LEAVES!

I love the Fall. It's one of my favorite times of the year....second only to Winter. As long as I can remember, I've always looked forward to that time of the year when the leaves begin to change color and the mornings have a hint of coolness to them.

One of the benefits of living where I do is that in order to visit my relatives in LeFlore County, I must drive through Northeast Texas, Southeastern Oklahoma, and part of the Ouachita Mountains. On my last trip up there a couple of weeks ago, I could almost see the season change during the 4-hour drive. When I left the house, the trees still had some green leaves along with many colored ones, the grass was still green (mostly). By the time I arrived in LeFlore County, the grass was brown, and most of the leaves were reaching the last stages of their life.

But as much as I love Fall color, I'm learning that there's a down side to this season that I'll have to get accustomed to. When I returned home from the above mentioned trip, I found my yard completely covered with leaves and pine needles. Plus, the roof of my house looked as if it had a thatched roof instead of composition shingles (well, maybe not quite THAT bad...but it WAS covered).

Now I know you other country living guys and girls are probably very familiar with such things, but I'm not used to it. Just a day or two before I left for Oklahoma, I had removed 8 large yard bags of leaves from my yard. It looked great after I finished. But that was before the leaves REALLY began to fall...they had just started. What I found when I returned didn't compare.

Well, I worked all afternoon today removing pine needles and leaves from my roof and gutters and blowing and raking leaves from underneath the shrubs and from around the fences. Yesterday, just blowing the pine needles and leaves from my driveway left a foot-high pile on each side. Tomorrow, I'll commence to hauling off this mess and prepare for the next onslaught. That's right, there's still more up there.