Almost all the leaves have fallen, with only a few stubborn hangers-on left, revealing the volunteer black walnut trees the squirrels planted.

My loppers are laughable up against these things. I would dearly love to see them all gone, so I'm scoping out my options. It's definitely going to be easier to manage now that they're accessible. The resulting 'timber' will be firewood, unless something more appropriate presents itself. Plenty of time to figure that out.

I finally got a decent picture of the whole area now covered by cardboard. The shade in prior pictures tends to distort things. It's getting nicely settled into place. I'm on the lookout for more boxes to breakdown and add to the 'mat'. There are still a few spots that would benefit.

The wood pile is deceptively tall. There is a solid lump of something underneath. If memory serves, I think I dumped some gutter yuck there a few years ago. If so, I may have to poke around there in the spring. If it is, there are lots of evergreen castoffs included. I'm thinking maybe I accidentally made a spot that blueberries or somesuch would like. That's a puzzle to solve later on.

On Monday, we got a rare day this time of year - mild, and NO WIND. Perfect weather to rake leaves! Normally, I dread this chore, but this year I actually looked forward to it. The only reason was because I wanted those leaves for the 'compost in place' experiment for reviving a neglected raised bed.

If you remember, this was the first spot that received the cardboard treatment. The tomato cages serve a three-fold purpose. First, to hold the cardboard firmly in place. Second, to allow some loft to the leaves to encourage enough air flow for composting to occur. I'll be adding green matter to the center cage to see if it will generate any heat. I'm doubtful, but it's worth a try. And, third, if it does indeed work, I can jostle the cage to keep things properly mixed and 'cooking'.

At the very least, this bed will be weed-free come spring!

This is only the first layer of leaves, taken from the front half of the backyard. It's been wet or too windy for more raking ever since. There will be at least as much to add next time from the back half of the yard, so that's waiting on another decent day.

The dilemma is what to do with the leaves out front. That's the real jackpot.

The problem is this:

We usually just have a huge pile near the street and the city vacuums them up. But because I'd like to use them in the raised bed, I'd have to tote them through a narrow gate to get there. NOT a fun or easy trip. Plus, it would take ten trips, minimum. My shoulders and arms ache just thinking about it.

Maybe I'll just split the difference and tote what I can manage. The rest can be left for the city to deal with.