Ok, I Owe Mike an Apology

On our recent visit to Charlotte, we got to see our friends Mike & Lesley's new house, which they just bought!! They've got a great place with a big yard, and while Mike was showing me around outside, we talked about raking leaves, and Mike said he was buying a leaf blower, for which I chastised him.

Sorry, Mike!

Sunday, I gave in and bought a leaf blower that, with a few clicks, converts to a leaf vac-mulcher.

It was probably the best 45 dollars I've ever spent in my life.

It has a 10-1 bag ratio, meaning that every bag of mulch is roughly equivalent to 10 bags of leaves.

In just under 4 hours, I managed to bag up 6 bags of mulch.

I don't even want to think about how long that might have taken me without this little gem.

I finally gave up after that time just because my arms felt like they were going to completely vibrate off my body and my muscles were getting sore. So, of course, it rained on the pile I have left, and now I am kicking myself for not having finished.

Fortunately, the weather here is in the 60's, so everything should dry out and I should be able to make the final push this week and get everything cleaned up.

And the real beauty of it is, my mom told me I would hate having a magnolia tree because when the leaves fall off, they are super hard. No match for my mulcher! I did have to rake up the pods that fell off it, but other than that, those leaves were shredded.

I have such a feeling of utter satisfaction when I look at the yard, knowing I made it go from leaf covered lawn (all you could see was leaves, no grass), to green beauty.

I might just be getting the hang of this homeownership thing.