Anyone want some Oak leaves?

Being a forester, I like trees.  I love to be out in the woods walking around enjoying all the amazing things God has created.  However, I am not very fond of Oak trees.  At least the ones in my yard.  Well, actually I don't really like Oak trees in the woods either.  There are several reasons for this.  If you have Oak trees in the woods, it is a good sign that the trees that have commercial value will probably not grow there and the Oak trees we have around here are not that valuable commercially.  They are also a good indicator of poor soils that will be really hard to plant trees of any kind and get anything else to grow.  The most important reason though is that, if there is Oak trees, there is usually a lot of Poison Oak in the area as well and I do not get along with Poison Oak very well.  

Our Oak trees are great in the summer when they help shade our house on the hot days and keep us cool.  But in the Fall, starting in October, they start to drop their leaves and make a big mess in our yard and the street.  It would not be that bad it they just dropped their leaves all at once and were done with it, but our trees have to start in October and slowly drop leaves on us until mid December.  As a result, I get to spend a bunch of time every couple weeks blowing and raking the leaves off the yard into a pile in the street for the city to come and collect sometime in December. 

Everyone that lives in the houses at the end of the cul-de-sac blow all the leaves out into a pile in the middle of the street instead of by the curb so that we can still park on the curb in front of our houses.  This is the pile that has built up as of November 20 before I blew this weeks leaves on it.  It is actually a lot bigger than it looks in this picture.

Here is what I have to contend with this week.  I would just leave it there until all the leaves are on the ground, but I would end up with dead grass and a lot of moss.  I don't have enough grass actually growing to afford letting any more die!  That is another downside to the Oak trees.  The grass does not like to grow very well under them.  

Using this tool and a rake, about 4 hour later, I am finally done.

Here is the pile now.  Again, it is a LOT bigger than the picture makes it look.  There is a couple of dump truck loads of leaves here.

 The lawn looks a lot better now too!  I should only have to do this one more time this year, I hope!  The leaves are almost gone off the trees.

It usually takes a lot longer for all the leaves to come off, but I think all the wind and hard rain last week really helped knock them off.

So if anyone has the need of a big pile of Oak leaves, I can hook you up!  If you like raking and running a leaf blower, come on over, I have not done the back yard yet!!  I will even let you use my rake and leaf blower!