There’s no mistaking the leaf loader.
It sounds like 40 John Deere lawn tractors as it slowly makes its way to our block, hitched behind a public works truck. An employee wearing ear protection walks alongside the trailer, aiming the vacuum hose toward dead leaves stacked against the curb.
Like a semitruck, the leaf-collecting rig makes only wide, sweeping turns, so it can’t reach every inch of curb.
I try to move my car from the street when I hear it approaching, but my neighbors’ vehicles inevitably remain as obstructions resulting in some leaves going uncollected on any given pass.
Do they not hear this machine coming? Maybe they mistake it for the guy down the street using a John Deere tractor to mow his quarter-acre lawn (without ear protection, so he’s probably not going to hear the bigger machine approaching even if he’s not mowing).
The good thing is, the leaf collector will make a few more passes before early December. Hopefully by then the oaks will have shed most of their leaves.
There’s always that one oak, however, that stubbornly holds onto its leaves until the first snowfall. Brown leaves to spoil your snowman.
It’s a good time to take your vehicle to a car wash after the leaf collector makes a pass. You might not be able to see through your windshield after the dust settles.
When the leaf loader first came around a couple of weeks ago, you could hear it more than you could see it. It was enveloped in a cloud of dust that resembled a scene from the Dust Bowl.
Bone-dry conditions after more than a month with barely any measurable rainfall must be a boom for car washes. Motorists who pay for memberships at luxury car washes that seem to be popping up in the area are getting their money’s worth.
Depending on where you live and how you get your water, you may be affected by a mandatory or voluntary water-conservation notice. That means using a hose to wash off your car and driveway is either prohibited or frowned upon.
The U.S. Drought Monitor classifies southern and eastern portions of Berks County as moderate drought with the remainder of the county listed as abnormally dry.
There’s an elevated risk of wildfires. Fortunately, people seem to be heeding outdoor burning bans.
A hot exhaust from an idling engine or an ember from a burn barrel can easily spark a wildfire. Within a few days in mid-October two barns in Berks were destroyed and a home in eastern Berks was rendered nearly a total loss from fires that started as field fires.
Finally, there may be some relief. They want rain in the week ahead.
Not much, but it’s a start.
Source: Berkshire mont
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