Mom taught Dog Dad the sheet method of raking leaves before they got married. She thought it was just something everyone did. Dog Dad's family had never heard of it. It was a big deal. For those of you who don't know about the sheet or tarp method of leave raking it is pretty simple. You spread a sheet or tarp flat in front of your leave pile and rake the leaves on to the sheet/tarp and then bundle the sheet/tarp up and dump the leaves where you are composting them. Prior to this his family used to scoop them up and dump them into wheel barrels, etc. Dog Mom says she had never known another way of raking leaves. She had a yard full of trees as a kid and some of her earliest fall memories included toddling around falling into the leave piles as her brothers were trying to get them onto the old sheets her Mom saved just for fall raking. Needless to say this was a huge time saving device that Dog Dad has continued to use with our supervision since he now has his own home.
Now mind you for those of you who bag your leaves this method is not nearly as helpful although it can help contain your leaves it will not magically get them into those paper bags needed to transport them to your place of disposal. This only works when you need to move them from one place in your yard to another. However, it will move a considerable more amount of leaves than your average pick up and put in the wheel barrel method. You can see us supervising the balled up sheet here. We wouldn't want it to get away from us now would we?
Now you will notice I am doing my proper job supervising. However, for some reason both Dog Dad and Mom can't understand Annie has this rather bizare fascination with items one uses to perform work both inside and out. She seems to think they are there for her to fight, play with, debate no one has quite figured out what the motivation is but she does it every time to great enjoyment. You see here she's challenging the rake and having a grand time doing it. She also challenges brooms, mops, etc. She will follow Dog Dad until she is exhausted while he mows the lawn. I can't say I understand the motivation, but it seems to give her great pleasure.
