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Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2002 - 7:06 p.m. Yeah, it�s that time again. Time for me to take all the leaves I need for my gardens from the curb, kindly placed there by people who rake their yards. Actually, not so kindly in Mohall. The people here have been bitching for the last few years about the leaf burning ban the city council forced upon them. When a couple of referendums asking for a ban failed, the council just decided to impose one anyway. Considering how bad the pollution is in the town in the first place, the last thing we needed was 4 weeks of stagnant, smoky air to breath every year. Codeman and I both fight asthma, so the ban didn�t bother me a bit. Let me try to tell you how bad it was every year: People would try to burn their leaves, even after it had rained an inch or so the day before. This causes the streets to be pockmarked with mounds of smoldering foliage, some lasting for several days. Lease and I always tried to find something to do in neighboring towns on the weekends this happened (like spend our money there, instead of in Smokeville). As we returned to Mohall, we could see the haze hanging over town. Saw it 10 miles away. So, stupidity had a lot to do with the ban. That, and we were the largest city in the state that still allowed burning. It had to go. Now we have a composting facility outside of town. Yard waste is picked up every Wednesday, all over town. A few rebels still burn their leaves, but it�s not worth it (I try to burn my woody trash every year or so, but only in the winter and on a windy day. Twigs don�t smolder like leaves, it burns quickly, and as long as you have a weenie fork in your hand and call them first, the fire department doesn�t have a problem with it.). Burn your leaves, and I think the fine is $150. So, it�s time for me to steal the neighbor�s leaves. At least you would think I was stealing them, the way some people react. I have had little old men run down their driveways, yelling at me to leave the bags where they put them. I always wonder if their little old ladies might be hidden (in tiny pieces) inside the bags�. So here is the routine, in case you are interested: The first to fall are from trees that produce thin, easy to breakdown leaves. They include Maples, Elms, and Locusts. Since they are thin and crumble easily, they are the best for tilling into the soil and for tossing into the compost piles. That�s what is on the ground first. On my way to work this morning, I spied a curb with a dozen bags sitting on it. The trees in the yard were still pretty full of leaves, but since they were Maple trees, I knew I was in luck. Score one load of leaves for work. I unloaded them and placed the bags at even intervals outside my work garden bed. These will be tilled under, if it ever dries up enough to run the backbreaker� When I drove home tonight, the recycle guys had already picked up everybody�s bags. I didn�t see any on my way home, so I figured I would wait until this weekend for my next load. Once I started making lunches, I noticed that I forgot to buy my carton of cow juice. It�s always nice to figure these things out once your home. I put my shoes back on and headed out. One problem: Sproutman started barking at me as soon as I shut the front door. He couldn�t figure out why I was leaving only minutes after I came home. So I did something I never do: I opened the door, picked his scrawny butt up, and took him with me to the Quickie-Mart. Why don�t I take him for rides more often? Well, he isn�t a good �car dog�. He can�t sit still, moving from the seat to the floor to my lap to the drivers side window to the passenger side window. And that's just before I pull away from the curb. He finally settled down, once he figured out we weren�t headed towards the vet. I locked him inside the truck while I bought the milk (he spent the time standing in the driver�s side window, barking as well as he could at the people in the car next to us). After that, I decided to search for a few more bags of, yes, leaves. We found two bags in one yard, and then found three bags of my favorites: leaves that had been chopped in a lawnmower, with grass clippings included! Woo Hoo! This is the primo stuff. Each bag weighed about 75 pounds, and they were full to the top. Every bit of what was inside those bags will breakdown in the soil before next spring, providing my garden with free fertilizer and improving the aeration of my clay soil. (If you just read the first three lines of the last paragraph, and I had written it 20 years ago, I don�t think I would have been talking about the same kind of �leaves�) It don�t take much to make my gardener�s heart happy, do it?
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