The more I try, the more I have to do....

You know how you don't want to touch any of your wood furniture for fear that you'll make a cleans spot and then you'll have to clean all of the dust off of of everything?   The same goes with making a clean square foot on your child's bedroom floor. 

It often simply doesn't seem worth the effort.  If you make one clean spot then the rest looks messy and altogether crappy and then you have to do work.

So, I raked my yard yesterday. 

The leaves were like four to six inches deep in my backyard thanks to the two pecan trees and one pine in the back, plus an uncountable amount of azaleas and other weeds that have grown into full blown shrubs!

I started the backyard at 7:30 am and raked 14 massive piles.  The spaces between the piles looked FABULOUS!!!  As long as the piles were still there.

Honestly, I thought my yard looked great before raking.  I like walking through the thick leaves on the ground.  It feels as though I am walking through the forest on a cool fall day.  But, as it is my yard (and not a forest) and I have neighbors, I had to rake.

I loaded each pile into my garbage can and rolled them out to the curb in my front yard.  I managed to get 1.5 to 2.5 piles into each load.  I made a pile that was initially 4-5 feet tall in spots and over 10 feet long.  I say initially because once the leaves settled after a few hours, the pile was down to about 3 feet high.

Upon finishing removing all the piles, I surveyed my handiwork.  My yard now looks trashy to me.  There are small leaves casually strewn across my yard now.  These were the stragglers that slipped out and got away during my work.  It's too much to go back and get them and I don't own a lawn vacuum; yes, they make those. 

So, now I can see the trashy leaves on my grass, whereas before all I saw was a thick bed of leaves and no grass.  The grass I do see now is browning and not necessarily a consistent pretty green.  Of course there are green splotches, but that simply adds to the now trashy look I have created for myself. 

It's heartbreaking I tell you.

The front yard was just coated in a light dusting of oak leaves and the occasional magnolia leaf.  I used my lawn mower to suck up most of those leaves and redistribute what it could not catch.  No, a blower is not an option for me. 

So, I raked my yard to make it better.  Now it looks worse to me although I am sure it is better off.  On top of this, I am sore and I have blisters on my hands because, perhaps I am a big Nancy boy....

I walked into my house broken, sore, exhausted and distraught and saw some toys on my daughters bedroom floor and some clothes on her bed.  I left them there.  They looked fine the way they were.  god knows what I'll find underneath them...