One {Wo}Man's Trash...

I spent the better part of 2 mornings this week raking up pine straw off my lawn. Now if you don't live in the south then you are not familiar with the natural phenomenon of pine straw. You see the south has really tall skinny pine trees. No, not at all like the pretty pines of the west, you know the real pretty fluffy ones that look like Christmas trees. No ours look like scraggly toothpicks. Well once autumn rolls around they drop their needles like crazy! They fall already dried out and brown and this my friends is what we southerners refer to as "pine straw."

this pile was at least 25 feet in length and 2.5 feet tall, and that's only form 2/3 of my front lawn

Like I said I spent the better part of two mornings raking it all up into piles, then loading those piles into the wheel barrow and dumping it at the curb. That's what you do in my neck of the woods, you pile your yard debris and large trash items on your front lawn. I've been known to pull over and grab rescue picture frames, chairs, etc. from the curb. Eventually, about once a week, a big dump truck will drive by and take it all away to the dump. Don't worry this is all in addition to regular trash pick up day. We're not barbarians down here, we do have trash cans!

Some "crazy" people, like me {probably all transplants/non-natives} can't stand the sight of pine straw. Then there are other "crazy" people {everyone but me! LOL} who pay for this stuff by the bale {just like straw} and use it in their landscaping just like mulch.

Yesterday I came home to find a nice man raking up all my pine straw into the back of his pick up truck. "I hope you don't mind," he yelled at me as I got out of the car. I told him that I didn't mind, but in my head I was thinking "why in the world would I mind? But I would mind it a whole lot less if you would come and do the raking next time!"

~ Norma