Mulch Much?

  This is my backyard. That's a dog in the center of it. He's looking for his "pig".  We don't have a real pig. We have a toy (or several toys) referred to as pigs. They are the soft squeaky dog toys he favors. One is a reindeer with red mittens, one is a sheep, and one is an I don't really know, a horse head or an alligator? It's green. Why pig? Why not pig? It's as good a name for a toy as any other.The dog loves to chase and fetch the pigs. I know, he doesn't look like a retriever, but he retrieves with the best of them. He is much better at it than the real retriever I once had. That dog was a Labrador Chaser. That's what he did, he chased and it was more fun when I chased him. Which I often did, down the road and through the hood.

  But back to my backyard. As I said, the dog is looking for his pig. Yesterday you could see the grass and multiple pigs in my yard. Yesterday the leaves were still on the trees. Now they are on the ground burying all the pigs.  Last Sunday I mulched whatever leaves were on the ground. Today this is what I get; mulching- mower clogging leaves that cover an assortment of pigs. 

  Do you know what happens when the mower blade hits a small rubber pig?  Bits of rubber go flying in every direction.  The dog gets so confused, Which one is the pig? He has no idea. He chases them all trying to figure out what these green, yellow, and pink bits are.

  If I want to keep my puppy sane, I have to spend tomorrow morning kicking through leaves and attempt to recover all the pigs I can find. Invariably I miss a few. Yes, this dog is multi pig owner. He carries one with him everywhere. No way he will drop it where the other dog, or God forbid, the cat might take it.

  As I mentioned, his favorite activity is chasing an air-born pig. He's good fielder. If he were on my team I'd probably play him at shortstop, his ability to snag them on the one-hop is that good. But he can go out for the fly-pigs too. He's a pretty good little athlete for a Corgi-Chihuahua. Anyway, he is a better catcher than I am a thrower. Every once in awhile, I manage to flip one onto the roof.  It has to remain there until I have someone check the roof or clean the gutters because I sure as hell am not climbing up there. Meanwhile, the dog is frantically running around the yard trying to find the pig. That particular pig. I have seen him nose at and discard three other pigs looking for the one that was out of reach on the roof. He can tell the difference, even if they are identical toys. Remarkable, that.

  

  When I think about it though, I guess I understand it. I have several potato peelers and there is one I definitely favor. I do that with ball point pens too. I guess I can't fault the dog for doing something I do. Maybe he learned it from me.

  But back to the wealth of leaves in my back yard. I think it would be preferable if they remained on the trees year 'round, but this is Indiana so I guess that's not an option. I used to live in the country and one of the things I loved about living in the country was there was no lawn standard. What I mean by a lawn standard is neighbors that expect you to keep the lawn mowed, weeded, de-moled and raked. I might mention that thirteen years in the country made me not a lawn person. I could care less about lawns or their maintenance. I do keep mine mowed, mostly so the neighbors won't see the weeds and complain. Every spring my mailbox is stuffed with flyers and offers from True Green and every lawn care company in town. My neighbors must be getting the word out. 

  There were things I didn't like about living in the country, raccoon poop all over the back yard probably topped the list, but the greatest thing about living in the country was no raking. The leaves fell where ever they fell, no action required.  But when you live in a neighborhood, the expectation is that you will rake or remove the leaves. The first winter I was here we raked up over 100 bags of leaves. That just doesn't cut it. I could go bankrupt buying bags to stuff those leaves in. You see I don't live in town where you rake the leaves into the street and sucker trucks come and take them away. I'm pretty sure that's a technical term, sucker trucks, but then again, I could be wrong. So they have to be bagged or...mulched. 

  Mulching is kind of an okay way to spend some time. It's pretty amazing watching big piles of maple leaves disappear as if they never were. I have a fruit gum tree that sheds the loveliest red leaves that smell slightly of apple when they are ground up under the wheels of my mower.

  It takes about five weekends to get the yard properly mulched since the leaves don't drop all at once. I'm two weekends into it. The question always is, will I beat the snow? And then of course I have to deal with the gutters. My latest gutter guy is AWOL, disappeared, not answering the phone -- maybe it was something I said. So that means I have to find a new one. Because, you know, I'm sure as hell not going up there.