I decided to have some trees cut that were too close to the house and very old. I knew that I would miss the trees, but I was worried about our safety. After they were cut down I really missed them, as I knew that I would. However, the leaves the following year went from 120 bags to 40 bags. That was pretty nice.
Although the leaves in my yard decreased 40 bags was still an overwhelming amount of leaves to pick up. I did have some help throughout the years, but as the years passed my family had things of their own to do. I was also growing older. Body parts ached a little more than they did in previous years.
I have to admit my leaf pick up thoroughness slacked a little more each year. I began noticing that I was not so picky about it anymore. I did not pick up every leaf as I used to. I did not clean out the corners of the yard as neatly as I used to. If there were a leaves straggling here and there, they could stay there. I was getting tired.
On the side of my garage the leaves pile up to my hips because of a cleverly placed fence by a previous neighbor on the other side of my house. It was placed just far enough out to capture the blowing leaves and thereby block them from coming in to his yard. Maybe that is why he was nice when he gave me a special\
tool to help me pick them up one year. One year I bought plastic fencing and blocked the whole area next to my garage. Maybe it was not a nice thing to do, but I was getting so tired and I was not feeling well that year. I only used it one more time after that and it sits in my garage now. I still love this time of the year.