Edward Luke and his father in the act of stealing a leaf pile.
In my effort to be the strangest man in the neighborhood, I have taken to stealing leaf piles. It all stems from my addiction to gardening. (“Stems” from “gardening”– Ha Ha, that’s a funny pun, Ed). Anyway, I have decided to try deep mulch gardening next year. I need 18 to 24 inches of mulch, and my one maple tree cannot produce enough for me.
In our town of Harlingen people rake their leaves into big piles next to the street where they wait for the leaf sucker. The leaf sucker is an organism made up of three men, two rakes and an orange vacuum cleaner truck, the arrival of which causes home school children to leave their seats and run to the window shouting, “The Leaf Sucker is here! The Leaf Sucker is here!”
Now, there is an interval of time after the raking of the piles and before the arrival of the leaf sucker when deep mulch gardeners look at their neighbors’ leaf piles with covetousness. It is during this interval that I and my offspring sneak out after dark and steal leaf piles. I take a kid or two with me (they don’t know how weird it is yet), and we rake the leaves onto a tarp, which we alternately drag and carry back to my garden. Stealing one leaf pile requires multiple trips. I have gotten caught twice by my normal neighbors. They have not moved out of the neighborhood yet.
Other Random Stuff
Nikole shot this video of Ruthie helping Helen with her piano song. The music is not great, but it is only 1:20 minutes long and you get to see Lydia being an 18-month-old.