Party overview and back to normal

The party was a HUGE sucess. We checked the guest list the day of the party, and figured on around 30. Some we knew would show for a while and leave, others we knew would probably not come at all, and some we knew just wouldn't dress up. Well........we had 40 people here! The majority of them came in costume, but the few that we didn't expect to of course did not.
Lisa spent most of Friday and Saturday cooking and baking, and no one went hungry. We didn't supply any alcohol, and everyone that wanted any brought their own. Some brought a single bottle of something to contribute, some brought beer, and my wonderful friend Ben brought several mixed drinks, a few bottles, and a deadly little jar of cherries soaked in shine for 2 weeks. Everyone ate well, drank well, and we only had one person get a little too much to drink. Sadly, by 12:30, everyone was gone except for us, the kids, Ben, and one of the kids friends. LAME!!!!! But....everyone had a great time and all were amazed at the decorations. We both thought we needed more, but everyone that came fussed over how much we had done. hehe wait till next year folks, you haven't seen anything yet.
I wish I could say that I had a bunch of pictures to post, but I don't. After 15 or so jello-shots, a few zombies, and other concoctions I shouldn't have had, I lost my camera. After everyone left, and we were sitting around sipping coffee, I decided to take off my costume. Oh yea.......found the camera.......in my right shirt pocket.....oops. hahahaha We had a few guests take a lot of pictures, and when I get them all e-mailed to me, I'll post them here. Yesterday I got up early, made coffee, and while Lisa was at work, I took down and boxed up every single decoration and got it all downstairs. By the time she got home at 7:30, it was all done. I heated up some chicken soup and we spent the evening watching old horror movies. Other than the cold we're both fighting, it was a great end to our Halloween season.

Now that this is all over and we can actually concentrate on things at hand, we'll be returning to our food storage and other things. While the garden is completely done, we'll continue canning more chicken soup and probably more of my chili. I'll be finishing the rest of the roosters hopefully tomorrow so they'll go straight into soup and chicken stock. I'll butcher the last 3 rabbits as well and put them in the freezer too. They haven't bred all summer, so I'm not keeping and feeding something that isn't returning my efforts. I'll butcher them, clean out the hutch, and start over in the spring with fresh ones. I'll be running a cord to the henhouse for a heat lamp soon, just so I don't have to mess with their waterer freezing inside. Fall came on so fast that the aricaunas quit laying all together, but I'm still getting 3 brown eggs a day from the barred rocks, and about 2 a week from the bantam. They won't be as productive as they were last year since they're outside now. Last year they had heat lamps, atomatic timed lights, and never really knew it was winter. They all layed heavy all winter long, but they won't this year.

Sometime this week, I'll be going through all of the food storage and see what we are short on and hopefully replace it. We managed to get 50lbs each a few weeks ago of flour, bread flour and sugar, so those will be ok until the Christmas baking season starts. The rest is looking ok, but I want to make sure we don't run out of anything. The forecast calls for a bitter cold winter this year, and I dont want to have to make runs to the store for something silly, I want it all here before hand. Because of the forecast, we're also going to be putting that shrink wrap window covering on every window and probably heavy drapes. I hate how it makes the house so dark, but with the forecast calling for bitter temperatures, gas prices being high,and me still being layed off, we're better off dealing with a dark house than with an outrageous gas bill that we'll have to struggle to pay.
HOPEFULLY this weekend I'll get the last mowing done, take off the belly mower and put the snowblade on the Loboy. I have to fix the starter first though, ugh. The nut that holds the pulley on worked loose, let the pulley spin, and rounded off the keyway in the shaft. I'll get it out, but I may have to drill & tap it and put in a set screw along with a new keyway...just have to see how it goes.
All for now, I'm off to put the living room furniture back where it belongs....yay me.