Home Building

When you were little did you ever build a leaf house?

I'm not exactly sure what we called them. 

Maybe they were known as leaf forts (we were big on forts around my neighborhood) or a leaf home.

Just after the leaves would start to fall, I remember that some friends and I would grab rakes and carefully create lines of leaves on the grass. 

Intricate designs, perhaps six inches wide, formed into miniature outlines of rooms and hallways until we outlined our own house on the grass.

Leaves don't make much of a home.  The right kind of leaf can work as a shingle if you overlap them carefully so the water runs down the leaf to the gutter and onto the ground.  I'm not sure how old we were when we did this, my guess is around 10.

You have to have good neighbors if you live in a leaf house.  And maybe an cloak of invisibility when it's time to change clothes.

I recall some fairly elaborate designs that were created.  The idea was probably to "rake" leaves without actually getting the work done that mom and dad were expecting.

Did you ever build your own place out of leaves? 

Was there a living room, dining room, kitchen, and a bedroom?

It's possible my friends and I were the only ones doing this, but I doubt it.  If you did, I'd love to see your comment and what state you lived in when you played architect and builder.

As the leaves turn color and fall - you can re-live some of your youth with a house outlined in leaves before you finish raking the rest of the yard.  

You might even be able to pass on this northern climate ritual to a new generation.