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.

Again, I've spent a majority of my time working on the things for the Halloween party. I'm nearly done with the bathroom (FINALLY), and will be starting the final stages of the "torture chamber" this weekend. Last weekend, our friends who handed us the party this year came for dinner and brought 5 boxes of their decorations/props to use. I gotta say, I was like a kid in a candy store digging through all that. A lot we could use, and some we can't or just won't. C'mon...I have a guy in a woodchipper and a real wooden 7 foot coffin, I'm NOT using those silly smiley face pumpkins or cute little grinning ghosts. That would be my equivelant of turning off my Slayer cd, putting in The Carpenters, getting a minivan, wearing sandals and taking up golf..................................NOT GONNA HAPPEN!!!! lol. Today we went to the big Halloween store and decided to go ahead and spend the $15 on a timer for the fog machine that our friends let us borrow. That thing works great, but it has a switch that has to be pressed every time you want fog. This timer lets me set how often it goes off, and for how long it fogs. I hooked it up and of course HAD to give it a test run. See the pics below and you'll see it gives a whole new eerie look to the "graveyard". I want to build a "chiller" for it, so the fog lays on the ground rather than rise, but that's going to depend upon spare time and materials I have on hand. (the liquid sprays across heated coils to make the fog, so it's hot, lighter than air and rises. A chiller cools the fog after the coils and it lays low to the ground) I'm sure I have pipe fittings to use, but it's made from a cooler and I really don't want to cut holes in one. (I know I know, I really don't need SEVEN coolers lol)

Normally at this time of year, we go on "haunted" walks or tours, but this year we have decided not to, since they're $20-$40 each trip, plus gas and usually food on the way home. Instead we have decided to take up our own sort-of similar hobby and just visit old local cemetaries during the day. The artwork is sometimes fascinating. The history of some is incredible. The stories of some are strong, and some very sad. In the past week or so, we've visited six local cemetaries, and taken LOTS of pictures. Our plan is to open another blog, but we'll work on that after Halloween. So far we've seen GIANT monuments, tiny unmarked stones, old ones back to the early 1800's, and today found not only 5 WWI vets, but a Revolutionary War vet, my grandfather, (died when my dad was 3) and my great grandparents. (maybe a kinda creepy side note-I found my grandfathers grave today, 10-21-09 and he was buried on 10-21-41!) I know this may seem like an odd hobby to a lot of people, but during these "haunted" walks, we've both been more fascinated with the stones and history than with the actual ghost stories. I'll post more as we progress in this, and eventually post a link when we open a blog and/or a website.

I still keep somewhat in touch with an old girlfriend from long ago. We dated from when I was about 22 till around age 27. We broke up really rough, but it's been years. I have since apologised for what I did to her, and we remain friends. Her parents were wonderful people, and were always quite fond of me. Last year she told me her dad was sick, and I made it a point to go visit them. Yea....15 years or so after I dumped their daughter for who was not only my first wife, but her best friend, they welcomed me into their house with open arms. That short "hi how are ya" visit ended up being over 3 hours. I left happy to know that they still thought highly of me, and left planning to visit them again soon. Well...that visit didn't happen. She called me last week to know that he was in the hospital, and I planned to visit within a day or 2. She called yet again on Monday, crying and telling me that the doctors gave him days to live. I planned on going first thing the next morning, but she called me at 9:30 that night, telling me that he was gone. I felt awful for her and her mother, and sad that I didn't get that last chance to talk and shake his hand. I went to their house last night, and during what turned out to be a 4 hour visit, they asked me to be a pallbearer. I'm somewhat shocked about being asked, but I'm also honored. The funeral will be this Friday, and a military one since he was a WW2 Navy veteran. Sadly, the forecast calls for heavy rain, but lets hope that will change. I know it's a strange situation, and strange for me to write about here, but I can't help it, I really liked that guy. He was one of those nearly rare people that was always in a good mood, always smiling, and always joking. He was a bit of a drinker on occasion, but he was a funny drunk. No, let me correct that, he was a hilarious drunk. One night (I'm chuckling even as I type this) he came home drunk from the VFW with a case of butter. Yes you read that right, a CASE of butter...somewhere around 40 of those 4 packs of sweet cream butter...hahahaha. Turns out that one of the guys at the bar was a dairy driver and ran out of beer money. He went to his route truck and returned with a case of butter, offering it to the first person to give him $20 for beer. Well.....yea.....he bought the butter and came home with it, smiling like he had just made the best purchase of his life. Needless to say, his wife was NOT all to happy that A-he came home drunk, B-he spent $20 on something foolish, and C-she hated butter. Yep......he slept on the couch for a few nights, lol. Adrian "Sonny" Marko, I'll really miss you.

More Halloween pics

OK so I have gotten really really addicted to making props for Halloween, lol. Since the last post, I've added a gallows with a man on it, rewired a rediculous mat that said "trick or treat", (it now screams really loud) and rewired the swith under a halloween rug on the front porch. Thanks to the loan of friends, I have 2 strobe lights and a fog machine mounted under the awning at the front of the house, and finished my evil birdbath. I took apart the rotating head Jason, and it's toast. It got so hot that it melted the plastic gears that drive the mechanism, grrrrrr, I thought I could fix it and mount him outside.....ah well. I brought the wood chipper to the front corner of the house, made legs sticking out of it, and even fake "guts" with expanda-foam. (what a PITA to paint, but well worth it) I'm still toying with the idea of a flying ghost or ghoul, but that one is still on the "not sure" list. The "torture chamber" in the spare bedroom is nearly complete, though I need 2 more dummies and I think I am out of clothes that don't fit anymore hahaha. I'm sure that in the 2 1/2 weeks till the party, I'll come up with more........

