For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for October 13, 2019

It takes a very special level of sulking to go on about what a pain trees are. Michael is a unique kid.

what a comparison

Yo Patterson’s! Your not supposed to rake leaves. They take up space and break down into greenhouse gasses. Leaves should be mowed with a mulching mower. It chops them up and they break don into nutrients for the yard. It helps to hold in moisture.

Once leaves start falling in my house I have to wait three to six weeks for my landlord to take them.

Ellie doesn’t look pregnant in the Sunday comic. I guess they don’t run these chronologically.

And if you have a lot of Crepe Myrtles, draught and a giant Oak Tree, plus a swimming pool, the rake looks a lot like a fishing net on a long pole, and the leafs are soggy. Ugh!

Farley’s got the right idea!

Lynn’s Comments:

We had a small piece of property near our house in North Bay. Friends who were involved with a tree planting program gave us two dozen evergreen seedlings to plant—which we did, hoping to see at least some of them survive. All of the seedlings grew, and today, there is a forest on that land. Hard to believe I have lived long enough to see a forest grow!

Yesterday Elly had a pot belly, now she is in better shape today. Hope she knows that yo-yo dieting is unhealthy.

She’s fat, she’s thin, she’s thin, she’s thin.

The Oprah of Canada!

The technical term for that stuff around here is Kid Crud.

I guess the trees have reached their teen years.

An odd method, filling a basket with leaves and then transferring them into a bag. Eliminate the middle. Bring the bag to the leaf pile.

Falling leaves are fun when you are a kid and can jump in piles of them. In later years, they become an annual nuisance. I for one am more than grateful for the mower / mulching option rather than the tedium of raking and raking and raking and raking.

Elly should learn to leave stuff lying around, and when the kids ask "where’s my (whatever), she can point to it lying on the stairs, banister or in the middle of the floor. That might be a good lesson for them to learn. A friend did something with his kids which worked – when he spotted clothes on the floor he’d wipe his feet on them. The girls learned quickly..

Only because you let them live like pigs.

When children leave a mess like that in the entry way/hall, it is the fault of the parents who did not make them clean it up the first time it happened. Although I do like @Ginny’s solution.

That (in the last panel) was pretty much how I felt about having to get the old oak in the front yard here – older than I am – cut down.

Another eco-friendly idea is to put some Ex-Lax in Michael’s dinner, then send him to the Enjos’ backyard. He will sure fertilize their pumpkin!