The Wide Bamboo Rake

After a day of heavy rain (on Halloween) most of the leaves on the maple tree in my back yard have come down. Still, I decided wait until Sunday, because I knew that Madre had an extra-wide bamboo rake that makes short work of raking lots of leaves. The problem: Her rake is starting to fall apart.

I asked Madre where she got her extra-wide bamboo rake. She told me she ordered it from some obscure store in Marion. Foo! But she did order another such rake, which my sister the editor borrowed and never bothered to return. I had Madre give me the key to her storage locker (one of a series of such lockers on the north side of town), and I extracted said rake. Now I have it, and intend to use it until my sister comes on Thanksgiving. The rake proved most useful in raking up all the leaves in Madre's back yard, and then in my own, in a decent amount of time. I worked hard, and have the broken blister on my right hand to show for it.

I have put those leaves along the street, because by now I assume the town will have brought out its leaf vacuum, which sucks up the leaves along the streets to take them somewhere for composting. It is better than bagging the leaves (for that maple tree, you need a couple dozen at least) or burning the leaves (legal, but bad for the air).