To rake or not to rake

To rake or not to rake

That is the question…   do you rake your leaves or do you leave them on the ground?

I had an old friend..Harold McWilliams, better know to all who knew him….  “Mac the Packer”  who passed away at the age of 95. He was a Leanin Tree looking old western guy.  He packed for the government mostly in Washington State.  He was an old salt.. kind of guy who did not brag … well, rarely bragged.

He sure knew the lay of the land in middle of Washington State. 40+years of packing for the Forest Dept. And knew Mother Nature very, very well…   Later in life he was about 80+ and he was running the garbage/recycle for Kittitas County.. 

As he was sitting there waiting for someone to come up to dump their garbage.. he saw several young men get out of a truck with rakes.  And the went under the trees that were across the driveway from the station.  It peeked his curiosity.  So he walked over and talked to them to see why they were raking the leaves in to piles.. and then load them in to bags..  They explain they were from the local college and they were there to take the leaves away from the trees, so they don’t rot.  The leaves that is.. which would rot the trees.   Mac, a man of few words,  said… REALLY.  What makes you think that?   They gave him a 15 minute or so of reasons for all of it.. fires… rotting of trees and so much more.   He told them, he had packed for the Forest Dept. for 40 years and never seen any one rake the leaves around the forest floor before.. 

And Mother Nature never blew them away…

They looked him, like he was the old man that he was.. and his old fashion thoughts.. And told him this was the new science.  So Mac started to walk away… and then said..  Well, personally, I think God has the best plan that has worked all of my life and before.   Like I said Mac was a man of a few words.

So do you rake the leaves in your yard?  I see yards in the city of Sandpoint, where people put big bags of leaves at the street side for the city to pick up.    Me, I don’t. I follow Mac’s way of thinking..  But the King, he is kind of stuck in the middle… so he runs the lawn mower over them and mulches them.