Before the Fall

   There is going to be an early fall. That’s the impression I get, seeing the wooly fat worms moseying along the back of my house. And the huge increase in spider webs, stretched here to way out there on my porches and in my garage. Yes, when these little creatures come visiting, fall has come early.

   There are a number of things to do to prepare for fall and winter. Of course, the usual, covering up the a/c outdoor unit, cleaning furnace vents and filter. Re-mulching and trimming certain hedges.

   But my nightmare work is the neighbor’s black walnut tree. Humongous, overgrown, swaying over my back yard, garage, and part of my house roof. This creature is a beautiful place in the spring and summer for the birds to nest and rest. And for the shade it provides. But come late August and September, “Boom!!” The walnuts become missiles, bouncing all over the roof (night and day). And if there are high winds, it’s an all-out assault!

David Goehring on flickr.com

   Yes, I’ve been hit on the head by one - and it hurts! I believe it is a hard-hat area for safety (though I’ve yet to get one). It’s cracked my bird feeders and bird bath. I have to protect my dog when she has to toilet.

   The owner has never bothered to cut down the tree - too expensive. And tenant after tenant says the same, although two separate tenants did trim a few limbs around my electric lines. God bless them!

   But the war of the walnuts is not just from bombardment. These black walnuts are encased in a thick green shell. The longer the nuts sit in the yard, the creepier they become, decomposing, with little worms crawling out. Ugh! So there are several rounds of a back-breaking chore of raking them up and bagging and dragging them to the alley for pickup. With back problems and arthritis, this task gets more difficult each year. But it must be done! Can’t have those slimy little worms all over the yard! And of course when grass grows again, it makes it difficult to cut with all those walnuts everywhere!

   Just when it seems the task is all over, the rest of the leaves from that tree (and other neighboring trees) decide they’re ready to fall too. So I get them raked up.

   I wait for snow close to wintertime. But if I’m lucky the twigs and the needles from all these trees will take their turn in falling to my backyard. Alas, the black walnuts, the leaves, the twigs, and the needles couldn’t agree to all come down at once - they each take their own sweet time.

Ryan McGuire on pixabay.com

   Year in, year out. Rake it, bag it, drag it. And none of it, not one leaf, one nut, one twig, one needle is from a tree in my own yard. It’s a lot of work. Just think if I received payment for it! I’d be rich!

   But that’s how it is. Life and seasons making changes and cycles. I have to take care of the fall before I fall! Yet I do appreciate the trees, granting birds’ rest, and plenty of shade.     Theresa M.