Vacuuming the gutters!

Whoever heard of such a thing?  This I have to share.  I'm so excited about a recent discovery that the leaf blower found in Aunt Alice's garage after she died 15 years ago and immediately claimed by me, will not only blow the constantly-falling curly black locust leaves off the patio every day from Spring to Winter, but with a slight change in parts (more about that in another post) will also vacuum the blown hedgerow of buttery golden "petals" into a tidy bag which can then be emptied into the garden bed to help make fat, healthy vegetables next summer.

So after a month or so of no rain and now Fall's gentle cooling shifting the possibility of precipitation, I added "check the gutters" to the carefully written page of Things I get to do today.  After readying the ladder and the blower-now-vacuum with its catcher bag, I had the great satisfaction of sucking up the leaves that filled the gutter to over the brim.  What is it that is so fun about making a pile of something just disappear completely?  My heart nearly skipped a beat with the delight of it all.  Just slur-r-r-r-r-r-p and it's gone!