy after reading your posts. ;-Þ

My husband was complaining about the kajillion leaves in our yard today as he was raking/blowing/mowing them. He reminded me for the umpteenth time that he didn't have to mess with all this when he lived in the mountains (Colorado). Yeah, buddy, but you're in northeast Texas now, and we've got leaves! ;-)