It replaces our lousy old one. How lousy was the old one? It was made by Frigidaire.

We had a bunch of leaves and pine needles raked up (and not raked up) and waiting to be bagged. Probably several bags’ worth. I ran over them with this mower, which mulches and bags.

Two lawn bags.

Folks, we may have a game-changer here.

Next: How Are Those Superhero Comics Working Out For You Guys?

We’ve raked up 77 bags of leaves. I would add “so far” since we haven’t touched the back yard yet, but honestly, the chances of that happening are pretty slim. And it wouldn’t matter anyway for contest purposes, since the highest guess we got has already been surpassed. Which means we have a winner:

This is Nigel’s second win. He’s a formidable force in this sport, that’s for sure!

Our progress was hampered a bit by the fact that it’s been so rainy. We couldn’t use the Leaf Hog (a/k/a “suckamajig”) because the leaves were always so wet. One advantage of all the rain, though, was that the tree by the garage, which normally holds out until there’s snow on the ground, was stripped bare pretty early.

It looks like 77 may be a record. It’s the highest documented number I can find. I mention in one season thinking around 80 were done, but we lost count so I’m afraid the judges can’t accept that.

Nigel, we will be sending a fabulous gift your way. And everyone else, thanks for playing and we’ll see you again in the Spring!

Next: Happy Thanksgiving!

Guesses for this season’s Leaf Bag Contest must be submitted before noon Eastern time on Friday, October 30! Let’s see some more participants!

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It’s the annual Leaf Bag Contest!

Yes, this weekend we begin yard cleanup once more, and our toil is your entertainment! Get your guesses in as to how many bags of leaves we’ll rake up before either (a) it snows too much for us to continue, (b) we get tired of it, or (c) we finish (ha!). Winner will be determined by who is closest to the number without going over, and there’s no point guessing something someone else already guessed.

The prize will be something amazing and maybe this time I’ll actually send it to the winner!

They’re talking about an early snow this year…

Next: This Del.icio.us Week

We got 25″ of snow last night, so the leaf bag contest must come to an end! This is actually a lie — we got like MAYBE an inch, but it sounds much better than “We ran out of steam like weeks ago.”

A grand total of FORTY bags were filled, making NIGEL the winner of a fabulous, yet-to-be-determined prize! Nigel, be checking your mailbox!

It was clear that with the leaf hog in the picture no one really knew where this was going, including us. The leaf hog, I’ll say, performed admirably. I personally found it to be a lot better than stooping-and-scooping. Its touted “10-to-1″ bagging ratio however, is a ridiculous exaggeration; I can’t even imagine how this statement is justified. I’d say it brought the number of bags down by a factor of somewhere between a half and a third. (We didn’t use it for all of the bags, but most of them.)

We never got to the right side of the house much at all, but we did get to the garage tree, which often hasn’t finished shedding leaves by the time we pack it up. And the backyard will be a project for Spring, if ever. (I kind of like the leaves and needles all over the back yard, as it’s not like we get any meaningful grass back there anyway.)

Thanks to everyone who participated in this very exciting competition! Rest assured that we are constantly looking for new ways to “mix it up” so that the leaf bag contest doesn’t become boring and predictable.

Everyone give Nigel a round of applause!

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I hope the lack of real updates will be forgiven by an honest-to-gosh leaf bag update. Becky got six more bags done while I was saddled down with work, making the total 40. Here are the new standings:

1 – Dave H
12.5 – Otro Dave
15 – Isaac
17 – Albatross
21 – Lanf
26 – Bugink
27 – Blasterhappy
29 – Jerm
31 – Stewart
33 – Deshae
35 – Vicky
36 – Kurt
37 – CounterProductive

40 – Nigel

42 – John M
44 – Anarkey
48 – Anne
52 – Googum

These bags were from the tree by the garage, which is usually last to fall and is now bare. Will these be the last bags of this very exciting season?

Next: Working

(No leaf bag update. This week was nothing but rain again. There’s stuff that NEEDS to be raked, but it’s always sopping wet.)

I was running low on stupid shit to do on the computer, so I’m now on Twitter. I don’t know why. My most recent “tweet” is in the sidebar over there. We’ll see how it goes.

This has been an incredibly lazy weekend and man, that’s just fine!

Next: Also, He’d Like to Hold Your Hand

Well, there is an update, but the update is: status unchanged. Still at 34 bags. It rained all week long which brought down a lot of the leaves from the tree by the garage, but everything is soaking wet so we can’t rake them yet. It’s been quite warm, though, so I don’t think we’re due for snow any time soon.

Next: Dianoga Days and Batman 425