Halloween and Voting

Tomorrow is election day and everyone needs to show up to vote out all those disgusting senators and representatives who are enabling a pedophile and convicted felon to enrich himself and his billionaire friends. As if starting a war and destroying the world economy wasn't bad enough he has trashed everything he touches, even Washington. What a horrible mess they have helped him make of our country. Last week HM and I received a package of spices from our lovely goddaughter, Kate. The first letters of the spices spell out a word that could mean an end to this political nightmare. Consider this as a public service message, via Penzey's Spices, to get out and vote! 

It has been a little hard to concentrate on Halloween this year. In a effort to not get overwhelmed by politics, The Crew decided to distract themselves by getting ready for Trick or Treating. It always takes more time than anyone expects and decorating the front porch usually gets left to the last minute. It's also very easy to lose track of the new lights and decor picked up over the summer. Ivy was very happy to discover this box actually held what she was looking for. Just in case, they gathered some back up jols who look pretty happy to be included.

Getting the new decorations to actually light up was another issue.

Persistence paid off, or maybe there was something wrong with the batteries? Whatever happened, they got them both working . . . for the time being.

Earlier in the day there was a unanimous decision that the pumpkin was ready to be picked.

 

When it was time to turn it into a jack-'o-lantern, Ivy and Kib decided it wasn't really ripe enough.

Burt was totally oblivious to the controversy, as usual.

It did make a great hat stand though.

HM's job was to gut the pumpkins then I did the carving. He always approaches the job with a cheerful attitude and a very dull knife. What could go wrong?

I never have a clue what the pumpkins are going to look like when they're finished.

Last summer I had a dream about Halloween and in it, the words "Trick or Treat" were written on the risers of our front porch steps. After telling His Madness about it, he offered to try to recreate the scene. To my surprise, it looked exactly same. Now, I need to dream about winning the lottery!

I hope everyone had a great weekend and a very happy Halloween.

Don't forget to vote on Tuesday! Nothing is going to change until all those useless politicians are voted out of office and the orange one is held accountable for his crimes. We all have a voice and it's best served by voting and it would be a good idea to apologize to Canada, Mexico, Norway and the rest of the world for electing the moron who's ruining everything.

See you soon.

The Crew Takes Charge

Around the beginning of July, when the internet is all about the new Halloween decor, I always think this is the year I'm going to be ready for spooky season. Oddly, there's nothing that gets me more in the mood for autumn than walking across a sweltering parking lot to the At Home store in the middle of summer. I don't even want to go near there unless it's at least 95°F. and sunny. They always have the essentals but who's thinking about lights and garland while deciding if we can store an eight foot skeleton upstairs in the garage. Plus, His Madness has to check out all the hats.

Then it's suddenly the middle of October and none of our lights from last year are working and the garland is missing. The stores are full of Christmas decorations and they're completely out of orange lights. So much for being prepared. 

It's obvious that HM and I can't be trusted to bring home the basics needed for Halloween decorating so The Crew decided to take over. They have a list.

 

The selection at their first stop was a little sparce and they were out of lights, too. 

On the other side of the lake they hit the motherlode, although this pumpkin patch didn't carry lights, they decided one of these had to come home with them.

Then they got a look at the pumpkin selection.

It was time for a cart.

The Crew's shopping trip was a  huge success. Unloading the car took awhile.

All together, The Crew found four big pumpkins to carve and lots to stack around outside. The squirrels and racoons will trash every single one of them and leave the pieces on our nicest neighbor's lawn, who will laugh as we apologize. This year should be a very colorful mess. 

Somewhere beneath the candy are the lights, I hope.

It's a little crowded but Ivy's happy with the mums and pumpkins around the back door. The front porch will get decorated at the last possible moment with the carved ones. The steps are ruled by a chipmunk clan that will fiercely defend their territory from the squirrels but are no match for the raccoons. We try to modify the critter conflict by using scented candles and filling in the gaps with plastic jack-'o-lanterns. Sometimes it even works.

Burt and Kib strung some lights on the baker's rack (the former mouse residence, back to it's original purpose) and fired up a new misting cauldron. Are things finally coming together?

Sort of. The cauldron stopped producing mist after just a few minutes but the lights are still working. Close enough. Kudos to Mother Nature on the coordinating sunset.

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon.

Have a great weekend!

Taking Care of Business

Dealing with the mice has become a little more complicated since we discovered there were at least two of them. It is very important to locate where they are getting into the patio. They don't need to be inviting their friends over or getting comfortable enough to start a family.

  

Finding their entry didn't take very long, it would've been hard to miss a hole that big. After a quick search on the internet it seemed like the easiest way to deal with the situation was to scare them off.  Alternatively, trapping and releasing them far away, in a wooded location.

So, we picked up some humane traps as backup in case they were deaf or heavy sleepers. These mice were definitely benefiting from our fondness for The Bramley Hedge books.

Burt generously offered a few tiny morsels of his favorite snacks but peanut butter is the number one recommendation. It was nice of him to offer anyway.

The local Earth Science Club's annual Gem and Mineral Show was being held at the fair grounds, next door to the county park. It was the perfect opportunity to check out possible mouse relocation sites and pick up some pretty rocks for the sparrows to perch on while they shower in our pond. 

According to the info on the humane traps site, the mice should be released somewhere far enough away so they won't find their way back. Seriously, how far could they get on those little feet? This area looked promising, but it's too close to the maintenance buildings where something tells me they might not bother with gentle entrapment methods.

