I love pine trees. We have two in our yard and one just across the fence in our neighbors yard, which acts like it is mine by dumping all its needles in our yard. So, from the two on both sides of our house in the front and one in the back, we get amazing pine needle and cone productions. I raked yesterday after our first fall wind, seemed like winter’s wind, but it had gusts of maybe 70 mph or somewhere so close to that. Anyway, tons of pine needles came raining down on my yard and our street. Since Dallas was playing the early game, I had to get out early, in the cold but clear weather and rake. And rake.  And rake. I even did the street. I had my little Mazda pick-up stacked as high as I could get the pine needles stacked. I did cover my load to haul it the dump location. A few years ago, no. 1 son gave me a gadget that attaches to my tail gate. It is fabric on a roller  with a crank handle. This sheet of some durable material is rolled off to cover the bed of the pickup and I load the needles, leaves, pulled up plants, etc and pile them in the back of the truck on top of that fabric. Then when I get to the dump, I back into the dump area, lower my tail gate and crank the load off, in seconds…..Usually, I draw a crowd to witness what just happened. If you have ever unloaded a load of grass, weeds, pine needles, you know what I’m talking about. Normally, it takes you a while to get a pickup unloaded. This little gadget is a real time and work saver as long as your load is not real heavy. On heavy loads the fabric slips and will not pull the load out. I learned that the hard way. But for grass and weeds, pine needles and such, it is great. Let me rephrase the opening sentence…Most of the time I love pine trees….