It might be a bit early for a cartoon about raking leaves, but not if you have pecan trees. They’re the last trees to turn green in the spring and the first to shed their leaves at summer’s end. Plus, they’re very bad about dropping huge living limbs without warning. Normally these characteristics are ameliorated by a crop of delicious and useful pecans at least every other year, but around where I live it has been several years since a good crop of pecans, and this year will be no different. Plus, in a land that at one time was awash in an overflow of tomatoes from Independence Day thorough Labor day, cultivation of the tomato has become very problematic for home gardeners. Those lucky enough to have a crop by early July can almost count on the vines withering away by the end of the month. All I know is, things aren’t what they used to be. Happy Labor Day!