“The older I get the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first – a process which often reduces the most complex human problem to a manageable proportion.”    

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Speaking of manageable proportions…

Three days ago My French Friend Janou extolled the advantages of owning a leaf blower to Banjo Man.

He put down his rake and listened.  Then he drove to town the next morning to buy himself one of these magical pieces of equipment.

With his new tool, he has cleared the driveway and the back patio and has moved onto the lawns.  In just a few hours.

We had never understood the principle behind a leaf blower.  Aren’t you just blowing leaves into the street or into someone else’s yard?  Maybe.  But we live in the woods.  There is no street, no neighbor’s yard to consider.

It’s just us.  And a bazillion leaves to remove from the gardens and the lawns.

The task of raking leaves had become more and more daunting each year.  Banjo Man would fill 100 garbage cans with leaves and haul them to the “leaf hole” in the woods to decompose.

Now I realize that leaf removal isn’t one of those problems Dwight Eisenhower would consider “complex”, but it is an annual nuisance and a pretty big chore even though Banjo Man loves being outside on chilly fall days.

I think he owes MFFJ a big thank you and a glass of wine.  Or two.

I wonder what other “Ancient Rules” Dwight pondered.