Everyone has at least one task involving manual labor that they love, often irrationally. Homesteaders usually eschew machines for many of their household tasks, but they still have some manual-labor chores that are more loved than others. Mine is raking leaves. Unless they're stuck in the mulch, I can usually tidy up a yard with a rake much faster than I could with one of those annoying leaf blowers. When I use the rake, I can still hear the birds sing. I burn some calories. And I use no gasoline or oil, and make no air pollution whatsoever. Plus there's a certain zen to gently clearing the ground of leaves on a cold fall or winter afternoon and sweeping them into a pile.
Often when I drive into town I see the gardeners with gasoline packs strapped onto their backs, blowing (more often than not) dirt off the sidewalk, or leaves out of the dirt. Sometimes I want to hand them a rake and a broom, and show them how much more efficient these tools really are. And I can't really believe that lugging around a gasoline backpack and waving a heavy plastic hose -- plus wearing a face mask and ear plugs all day long -- is either saving labor or making the tasks more pleasurable. Plus, what's the point of working as a gardener if you can't even spend your days listening to the birds sing?
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