Fall leaf-pick-up
 

Filled and dumped the sixth load of the season with my Trac-Vac.
The 35 cubic foot bin packs a lot of grass and leaves. The worst part is emptying it...it's like a giant bale of hay.

I bought the thing in 1980...so it's served me well.

What is everyone else using for their yards?












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I bought a used Trac Vac earlier this year so will be using it soon for the first time . Looking forward to seeing how well it does but anything is better than hand raking .

^^^I found the most important thing about the Trac-Vac is getting a good air-tight connection between the mower deck and the chute that is on the end of the pick-up hose.

If it's not sealed...it allows outside air in, and the vacuum is decreased.

If all is working correctly...the lawn will look like a golf course! (I don't use mine all summer..mostly in the fall)

We just mow the leaves and chop them up.... And we don't bag our grass clippings. Never have understood the reason for bagging grass clippings.

^^^ I mostly use the Trac-Vac for the leaves. There are too many trees in my yard to mow them up. The yard would be brown (with chopped leaves)
My problem is finding a place to get rid of them after chopping and vacuuming them up.

Same here. I just mow them every few days. I gave away a bagger 3 weeks ago.

I’m another one of those that just uses a mulcher mower and leaves the grass clipping and chopped up leaves on the ground.

I mulch my grass and try to stay ahead of falling leaves and mulch them too. Sometimes they fall too fast ... then there are just way too many. I will blow my back yards' leaves into the woods tomorrow :). For my larger property, with mega leaves.... I purchased a Cyclone Rake several years ago... should have bought one decades ago.

I have lived on 10 country acres for 25 years now, that has alot of maple/oak/ash trees that all shed leaves big time. All that time, I have never raked any leaves, my 72" mower does a nice job on chopping them up, and by February, the incessant winds have scoured any trace of them into surrounding fields.

Years ago before I convinced my wife that mowing the leaves was the easiest way to deal with them, I on occasion drove my airplane around the yard attempting to blow some of the leaves into a smaller area to then rake and burn.

I do the Tim method without the airplane. Blow them to the side yard. The bugs, mice, birds are pretty happy with this.

Credit card is my current best leaf removal tool!

Got too busy at work a few years ago, so hired it out and haven’t looked back.

This year is weird as we got snow last week and barely any leaves had dropped; there is still light snow cover and leaves on some of the trees.

two acres. 100's of trees, I blow them into the woods 4-5 times. The oaks are the last to give them up, around thanksgiving. I pay somebody for that last batch. I hate autumn..

I try to blow them all over into my neighbors yard

I went to visit my brother in Montgomery, AL and he had a HUGE pile of leaves on the front yard. I asked about it and he said the city comes by the next day and uses a giant vacuum and compactor and picks them up. No trash backs to mess with.

That would never work in Oklahoma, it is hard to make a pile of leaves that last long enough to put in a bag when it is typical windy weather.

My next-door neighbor (to the east) is an elderly lady living by herself.
Therefore, I try to keep all my leaves on my side, if possible.

I much them with my push mower until it becomes too much.
2 Maple trees.
This weekend I mulched/bagged with my blower and ended up with 10 bags.
Sore today.

I don't have grass and very vew leaves.

When I was a kid, me & my dad would rake the leaves up into a pile at the curb in front of the house and burn them in a low, smoldering fire. All the neighbors would do the same. Could never get away with that now...

Mostly Maple and Poplar here. :)

My grandfather used to wait for a windless day, and burn off his grass every spring. It would green up quickly, and then he kept it like a putting green. I saw him get up from chair in front of the TV to go pick up a leaf that had blown onto his yard.

Burning off lawns is frowned upon now, especially in a standard residential neighborhood.

^^^ My father did this also.
Makes for a very nice lawn the next year. Cheaper than Round-Up.

And way easier than mowing it real low and bagging all the dead grass to get the old dead grass off of the top layers. And it fertilizes the yard at the same time.

Video time!!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1603760428.jpg
Mulch, and burn here. Leaves get mulched...grass mulched...field gets cut for hay and burned occasionally. Pretty satisfying sitting on an old tractor and watching it burn.

My autumn exercise routine is leaf raking and putting in our 140 litre garden waste dumpster for several weeks .City limits their collection to one dumpster per fortnight until 2nd weekend November. Thereafter any remaining leaves have to be taken by the householder to the city dump. I use builders 1 tonne bags for that. I can fit one full one in the back of my wife's 150 inch long hatchback.
We have oak, silver birch, and sycamore trees in our small backyard and the wind kindly blows leaves from several neighbours into my yard, which includes a stream with 7 foot high banks which collects zillions of leaves . Riparian rights means I have to clear the stream so that it won't risk a flood further downstream where the banks are much lower.

We harvest as many leaves as we have time for to make compost.

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I use this Agri-Fab POS I got at Tractor Supply to pick up leaves.

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The second season one of the blades on the fan came loose. I got it shut down before all hell broke loose. By then it was only connected at the hub. I rewelded all of the blades and it's been working for 7 years now.

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The pile on the left is what's left of 2018 composted leaves. The one in the middle is last year's leaves, ready to use. The little one on the right is the start of this year's pile. It'll be about 4'x4'x20' in a couple of weeks.

I have a Shindawa and a Stihl backpack blower. I get everything to the curb and the city vacuums them up.

[QUOTE=wdfifteen;11078207]
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The second season one of the blades on the fan came loose. I got it shut down before all hell broke loose. By then it was only connected at the hub. I rewelded all of the blades and it's been working for 7 years now.




I've vacuumed up golf ball size stones that sound like a gun-shot going through the blower. I've opened it up several times looking for a broken or chipped vane.
40 years and good so far!

Black walnuts make quite a clatter going thru...but they should make it without breaking anything.

Black walnuts are killer for my little Stihl.

^^^
I have english and black walnut trees.
The english (on the left) are too heavy with the meat to be vacuumed up
The black (on the right) will get pulled right up because they are lighter.

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I volunteer for the leaf pickup in our small town. It's a tedious but rewarding job. The equipment is old but gets the work done....


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[QUOTE=dheinz;11078816]I volunteer for the leaf pickup in our small town. It's a tedious but rewarding job. The equipment is old but gets the work done....
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It's plugged!! :)

[QUOTE=stevej37;11078825] Ha, good eye...
The previous house had pompous grass mixed in the leaves. We unplugged the hose and emptied the truck.

Considering the source...that might not be some internet boast. Don't push it.

Fine bastards and all them fine toys abounding everywhere makes a normal man jealous of his own situation.
Plus everything seen as of yet has been accomplished to the point of pure perfection.

(but for the sake of gravity law I presume it is)

[QUOTE=dheinz;11078864] Wet leaves are the worst. Here in MI it's hard to get a late fall day without the leaves being soaked.
That looks like a powerful vacuum.

Make leaves while the sun shines!

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Received this message today from Consumers Power.
I'm hoping by tomorrow noon...most of my leaves are long gone!


"According to the National Weather Service, high winds up to 45 mph with possible gusts up to 50 mph are possible in your area later today into tomorrow.

This weather could result in power outages, downed wires and other safety hazards. We are mobilizing resources to quickly respond to any service interruptions to keep your Halloween safe."