For those keeping score at home:
The leaves kicked our asses again. We had to go out and rake the entire yard, back to front, and it was as if we hadn't been out there last week whatsoever.

Heard it through the grapevine
Along with the daunting task of raking the leaves, my husband tackled the difficult chore of trimming back our grapevines. We just bought the house in June, and the grapevines were overgrown when we moved in. The grapes got some sort of vine rot or something from all the rain, so they were completely worthless except as a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

While my husband was trimming the vines back, one of our neighbors came out and told us the story behind the vines. They were over 20 years old. When the grape arbor was built, the man who lived in our neighbors house built them, but unbeknownst to him, he built them just past his property line, into what is now our yard. So the person who lived in our house back then came out and thanked the man for building the grape arbor on his property.

We met our other neighbors for the first time today. Peg, and I forget the husband's name. Whoops. No one is called Peg anymore. I realize it's a nickname for Margaret; but still, who goes by that name these days that's under the age of 60? I'm sure there are a few, I just don't know any. It's one of those old person names like Agnes that maybe after the Brittany, Morgan, Madison trend dies down, will come back into style.

Anyhoo.

They live next door and this has been the first sighting of them since we've lived in the house. They are retirees who spent the summer away from home. As is the case with most of the people who live around us. It's a bunch of older, retired folks who can afford to have summer homes, or winter homes. Whereas we? Can't.