This place seemed better and looked to be very popular with the locals.

They wouldn't be lonely.

So we cranked up the death metal, lit some scented candles and hoped they would just leave. After the concert, just to be safe, the traps were loaded with peanut butter and placed along the escape route. There has no sign of the mice for several days. The birdhouses appear to be abandoned too, or at least uninhabited. There's a spot for them in the backyard, as far away from the patio as possible, except for the one that had been occupied. That one is definitely going in the trash. 

Who knows when or where they went but I'm glad they're gone. Has peace been restored? Can we finally relax? At least until the next time a mouse sticks it's head out of one of the haunted houses or plastic jack-'o-lanterns. The sparrows are happy with their new rocks and we can only hope the mice will follow the good example set by the birds and stay on the other side of the screens.

Halloween is getting very close, it's about time we get back to the busines of being spooky.

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!

The Harvest Moon

Shortly after His Madness and I moved to Oshkosh, we discovered that the moon would rise in a pretty spectacular fashion over the lake - if we were somewhere with an unobstructed view. Obviously, this is a common phenomenon all over the world, but since it was something we hadn't noticed before, we thought it was pretty cool.

  

Every so often we end up in the right place at the right time to catch it. Saturday was the Harvest Moon. Apart from being the title of a Neil Young album back in the '90's, I didn't realize it was associated with anything practical. According to The Old Farmer's Almanac, because it rises while the sun is setting, it provides extra light late into the evenings, giving farmers more daylight to harvest their crops.

Earlier that day The Crew had headed to our garden in the hope of doing a little harvesting too. 

As usual, it's a mixed bag of things we actually plant, volunteers that come up from who knows where (probably the compost bin), and stuff that falls off the trees. 

The Crew won't be needing any extra time at the end of the day to harvest this lot. If we get enough to make a few salads we're happy. The tomatoes actually do taste better than they look.

Naturally, we have an overabundance of hot peppers. Time to get out the Pepto.

Ivy grew a bumper crop of Carolina Reapers this year and after tasting one has wisely decided not to share them with our neighbors. Why is it always the super hot, barely edible varieties that do so well? Even the raccoons leave them alone. Maybe we should surround our lot with them next year?

Several feet away from the raised beds, Kib discovered something large and squash-like, secretly growing underneath the Black-Eyed Susans. Those vines do like to wander.

Burt thinks it might be a pumpkin but can't be sure until it turns another color other than green. It's hard to believe the squirrels haven't nibbled on it yet. 

It was fun to get out in the garden and see what survived our neglect. The salads will keep until tomorrow. We enjoyed another view of the moon from our favorite drive-in and thanked our lucky stars that we don't ever have to rely on what we grow to keep us alive.

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!

It's Always Something

 

In our area, after a long hot summer, there was approximately one week of what could be described as "nice" before the temperature dropped like a rock and the skies turned to lead. Outside a restaurant, where we were having lunch, there was this grumpy heron, just staring at the choppy water. He was probably cold and thinking it might be time to fly south. That was easy to understand, but who would want to miss out on fall?

The Crew always get excited when the gloomy weather shows up, then spooky season can really begin. Right now Burt and Kib are keeping an eye out for what's happening in our front yard, supervising the very last project that will make this Halloween a lot more fun and keep the trick-or-treaters safe from twisting their ankles.

Over the year and a half it took to replace the water pipes, storm sewer, the entire street and all the sidewalks in our neighborhood; His Madness had a wonderful time documenting the process. Like we were ever going to forget it happened? Still, a big ugly problem remained. We're not counting the "X" defacing our magnolia, since it's finally starting to fade. After cutting down over a dozen mature trees that lined our street, the contractors had a hard time accepting the fact that there was one left standing. They were so disappointed.

All summer long we pestered the city to fix the temporary asphalt walkway they put in last November. Actually, we wondered if they were intentionally putting it off because they didn't get to cut down our tree. Eventually, they came by with more spray paint, a beaten up traffic cone and a broken barricade to make it into an even bigger eyesore. Then they disappeared for a few more weeks. During this time we had to replace two of our kitchen appliances that could only fit through the front door. At least no delivery people were harmed in the process.

 Just as we were about to complain again, a crew finally showed up, dressed to match the hydrangeas. So, how many construction workers does it take to pave ten feet of sidewalk? Sorry, for the weird pattern, I took this photo through the window, not trusting in my ability to interact civilly with these guys.

That took care of the problem at our front door but we still have to deal with the one at the back.  I'm sure this isn't going to work but it's a start. We would like to decorate our patio for Halloween!

Following a careful application of the repellent we noticed the weather had improved.  It seemed like a good day to take a drive around the lake while waiting for the rhodent squatters to leave and we ended up at an apple orchard almost directly across the water from our town. Nothing beats running away from your problems. 

In their gift shop, the already spooky atmosphere was enhanced with a huge, intact (but abandoned, of course) wasp nest. It was the size of a microwave. This is why I don't go apple picking. Guess we aren't the only ones with pest problems.

After a nice day and pleasant drive, the mice were still there and we are looking into other options for dealing with the varmints. We did bring home plenty of comfort food to stuff ourselves with while we wait for inspiration or the exterminator, whatever comes first. Hopefully, before the donuts are gone.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend!