Leaf Burning

I've been offline for while, traveling and, well, doing stuff.  But I'm back and ready to talk about an old tradition that has faded away from routine urban life.  That would be the autumnal burning of each new year's unwanted crop of fallen leaves.  At home, like good city dwellers, the Burk family brings to bear an arsenal of complex tools and an Herculean effort to rake, drag and stack what seems like billions of mostly maple leaves, moving the bulk of them from deep in our back yard, up across the garage tarmac and down about 90 feet of driveway to the curb.  Here the City of Grosse Pointe Woods graciously sucks them into a big truck with a vacuum hose the size of a water main and takes them to some secret place for the next step in the journey.  It's an efficient system, but pretty much devoid of fun.  However, the acquisition of the family cottage in Greenbush has given new life to the old ways.

Wiser Times is blessed with numerous trees.  On the beach side (which we choose to call the front yard) there are mostly pines, with the occasional tamarack and cedar.  These trees behave fairly well, except for the tamaracks, which have needles instead of leaves but still insist on throwing them all over the ground each fall.  A nuisance, but not much of a challenge.

The road side (or back yard) of the cottage is a different story.  Many oak trees.  With many, many oak leaves.  Big, brown leathery leaves that if left unattended, would lie in their above-ground graves for years.  They do not dry out and blow away.  I know this to be true because until two weeks ago, there were some oak leaves in our back yard in hard to get at spots that had been there at least since 2005 when we bought the place.  Old friends, sort of. 

For the first few years the new management of Wiser Times struggled with the annual fall of these leaves, raking only where necessary to save grass, shoving as many leaves as possible back under trees where they weren't so obvious, and at times even bagging these arboral monsters and carting them off for pick up and disposal by unsuspecting taxing authorities (who shall remain nameless).  But last year, after several November days at the cottage working on a magnificent jigsaw puzzle of a rural leaf-burning scene, Nancy and I had an epiphany.  Duh - what was our problem?  Let's burn those bad boys!

What ensued was a six-hour frenzy of raking, dragging, dumping and burning leaves in our driveway behind the cottage.  It lasted through lunch, mid-afternoon snack, happy hour, dinner and post-dinner cordials, all taken in lawn chairs strategically placed around the burn.  It was a blast.  As this was our first effort, we focused mainly on the new leaves and not on those we were hoarding from previous years.  We didn't want to overplay our hand.  Nonetheless, we emerged from that marathon event spent and smokey, but immensely satisfied.  Even giddy.  We knew we were on to something.

Earlier this year over cocktails one night, we happened to relate our leaf-burning adventure to our close friends the Dyles.  It was a fortuitous happening.  After hanging on our every word with nearly mesmeric attention, they announced that they wanted to join the fun and help us burn leaves at the next opportunity.  Yes!  Now that's what I'm talking about!  I mean....er....we said we would be glad to invite them up for the fun this year. They enthusiastically accepted.

So on November 15th after some would-be schedule conflicts evaporated, the Burks and the Dyles, reinforced with additional weaponry (new leaf rakes, combat-tested tarps and some fancy leaf-grabbing claws), struck out for Wiser Times and the battle with nature.

Friday the 16th was the day of reckoning.  Leaf Team One (as I refer to it) arose early, sort of, and went over the battle plan in the war room.  Well, I guess that isn't totally accurate.  More like we sat around in our jams drinking coffee (hot chocolate for some), playing on the Internet and feasting on a fab, bakery-grade coffee cake.  But we did mention once or twice that the leaves wouldn't burn themselves, so we had that going for us.  Fortunately, no photo record of this part of the gathering remains due to privacy and security restrictions.

By noon, we were fed, clothed, and ready to rumble.  Here is a shot of Leaf Team One, gear in hand, just before kick-off.  Sort of a Greenbush Gothic look.

Here's a second shot with a little perspective on the leaf population involved.

Step 1 in the battle was to recon the situation and round up the strays, starting with the front and side yards. Here are a couple more shots documenting the problem as well as one of Robyn and Dave routing out some stubborn mavericks from the corner by the deck.

Once the first patrols were in with prisoners, it was time to light-up.  Here are a few shots of the early stages of the burn.

 

And a few more pics covering the action as the afternoon wore on.  This first one records a slight problem we were having with potential hazardous road conditions.  Luckily, the local authorities were all burning their own leaves.

 

And in these shots, you can see that the full Tom Sawyer effect has emerged :-)

And here are a few shots of the results - a multitude of oak leaves vanquished.

And of course, at the appropriate juncture there was a timeout for the obligatory social hour.  After all, the cottage isn't named Wiser Times for nothing.

And though the leaves had all been gathered and led into the fire, they did not go easily.  They continued to burn into the night.

Around 8:00, with the last leaves thrust into the fire, the lawn chairs stowed and the remains of the burn-side pizza and wings shuttled to the kitchen, we declared victory and hung up our rakes.  Of course, the fire embered well into the night, as was expected.  The next morning the ashes were shoveled up and wheel-barrowed back among the trees to promote the continued growth that will help generate next year's crop of leaves.  Wiser Times is now patiently awaiting winter's first snowfall with a clear conscience.

And one postscript.  David was apparently under-worked during the leaf wars as while the rest of us recovered the next day by lazing in the family room, watching football and enjoying the lake view, David snuck out to the back yard and split about a half cord of wood.  Just for good measure.  With excellent friends like the Dyles, who needs household help.

Here's looking forward to next year.  Any new takers for the 2013 campaign?