The leafblower

At my grandparents' house this afternoon, the work there included mowing the lawn, finishing cutting down the rotten plum tree and...using the leafblower.

When my family and I lived in Oregon, we owned a leafblower, although we mostly used it in reverse mode, which meant it sucked leaves up and mulched them. In blowing mode, however, while it wasn't a weak blower it wasn't an overpowered one, either.

Now, my grandfather's leafblower...that one is a beast of a machine. When I turned it on, I was not only surprised by how far it blew the leaves but also by how much of a recoil there was! Never before had I felt such a strong recoil on a leafblower. Once I overcame the surprise, however, I immediately hopped in to the joy of blowing the leaves into a large pile, which I then scooped up and took around the back to use as fertilizer.

So yes, this afternoon I had fun using a powerful leafblower. It wasn't as taxing as cutting down the plum tree but it was still intense in its own way.