Mulching Fallen Leaves Like Trump Votes

[MineralMan]

The giant Silver Maple tree in our front yard is finally almost empty of leaves. It is the last tree in our neighborhood to shed its leaves in the Fall. So, this morning, after my morning snack and coffee, I'm going to go out and mow the yard and driveway in a very specific pattern designed to mulch all those leaves into tiny particles with the least number of mower passes. Those particles will rot over the Winter and fertilize my lawn next Spring.

My neighbors have watched me deal with the vast number of leaves that way for 16 years now. I'm very pleased to see that almost all of them are now doing as I do, instead of raking their leaves, bagging them, and then paying to have them hauled away.

This year, I will be thinking of each leaf that is demolished into shreds by my mower as votes for Donald J. Trump. I will mow carefully around my yard signs for Biden and other Democratic candidates, turning every last leaf that symbolizes a vote for Trump into beneficial dust. May they rot well and contribute to a green lawn next Spring after the snow melts and the ground thaws.

That's my plan for this morning, two days before election day.

[niyad]

1. A most excellent plan. I cry every fall as I see bags and bags of leaves wasted.

[MineralMan]

2. Well, here in St. Paul, those leaves are taken to a mulching yard,

where they are composted and available for people to pick up for free as yard mulch in the Spring. However, it costs $1 per bag to have them picked up. I did that the first year I lived here, and it cost $90 to have my leaves taken away. It also took many hours to rake and bag them.

Mowing my yard to mulch the leaves takes about 45 minutes, total and uses about 50 cents worth of gasoline. That's a better bargain.

[niyad]

3. Well, I am glad to know that the mulching operation is there. But your plan is far more

sensible.

[LuckyCharms]

4. I have a big old Silver Maple in my front yard as well. Here's a pic of

the base of the trunk with a snake that likes to hang out under the tree. I have to watch for him when I mow because he blends in with the grass pretty well. He's been hanging around all season. I named him "Frank".

[MineralMan]

5. What a handsome fellow he is, too.

So far, after 16 years in Minnesota, I have not seen a single snake, which is too bad.

[LuckyCharms]

6. Yes he is, he's kind of become my buddy.

Most years here in New York State, I don't see any snakes in my yard, but this year I've had ton of them. I normally just let them hang out, but I had one this year in my mulch that kept getting underfoot when I was gardening. I managed to get him into a 5 gallon bucket and relocated him to a dried creek bed about a quarter of a mile away.

I don't mind having them around, they keep pests away...but between the snakes and the frogs, I have to mow very slowly because I'm afraid of running one of them over! Oh...and baby bunnies too...have to be careful...

[MineralMan]

7. My wife used to be afraid of snakes. She grew up in Minnesota, and never

really encountered any. While we lived in California for many years, I had the chance to introduce her to harmless snakes. She was fearful of them at first, but pretty soon was handling the odd garter snake I found in our yard. I knew I had succeeded, though, when she carried a pretty big king snake into the house to ask me what kind of snake it was.

Fear of snakes is often just caused by not being familiar with them, I think. Here in Minnesota, except at the far southeastern border of the state, there are no poisonous snakes, so anything you see here is going to be harmless and can be handled safely. But, I just haven't seen any. Garter snakes and some species of brown snake are fairly common in the Twin Cities, but I've not seen any of them.