Raking Leaves

I grew up in New England, and raking leaves was done in October, generally done by Halloween or early November, as we could expect snow to bury the leaves by then.  Now, living in West Texas, I do not rake leaves until November, December, or even as late as January (around New Years Day.)

I have already raked leaves twice this year before this week, because I get tired of looking at them. But, this week, with most of the area trees bare of leaves (except the neighbor's live oak) I raked again.  Raking in West Texas is a little frustrating for me.  There are areas of the yard where mounds of leaves have collected, so it is easy to gather those leaves.  The frustrating part is on the yard where the leaves are sparse.  Sometimes, the leaves are so brittle, that raking basically just breaks the leaves into smaller pieces.  I do the best I can, but the smaller bits are hard to scrape up... I tell myself it is okay, because small bits of leaves are good mulch, good fertilizer... Even so, as I have raked the leaves, the yard does look neater...