Leaf Rake?

What do you buy if you have about everything your need and most of what you want?  A power Leaf rake.  For those that have not been to rabbit run, there is about 15 acres of trees on the 18 acres.   Yep'er, we have plenty of leaves and Barbara always needs mulch or compost to add to the garden.  So I broke down and bought a power leaf rake to haul behind the mower.  According to the ad, it would work behind the Cub Cadet, but the Zero Turn model has the mower blades about a foot further from the catcher.  I am working on a  way to extend the length and make it all work.  Other than the way I fixed it keeps falling apart, things are going well.  Should take me less than a half an hour to get her up and running this morning.   No sense hurrying as the grass is too wet to mow until about noon. 

Did I mention the dust in Idaho?  The farming there was in full swing and there was enough dust to coat everything including my sinuses.  They were about finished with the potato harvest, starting the sugar beet harvest and there were more row crops in the field than finished.  To top it all off there was preparation for the winter wheat that looked like a dust devil in the fields where the wheat will grow all winter.  My sinuses might recover except for the fact I will be stirring up Kansas dust picking up leaves.  Oh well... Did you hear that sneeze? 

We went to the library yesterday and Lee Child's book about Jack Recher was there waiting on Barbara to check it out.  While I was playing with the new mower she started reading it so it will be a day or two before I get a chance to read it.  They are entertaining and  generally take me a little over a day to power through them.  I almost bought the book on CD on the trip but I guess just as well I didn't. 

Yesterday I went to my new barber, Barrie.  He really does a good job and we have a lot in common.  He was in the Guard and sings in the Barbershop Chorus.  Most importantly, he does a great job.  He always laughs at the fact that I don't need to look at the job in a mirror when he finishes.  After 68 years of haircuts, it really isn't all that important to me what it looks like when a barber finishes.  For $12 bucks and a three dollar tip, I don't expect miracles.  He did put me on to a possibility for the Nominations Committee to consider.  One of our members, and a real fine Bass finally put his wife in a nursing home as she suffers from dementia.  She is a great lady and I hate to see her slide away in a fog.  Now if I can get her husband to consider the job of treasurer.   I read a story about a guy who finally put his wife in a nursing home with Alzheimer's.  He was running late one day and told a friend that he needed to run to have lunch with his wife.  His buddy said, she won't know if you miss lunch one day, and he replied, "Yes but I will."   I am sure that Wayne is that kind of guy.

On our trip I told a lot of people that I don't have grandchildren, I have Grand Kitties.  While we were gone, Barb had the trail camera up and running and she found a picture of a Bob Cat on it.  I have seen one or two here and am glad to see that we are making it possible for all sorts of wild life to live here too.  After all, this was their home long before we moved in.  Let's see, that was 25 years ago.  Perhaps they are OK with our living here.

This is my new neighbor Robert Kitty aka Bob Cat

I got up on the net this morning to make the schedule for next Monday's Barbershop Chorus practice and saw that I had sent one out before our trip.   I guess I now need to get ready to face the world.

MUD