Burn Permit

For those of you who were children in the 50's and 60's, you'll remember that fall always meant the smell of burning leaves. I thought it would be "fun" and nostalgic to burn our leaves at Wiser Times since we are no longer allowed to do it in Grosse Pointe. So, I dutifully obtained a burn permit from the Michigan DNR and proceeded to burn the leaves I had raked this past weekend.

Not fun at all.

Why did I have such fond memories of this from my childhood? Oh yeah. Cuz I didn't actually do it. My dad did!!

It was terrible. The smoke was very thick and our whole house smelled afterward. While I was tending it, I had visions of embers blowing away and setting the entire woods around us on fire. Too nerve-wracking.

Plus, it took about an hour to burn just that one little pile of leaves. I have about 10 times that still remaining.

Why is leaf removal such a problem, you ask? Well, they're oak leaves. They do NOT break down at all, so if I pile them up somewhere, they will still be there years later. I know this because I tried that method two years ago. I pushed them all underneath the pine trees thinking they would break down into a nice mulch. I was so smug thinking I would no longer have to bag them up (it usually takes about 20 bags to accommodate them all). However, the same leaves are still there and they have not softened up or broken down one bit.

So, now that the burning idea didn't work so well, this year's crop will have to remain in the big piles I created until our next visit up here.