Tag: Leaf Vacuuming

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When Leaf Vacuuming Accidentally Becomes an Arm Workout

Brian’s fitness journal after a brain stroke

This morning, I woke up with a surprisingly sore left bicep. I hadn’t done any special arm exercises, so at first I couldn’t understand why it felt like I’d spent yesterday lifting weights. Then I remembered the leaf vacuum. Apparently, yesterday’s leaf-cleaning session was secretly an upper-body workout, a leaf vacuuming workout.

Our leaf vacuum is quite heavy. It has a shoulder strap to support most of the weight, but I still have to swing and maneuver it around the yard. Apparently, I was doing considerably more of that work with my left arm than my right. My left bicep noticed. My right bicep apparently took the day off.

Muscle recovery can also be a little more complicated for me because of my kidney condition. I have to limit my protein intake, so I can’t simply increase protein the way many active people might after strenuous exercise. Instead, I have to give my body time to recover while staying within my dietary restrictions. Fortunately, I’m not in any hurry to conquer all the leaves at once.

The weather is finally becoming a little cooler, although this summer has felt considerably hotter than last year. We’ve had multiple heat waves, and our trees seem to be responding to the stressful conditions by dropping plenty of leaves. It looks increasingly like fall on the ground, even when the temperature still has other ideas.

I didn’t get as much leaf cleaning done yesterday as I’d hoped, but that’s fine. I’ll work through the yard gradually rather than turning leaf removal into another endurance event. I would normally continue tomorrow, but I have another hematology appointment. My wife can’t take the day off to drive me because it’s month-end at work, so yard work will have to wait.

Thankfully, I cleared enough leave yesterday that postponing the rest until next week shouldn’t cause any problems. The leaves aren’t going anywhere. Well, technically they might. But if the wind happens to blow them into someone else’s yard before next week, I certainly won’t complain.

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Chilly Days, Leaves, and Adjusting to Nature’s Rhythm

Written November 12, 2024

Hello Dear Readers,

It’s so darn chilly today, but I must push myself to clean the leaves. The windy and rainy days made our front yard cluttered with leaves. This is what happens when I skip working on collecting leaves.

The hurricane gave Nashville a couple of chilly days. It has been so cold today that I almost wanted to stay inside the house. I waited a bit longer, hoping the temperature would be more tolerable. After I had a brain stroke, I lost control of my inner thermoregulation system. My skin feels the heat or chills more profoundly than before my brain stroke. I will adjust my schedule for outside chores since external conditions impact me more. If I didn’t have to finish the task today, I would instead want to complete the task in a better condition. 

Just like I hoped, a few hours improved the temperature. It seemed much warmer after a few hours. The lovely sunlight dried up the leaves enough to vacuum easily when I got outside. The wet leaves could be nasty sometimes; they get clogged in our leaf vacuum cleaner in the middle of the cleaning. 

On a day like this, I tweaked my schedule. I can still do the other chores in the house before doing any outside chores. I still have several tasks I need to complete besides the leaf vacuuming today. 

The several consecutive warm and humid rainy days confused our lawn with the season. They seemed much longer than a few weeks ago. It needs to be longer to mow the lawn, but I need to see how long it gets. 

I plan to do one more round of leave vacuuming this Thursday. I’ve checked the weather forecast. It will likely be another chilling morning. Luckily, no rain is predicted between now and then. The trees in front of our house lost a substantial amount of trees, hinting that my leaf vacuuming task will end soon.

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Fall Maintenance Chronicles: Tackling Leaves, Hurricanes, and a Leaf-Vacation in Nashville

Written November 7, 2024

Hello Dear Readers,

Near Thanksgiving day, our trees start to lose their dry clothing. They dropped so many leaves that there were so many to vacuum today. There were more leaves this year. A recent Hurricane brought a few windy days, and the wind carried the leaves from our neighbors. Due to our garbage bin being full of leaves from Tuesday’s collection session, I elected to skip today’s session as there’s nowhere to put them.  

Since October, we have had hurricane after hurricane. Hurricanes don’t hit Nashville directly, but our weather seems to sing along with them. We get the rain and wind. There is rain forecasted for this weekend, which may make leaf collection next week a bit more difficult, but I’ll do what I can.

In the future, we may want to get an extra garbage bin to hold a bag to dump leaves into.  We have some bags I could use, but throwing the leaves into an unsupported bag would be a lot of trouble.  So, today will be my vacation from leaf gathering, and I may have to pay for it next week.  Maybe I’ll be lucky, and the wind will magically blow all our leaves away without blowing new ones in to replace them.

Leaf vacuuming is one necessary maintenance task. When old leaves turn into soil, it creates unwanted deposits between concrete. Despite my work, there were weeds on the driveway. We had to weed them and clear them out with a power washer before damaging our driveway further. Besides, these dry trees make our front yard messy, so I want to keep them as neat as possible. 

Fortunately, leaf vacuuming is not as hard as lawn mowing, and the weather is more tolerable now than in summer. The days have gotten shooter, and winter will show up quickly. The trees in the backyard have lost most of their tree already. There will be 2-3 weeks of leaf vacuuming. Of course, we may get a rare snowstorm, which hit us every year for all 6 years we lived in Nashville. For now, I will enjoy this leaf vacation.