A little yard work never hurt anyone

Even before the snow is gone, I yearn to be working outside.

Yet I dislike shoveling snow. 

I don’t like raking, either. When I realized you can let most of your leaves just mulch by mowing them in the fall and spring, we stopped raking the whole yard. The fact our yard was almost a half acre played into that. The kids didn’t complain. 

Raking and bagging the leaves is one of the chores I needed their help with. Early on, I found you could use a leaf rake and a snow shovel like a broom and dust pan. Scrape the leaves onto the shovel, hold them in place until you have the whole bunch inside the bag. Repeat until the pile is gone or the bag is full. If it’s a sturdy bag, you can smoosh the leaves down repeatedly by kneeling on the bag. You can get a lot of leaves in a 33-gallon contractor bag. But it’s a two-person job to get it done quickly and relatively mess-free. 

I raked out flower beds and along the fence and house today. Son Nick helped bag them. I like the way it looks after raking — the brown-gray of the old leaves gone, the dark of damp earth, usually some bright green shoots revealed.

There’s also the satisfaction of completing a task. That always feels good. 

My muscles will remind me tomorrow of my yard work today, but that’s ok. Some day I won’t be able to do it — even the chores like raking. That will be a sad day, indeed.