Leaves are falling every where!

Guess what Jared and I spent Saturday doing, raking leaves, YEAH! Anyone who has been to our house can attest to the many trees that we have. I love the trees, year round, and I think it is fun to rake the leaves, but my oh my, there are way too many!, So the question then is this, how do you get rid of them all? We tried stuffing them into the garbage can, but that just wouldn't do it, so then Jared tried mowing the leaves, after the mower died twice, we gave up on that idea, although the pictures are pretty funny, I think. Then we got permission from the fire department to burn them (safely) but that would have taken days (I know I was surprised too by how long it took) so we resorted to bagging them, and we will slowly fill the garbage with a few bags each week. We were able to rake most of front yard, which filled ten bags, and our garbage can, but we have not even started the back yard. So I am wondering, with the need for alternative energy, could we somehow use leaves? I have lots! :D
Lucky us, our front yard looks like we never made an attempt to rake them up, and our trees are still covered with leaves. Oh well.