It was beautiful here this weekend in Northern New Jersey. So beautiful that yesterday Denis and I spent the bulk of the afternoon in the backyard de-pooping the lawn and mowing 3/4s of the leaves that fell this past fall. We were completely negligent in our home-owner duties last year, deciding instead of focus on Cootiepie’s exploits. So our oak trees freely deleafed, with nary a rake in sight. Cooper was able to relieve himself where ever he pleased, with nary a pooper scooper in sight.
We got our lawn mower to start, and I began racing around the backyard scooping up leaves. I’d do two passes and we’d have to empty the bag. That’s all well and good, IF WE HAD A MOWER THAT WORKED PROPERLY. You see, our lawn mower – which was BRAND NEW last spring, doesn’t shut off like a normal mower. You see, when you let go of the power bar, it keeps on going and going and going. Theoretically it would keep running until it ran out of gas. However, Denis discovered last summer that if he pulled on the choke cord that it would eventually stop. This worked a few times last night, and then the mower just laughed at our attempts and wouldn’t stop. Our eventual solution? Build up a HUGE pile of leaves and plow into it, knowing the mower’s blades wouldn’t be able to mulch through the huge heap of wet leaves and would shut off the engine.
As I said, we did 3/4s of the yard and decided to quit. I immediately went in and took a shower – I was covered head to toe with bits of grass and mulched leaves. We’ll finish the rest next weekend, weather permitting. If our mower lets us, that is.
Bravo! After being in NYC so late on Friday, I slept most of Saturday! You’re far more ambitious than I was. I did *look* at the leaves and thought about them *G*