Yesterday morning as I was admiring the beautiful, colorful leaves carpeting the yard, I said to myself, "I need to rake those up and shred them for compost." The weatherman said it would rain, and I wanted to grind the leaves while they were dry. I went inside and put on my yard boots. When I told The Husband what I was going to do, he asked if I wanted him to get the leaf blower and blow the leaves into piles. Of course I did!
Our leaf grinder has been in the back yard since spring, as there is no room for it in the shed. The same goes for the limb chipper, and not only has it been exposed to the weather all this time, but its cover had blown away during a storm. I figured that before I did much raking, I ought to drag those machines out and see if they even still worked. I was a bit afraid to do it, fearing wasps and snakes. Thankfully, nothing attacked me, and the leaf grinder still worked. I parked it right in front of the compost bin and spewed the leaf bits right into it.
While I was doing this, The Husband was working on the leaf blower. It would crank but not continue to run. After a while, he gave up, got the wheelbarrow and a rake, and joined me in the yard. The gas line had split, he said. I dropped my rake and went to a cabinet on the back porch where I'd stored an extra carburetor for the tiller, thinking it might have come with a gas line. Sure enough, there was a gas line in the package, but it was not the right size.
The Husband went to the hardware store for a gas line. I went back to raking and grinding. I'd finished about a quarter of the yard by the time he got back. He installed the gas line and the leaf blower cranked, and he went to work. For a little bit, I thought we might actually finish most of the yard, but soon it began to sprinkle. The leaf shredder does not like wet leaves, so we hurried to grind what we'd already raked up.
It rained for the rest of the day, effectively stalling the yard work until next weekend.
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