Nose for News by Sarah Stultz

 

“Oh, no!” I thought to myself as I opened one of the curtains in our home Sunday morning to see large, white snowflakes falling from the sky.

I looked out over my backyard, which is now not only covered in leaves but also a new light layer of freshly fallen snow on top.

I let out a sigh.

Each year for our family it always seems it is a battle against the clock to get all the leaves raked and cleaned out of the yard in time for the first big snowfall.

As a disclaimer, yard work — and, in particular, raking — isn’t one of my favorite things do around the house. When I do get an urge to do yard work, it’s usually when I’m on my way to or from my house on a lunch break, and I see other neighbors cleaning their yards. As hard as I try, however, it seems like every time I have a day off, our day is filled with other events or it is raining, which doesn’t make it very conducive to raking.

This year, we bought a leaf blower that I’m hoping will make the job easier, but it has not yet made it out of the box.

We went from having a small yard at our old house with only leaves from neighbors’ trees falling into our yard, to having a yard easily six or seven times bigger with one large tree in the front yard and two large trees in the back. Not to mention all the leaves from neighbors’ trees, too.

Then, of course, there’s the ongoing nature in which leaves fall. Instead of falling all in one day or even one week, it seems they fall a little here and a little there. As I write this, at least half of the leaves on our trees remain.

Should I wait until they are all down before I get out there and rake or do what’s out there now and then go out in another week or two and do another round?

Though we only received a trace amount of snow and 12 one hundredths of an inch of moisture, according to measurements at the Albert Lea Wastewater Treatment Plant, if this early snowfall is any indication of how the rest of fall is going to go, I think the answer to my question is simple. I need to stop strategizing my raking plan and just get out there whenever I get the chance and get as many leaves raked as possible.

It looks like I’ll be in luck, too, as the National Weather Service is forecasting sunny weather all week.

Happy raking!

 

Progress

On a side note, we are gearing up for our staff kickoff of our annual Progress edition. This section, which we work on for several months, highlights all the great things happening in our community.

If anyone has any ideas of people or organizations who are making a difference in our community, please feel free to email me your ideas at sarah.stultz@albertleatribune.com.

Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Tribune. Her column appears every Tuesday.