Well, you have to love the changing of the seasons.

I spent this weekend not working on mind you, but looking at a bunch of leaves raining off the trees in my new back yard, coating the ground with a golden-colored carpet that I really need to take care of.

Which presents a problem.

You see, I don’t consider myself lazy by any stretch of the imagination, but I don’t rake. Ever.

While I will happily cut grass, trim, paint, sweep or any one of a dozen varied chores, raking is something that kind of reminds me of fingernails on a chalkboard.

I choose not to do it, because unlike all other yard work, it’s horrible. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. Let’s put it that way.

And I don’t want to give the wrong impression here, I simply would rather slam my head in a car door than spend an hour wielding a rake.

Now the little lady says she loves to rake, but with our impending bundle of joy growing in her belly we’ve decided that a day of raking isn’t something either of us want her to undertake.

So that’s out.

Which leaves me looking at the leafy carpet in our backyard that crunches underfoot and listening to her say things like, “we really need to take care of these leaves.”

Now there are several schools of thought on taking care of autumn lawn duties, but being the pragmatist and the environmentally-friendly guy I am, I prefer the easiest.

In my mind, the smartest thing to do with leaves is mulch ‘em. And by mulching ‘em I mean run over them with a lawnmower and let them decay throughout the winter.

I mean seriously, it’s nature at its finest!

Which doesn’t prevent the little lady from giving me an earful every time we go out on the porch.

“We really need to do something with these leaves.” “Man, look at all these leaves.” “I can’t even see the grass anymore.”

Those are the kinds of things I hear daily.

But if you know my backyard, you’ll know that while one tree is nearly bare, our huge pecan tree is just beginning to drop its foliage.

So as a not-lazy pragmatist who nonetheless doesn’t want to do any more yard work than is absolutely necessary, why would I do it twice? My feeling is to let the leaves fall and then take care of them in one fell swoop.

Any maybe with this hurricane/blast of chilly weather those pecan leaves will start dropping.

Or not.

It could be another couple of weeks before I have the opportunity to restore our lawn to its previous pristine luster.

Either way, don’t look for me out in the backyard whistling while I rake.

But you can join me in waiting to mulch those bad boys.

And rather than say I’m being lazy and hard-headed, let’s call it waiting for the right time to use nature to my advantage.

Keith Strange is a staff reporter at The Mount Airy News. He can be reached at kstrange@heartlandpublications.com or 719-1929.