Yard Waste

Normally, during football season, I like to plan on watching football all day. All day means 11:00 a.m to 11:00 p.m., breaking for bathroom, food and drink. This past Sunday, I woke up ready to rake some leaves in the backyard, as they had been piling up for the last few months. I started at 10:00, figuring it was going to take two hours. FOUR hours later, I filled up roughly 300 gallons of yard waste (10 - 30 gal. bags from Home Depot). I was pretty tired, sweaty and a little sunburnt, but at least the yard was clear of leaves. Surprisingly, not all of the grass was dead and I had to mow some of it later. Side note -- the grass in the front lawn is pretty much all dead. Apparently you have to water the grass (free homeowner tip #1). It's pretty horrible. At least the neighbors know they don't have the worst yard on the block. It's definitely my goal to have a beautiful lawn next spring.

Anyway, now I have 10 bags of lawn waste. Since my garbage company only takes kitchen and bath waste, what am I supposed to do with it? I'll tell you. I have to drive a few miles to the Cranford Conservation Center to dump it. Even better, I need to obtain a "permit" for $55 for the year (April - Mar). I'm not sure why they call it a permit. I don't have to apply for anything, I don't have to know anything, proove anything, waive anything, sign anything, etc. I just give some guy $55, and I have a permit. The permit itself is a hideous white sticker on the side of the car window. Goes nicely with the white/red parking sticker on the back windshield. We keep this up and our car will look like NASCAR soon. The center is open from 11-3 during the week, so I will have to go during the weekend. What can be better than driving around in a car full of yard waste on a cool Saturday morning? Ah, the suburbs!