Our new house is on 1/2 acre of lawn, much of which is under a canopy of old tall trees. People tell me I will have a six week blizzard of leaves this fall, but they didn't say I would be picking up leaves almost weekly. I'm filling a trashcan a week with twigs and leaves--two cans this week after some big thunderstorms. So today we bought our first leafblower, a Toro 275 mph Super Blower/Vacuum. I have to say it blasted the lawn clear of debris pretty quickly. The other great discovery is that because our grass seems to grow slowly, we are getting away with six weeks until we have to mow the lawn this coming weekend. I can deal with mowing just three times a summer.

- mike lee - wheaton, md