Ron loved trees. When we moved into the house, there were already five of them on the property but that wasn't enough for Ron. Over the years he planted five more. And we don't have that big of a lot! I think we have more trees per square footage than most homes in the city! They didn't all make it though. He planted an oak tree that was doing very well, but then he decided it was too close to the house and would cause problems once it really started to grow so he transplanted it further away. Sadly it didn't survive the move. Oak trees are rare around here and it would have been nice to have one. He also had a tree that was doing pretty good until a neighbour across the street kind of hit the gas instead of the break when she was in reverse and rammed very heavily into the tree. I was at work that day, but I guess it was quite the crash. I think she felt a lot worse about it then Ron did. The tree developed a gash over the years that kept getting bigger and bigger until finally a couple of years ago, Ron cut it down.
We also had a couple of fruit trees that were deeply affected by the summer droughts we had 3 years in a row and half of both trees died. Ron cut them back until now they look more like flowering bushes than trees. I never really minded this weird kind of hobby of his. They all gave nice shade in the summer. And since I rarely cut the grass, having to mow around them didn't really affect me. And as for raking leaves in the fall, well I helped in a very half assed kind of way. I'd rake for about an hour and then take a three hour break to read a book while he and the boys continued to rake.
But I've found out since, what a pain his hobby was. I cursed those trees when I had to start mowing. And I began to dread in August what I knew was going to be a killer of a job in late fall. Well, that day arrived last Sunday. Yep - time to really rake leaves. And boy oh boy were there a lot of leaves. I knew it was way to big a job to tackle alone so I had asked both boys if they could come and help me and I bribed them with the offer of pizza for dinner. Pizza and Sunday football when we were done.
Things started off bad when five minutes after we began, I told Brent, the oldest son to go home. Just go home! He's my Peter Pan son. I love him to death, but for some reason, he stopped maturing about the age of 14 even though he is now 28. He's the one I recently offered up to Romancelover as a possible husband so she could be my daughter in law but then rescinded the offer and told her in a Mr. T like way, "I pity the fool who marries him" He started of whinning and complaining - how he didn't see why he had to help, how this is the reason he would never own a house, how his back was so bad and on and on and on. Since he can't complain without interspersing four letter words throughout, I just didn't feel like listening to him and told him to leave. He stormed in the house but came back out 10 minutes later with a slightly better attitude. The scary thing is he's the one most like me. We're both left brain thinkers - leaning more towards the art side of things. And he can be quite the "Drama King" when he wants. He then proceeded to rake for the next 1/2 hour - while talking on his cell phone at the same time. Ryan and I just looked at him and shook our heads. This is son #1 who just the day before complained about his $300 phone bill.
Sometime later I managed to overhear a fascinating conversation between the two of them. Ryan was telling Brent what it takes to be a man. It meant doing things you didn't want to do, like raking leaves because sometimes that was what was the right thing to do. I kind of teared up at that and looked into the sky and told Ron we did good with Ryan. See in addition, the Atlanta Falcons were on, Ryan's favourite team, and he doesn't have cable and rarely gets to see them, but not one word of complaint did he utter. Instead he worked like a trooper and did the majority of heavy work. Ryan is the numbers son and more like his dad. He works 'til the job is done with no breaks. Now he's single too, but I think he's a bit too young. And he has a girlfriend although their relationship is kind of rocky. He's wants a commitment but she's dragging her heels.
It took us over 3 hours to rake those damn leaves and we didn't rake under one tree that still has most of it's leaves on. So I know there's probably an hour or more worth of work left, not all of them are down on the other trees either, but I can handle that myself.
But I look outside now and don't have that panicky feeling I did on Saturday.
And to show you just how much work was involved, and because I wanted to play with my new toy again, here are pictures!
And here is what we have ended up with - so far!
See - not nearly so scary anymore