Still alive........but working with the dead

Well it's been a few weeks since I posted anything, so I figured it was about time. The garden is dead, done, gone, over. We got a LOT of rain for several days, and then an unexpected frost, which finished things completely. The tomato's died quickly, as did most of the peppers, though 5 somehow survived. I'll make yet another batch of chili to can with the ones that are left, maybe on Monday. That's really all that's been going on here as far as the homesteading stuff, but that doesn't mean I haven't kept busy....I have....which brings me to the main reason for this post-HALLOWEEN!!!

As (I think) I've said before, we were handed the responsibility of the Halloween party this year that our friends normally host. Though we really can't afford it, we gladly accepted and plan to bury them in the "contest". I think we're gonna do that and then some!

I got the bug to start early 2 weeks ago, and started building dummies. I made two last year from ridgid fencing, and used the same technique this year. I made a full sized one for the front yard, which I turned into a gravedigger, another half one, which is a werewolf jumping out of the bushes, and another one that is a 7 foot Grim Reaper holding a lantern and pointing to the entrance. I dove into the scrap lumber pile with jigsaw in hand, and turned out 11 headstones, which are painted white and misted with black for that old stone look. (they still need epitaphs) There is a decapitaded stuffed dummy with a head on a pole, which is rather funny since it's torso is thrown over the same log I use for lopping chicken heads, lol. I used the old beat up chain link fence from the neighbor to run from the porch, to along the graveyard, to an antrance that I built from old gates. I even made a creepy looking old cemetary sign with our own official name on it, "Dark Gardens". There is a sign reading "Condemned-Keep Out", on one of the gates, and another on posts next to my Reaper that reads "Hell awaits (and candy)"...I just had to toss in a little Chris humor there, LOL. Along the fence are lighted skulls, and old farm impliments with fake blood. (crosscut saw, straw bale hook, hand sythe, bucksaw, and a broken axe. I have two ghosts on nearly invisible fishing line on either side, and am working on a mechanism to make the half buried coffin appear to be jumping back and forth.......I love making this stuff. I almost forgot the real cow skeleton under the awning, and the ghoul hanging from it. (whew!) I have cords ran across the roof to spotlights attached to the gutters, which light the whole thing up at night....it looks incredible.

The living room has a 7 foot solid wood coffin standing in the corner with a green strobe light behind it. Next to it are my giant speakers, which will be covered in black dyed sheers, topped with some awesome old candleabra's, and will be putting out some really creepy organ music. On the table by the window are 4 small fake stone pillars, a skeleton that flickers while it's heart beats and pulses red, a caped skull who's eyes flicker different colors, and a couple small headstones. We dyed some old curtains grey, and covered the iron flowerpot holder with spiderwebs. On the wall by the door is an 8 foot monster, which I hung to appear that he is chained to the wall. Above him is a shelf with a couple cow bones. (can you tell it's a quilt hanger?LOL) The wall opposite that (by the coffin) just has grey curtains, and we put a few skulls and other creepy things in the china cabinet with the black lights where Lisa displays her uraniumware/vaseline glass. The last wall behind the couch has a few of those creepy pictures that change, and some REALLY creepy old pictures of kids with glowing eyes. Lisa ran them off at work and we just cut them to fit inside the frames that were already there. In between the living room and kitchen, I used a heavy duty cardboard tube as a makeshift curtainrod, and hung some pieces of lace on it to seperate the two rooms........which leads me to the kitchen.

Lisa made this AWESOME spider victim from a doll I found at goodwill, and her wrapped webs run to the cupboard and across the room to a shelf. There is a flying witch that is hanging over the freezer, floating above a cauldron with the freakiest looking baby zombie I have ever seen. (another Lisa creation) The usual plant shelf in the window now holds various jars of "specimons" and "witchy stuff", and below it is another cauldron with a glowing/fogging crystal ball. There is a single headstone on the one wall, and a sort of vampire/ghoul/phantom of the opera guy over the walkway to the hall that leads to the bath and bedroom. We have a fake bloody tablecloth, but we haven't putten it on the table yet. Down the hall to the bathroom are various headstones on the walls, a few on the floor, a white strobe light, and soon-a fog machine.

The bathroom is barely started, though it is a good start. We have a shower curtain that has fake blood and the sillouette of a man wielding a big knife. (it has a motion decector that plays the Psycho theme) We're making a paper mache zombie, that will appear to be breaking in the window, and I have another one of my creations on top of the toilet. I took an old tabletop osculating fan, took off the guard and fan, cut off the shaft, formed a head shape with newspaper and tape, fitted it with a Jason mask and wig, made shoulders from pieces of round duct, put on a t-shirt and flannel shirt, and mounted it on top of the toilet. Now, