Lovely Leaves

They have this wonderful system of leaf collecting here in Grand Forks.  Twice in the month of October, city workers come with a massive vacuum hose attached to a dump truck and suck up the leaf piles you have made for them on your berm.  Can I just say that up until this year I never knew there was such a word, berm, for that little patch of grass between the sidewalk and street.  Uffda, I'm such a country girl!  Anyway, I have a weird obsession with raking leaves and refuse to use anything with a motor when I collect them.  Just a rake, gloves and the much appreciated muscles God gave me.  I even made Brent promise not to steal my thunder and take this job from me.  So, imagine the giddy world I've been in lately with last night's final rake making it a total of five hours spent raking this fall!  The first rake was just for fun so that I could make a huge pile for the girls to play in.  We even situated their plastic slide so they could land right in the middle of all the deliciously crunchy leaves.  They took turns hiding a treasure in the leaves while the other had to find it and of course, the pile was heaped up over and over only to be crushed again as flying little bodies found a cushion for their landings. 
I knew the magic leaf truck would be making its final pass in the next day or two so last night I worked for an hour to pile the trees most recent purges.  I like to make mounds throughout the yard and then use a giant bag for loading the mound and pulling it to the growing wall of leaves on our berm.  The girls were busy coloring and playing inside but after awhile they were curious as to what I was up to.  I had two piles left to load and drag and Sage and Clare were eager to help.  They scooped up armfuls of leaves and packed them down so enthusiastically that half of what they put in flew out again.  Once the bag was full I asked to see their muscles to determine if they were strong enough to pull the bag themselves.  They passed the inspection and grabbed hold of a handle as I grabbed hold of Clare's hand and pulled her as she sometimes tends to veer off course.  :)  Their whole bodies leaned forward to pull that big bag all the way to to its final destination and there the girls worked together to dump its contents, giggling as the leaves dribbled around them.  We continued this process until we reached the last mound.  The girls faces dropped as I explained that we would not be playing in the leaves anymore this fall since the magic vacuum truck would be taking them all away and just as I was about to start scooping up those last leaves I stopped and said, "You know, I think this pile really wants some kids to jump into it first before we take it away."  Well, you can imagine what happened next and I will have the memory of their delighted faces and giant belly flops for always. 
This morning Clare and I had just gotten back from dropping Sage off at school when I heard a rumbling in the front yard.  We ran to the window, threw the curtain back and gasped when we saw...the magic vacuum truck.  In less than a minute it sucked up all my hard work, not leaving a trace behind, then moved on to the next house.  It's a reminder that this season is quickly ending and soon snow piles will be keeping the girls entertained while I am once again giddy doing my other weird obsession...SNOW SHOVELING!