A Day of Service, or, How to Eliminate About One Gazillion Leaves from Your Property

This past weekend our church congregation had the opportunity to reach out and help our neighbor church down the street.  Our neighbors have an extensive plot of land for their parish buildings and cemetery, and all of those grounds are shaded by glorious trees.

Lots of trees.

Those trees have been busy this autumn, and their congregation just couldn't keep up.  So we stepped in to lend a hand.

Or two.

Or a couple hundred.

Or more, I lost track.

Our family took our little corner of the grounds and got to work.

The day was crisp and quite cold, so we dressed in layers, ready to shed when necessary.

By the way, those yellow-grabby things are one of the best inventions ever!

As a mother, can I say that I was shocked to see my kids working so hard?  They were fierce, lean, mean, raking machines!

After constructing our piles, we raked all the leaves onto tarps, then they were loaded into the backs of several pick-up trucks and hauled away to be composted.

Of course, some of us lost interest along the way...

...and as the sun kept shining and the muscles kept working, the layers began to come off!

It was a wonderful (though tiring) experience, and I was glad that we were able to do our part.  The folks at the church were so thankful for the help, and even fed us all lunch!  I wish I could have taken an aerial shot of the befores and afters, but you'll just have to take my word for it--quite a difference!

Now if I could just get my kids to tackle our yard...


ps--Yes, Dallin is wearing goggles.  Josh wore them to school last week when he dressed as a scientist for Career Day, and Dallin's been sporting them ever since.  At least he didn't wear them to church on Sunday!