The Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands (Isaiah 55:12)

I’ve been spending lots of time outside. I like to work in the yard, and I certainly need to keep active. I might spend three or four hours a day at yard work. Of course, a much younger woman might be able to do what I get done, in an hour, or less.

A few weeks ago, I spent several hours cleaning up the space at the back of the yard where the compost bins are. There were still some of the leaves I’d raked up last fall, in addition to leaves from other trees in the area that had fallen and blown in. It’s pretty boggy back there. Also, I found something a little startling.

At first glance, I thought it was a toy. I don’t know exactly who lives behind me, on the other side of the wooden fence, but I guessed kids might have been playing and were tossing things around, and this ended up on my side of the fence.

Then, I put my glasses on and looked a little more closely. You can tell by the nearby leaves that it’s pretty small. And, as you might have guessed, it’s a little bitty mushroom. I don’t know what has caused the black spots, but I took the photo to send to Peter, because I thought it was looked like a Star Wars character. He thought so, too.

These are the compost bins. I take out the kitchen vegetable waste and tea bags when the countertop bin is full. Right now, that goes into the left-hand bin.  After dumping in the contents, I add a layer of leaves. The right-hand bin’s contents are decaying, at this point. I put the rocks on the top to remind me not to put new stuff in that one. When the left bin gets full, I’ll move the rocks over, and it will be time to empty the other bin, which should have some nice compost that I can put on the garden.

I learned a few years ago that the pecan leaves aren’t the best choice for making compost. I use the oak leaves from a tree in the front yard. Those are leaves. The pecan tree has leaflets. The pecan leaflets have a heavier central stem and there are leaves all along that stem. When the oak leaves decay away, they decay pretty completely. When the pecan leaflets decay, there are those heavy stems left. They don’t make very good compost.

I’ve spent lots of time the past few days, raking up all the oak leaves and carting them, in a yard waste bin, to the back of the yard. I swept up the leaves that had fallen over the curb. I raked the leaves, from my tree, from my next-door neighbor’s yard. (She does not at all complain about the leaves in her yard. She’s a lovely neighbor. I just want all those leaves.)

Now I have a wonderful, if gargantuan, pile of nice oak leaves, all ready to add to the bin.

I also raked up lots and lots of pecan leaves. That tree is in the back yard, and has been dropping leaves for a while, but it’s not done. I’ve put those leaves in our green recycle bins. We have a large bin and a small bin. As of this afternoon, they are both full to the brim. Monday is our trash pickup day. But, this coming Monday, it’s blue bin day (recycling). Our green bins won’t be emptied until the next Monday.

I’ve looked up into the pecan tree, and there seems to be quite a few leaves up there, still. I’ve got a couple of bins where I can temporarily keep leaves, but I’m not sure they’re big enough for what’s left on the tree. And, they always seem to take up more space that I thought they would.

The oak tree that’s shed its leaves is at the front of the side yard. In the center of the front yard, there’s a red oak tree that has just barely begin to drop leaves. The year we moved into this house, in the fall, that tree still had its leaves, and kept most of them, through the winter. I was afraid the tree had died. But, in the early spring, it dropped the leaves and quickly began to put out new ones. That was more than ten years ago. It’s still strong and sturdy. It’s dropped a few leaves, but it’s certainly not done.