Raking Up All The Leaves

Am I the only one who has waited this long to rake up all of my leaves?? Well technically it was still November when we did it... November 27th but still, November. LOL. We have about a half acre of land full of huge towering old oak, birch, and other majestic trees. But when the leaves start coming down... they really come down. In my defense, the leaves did come down a little later then usual this year and if we don't wait until they are all off the trees and onto the ground then it is pretty much wasted time. I remember bring young and LOVING raking with my mom and dad. Jumping in the leaves, making scare crows, now it's a HUGE pain! When you have children to enjoy watching play in them does it make it a little less awful?

So last Sunday we finally took on the task, and boy what a task it was. The backyard still isn't finished. I wish I had more before photos to show you so you could see the difference. Rich was able to borrow his dad's Cycline Rake so we were able to suck all the leaves up into that. It shreds the leaves up and then when it's full you dump them out. It is supposed to be attached to the back of a ride on lawn mower... but we don't have one. Too bad it would have been SO much faster. Instead we had to rake all the leaves up into the sucker hose or use the hose like a huge vacuum. Took a lot more time but still faster than if we had to bag them or drag them into the back on a tarp. Plus they take up so much less room shredded and they will break down faster making beautiful leaf mold for my garden for next spring! :) The pile of leaves in the picture doesn't look like much but in person it's massive. So nice to finally have that done! When did everyone else get their raking done? Do you live in an area that has a lot of leaves to rake?