Fall Is Here

Fall has come to Minnesota, which for us, means LOTS of raking. It's not the raking of leaves that I mind. In fact, I really enjoy raking. I always feel so energized and accomplished when the leaves are in big piles. It's the bagging up afterward that I really hate. The leaves are always so dirty and slimy that I just feel disgusting after we're done bagging the enormous amount of leaves that we have every year. I tried to cut down on the process yesterday by mowing with the bag on. Granted, I had to stop after every 2 swipes, but at least the majority of the leaves were already in the mower bag and all I had to do was dump it into the big leaf bag.
Not sure what we're going to do about the backyard. We seeded it in Sept., and for the first time in three years, we actually have a good amount of grass growing. Kyle and I are both scared to mow it or rake it for fear of ripping up the new grass. It wouldn't be the first time that's happened. Kyle is talking about buying one of those leaf-sucker-upper thingies. (I'm pretty sure that's not the technical name of it) I was skeptical at first and said the mower would do the same thing, but he had a point when he said we can't mow our rock areas around the house, and we've tried raking them before just to have rocks all over the place. Maybe it's not such a bad idea... I think I'll give in and let him buy a new toy that will get used once a year and just sit in the garage the other 364 days.