Blown Away

I often say it is not the cold I hate so much as the wind. I can handle a cold, calm day. A cold, windy day is just outright inhumane torture. For the past 24 hours or so we've been getting sustained 50 mph winds. In short, stepping outside to get the mail sucks and blows. One good thing that has come of it as that in the past day all the leaves from my five huge, 75+-year-old oak trees have come down -- and I do mean all at once. Yesterday, I had a shady back yard. This morning there was full sun and about a two-foot feet thick layer of leaves on the ground. By this afternoon, thanks to the winds, many of those leaves have blown on down the street. How can I arrange this natural leaf-blower action every year?