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Leaf Dealer
I am--after the repair to about 50 square feet of sub floor--finally getting around to the actual laying of the vinyl for the kitchen in the Fence Post, N. Carolina rental property. Bernadette is here with me asking if she can help with final prep and I have just gotten off the phone with the woman from the flooring place, who informed me that the Congoleum is in and that my voicemail doesn't work.

But first I have to go outside and rake those leaf piles--over the one acre I have deemed to be a leaf-free zone--onto a large tarp and drag that tarp however many times to the garden behind the house. Then I can set them on fire, which is my favorite part, except for it reminding me of setting a small part of the woods on fire 14 years ago.

I was yesterday out there with a leaf blower for a few hours before good neighbor Johnny Woodman, taking pity, came over and said--You wanna borrow my Billy Goat? Let it be said now that although up to that moment I had no knowledge of this brand I did know what he was talking about. I have noticed this year that all serious leaf gatherers have a device that rolls along your wide open areas and shoots air from a chute at ground level, with most impressive velocity.

I told Johnny I sure would like to borrow it and he before departing neatly dressed for a church event, left it in his front yard along with a can filled with that morning's offerings from his hens. He had told me that those back pack leaf blowers like I had been using were good for blowing out flower beds but that was about all. After using his Billy Goat for a few minutes I was very much in agreement with his assessment.

This morning I made the coffee because it has been determined that I am good at it, and Bernadette scrambled up those fresh eggs. I washed the eggs first after reminding her that they came out of a chicken butt. She mentioned the other likely area they came from and as it turns out we were both right, they came from the cloaca, which is a dual purpose orifice. In a separate pan she fried up some pig jowel bacon and we had a proper breakfast. Now I am going outside to deal with those leaves.
- jimlouis 12-15-2008 3:05 pm [link]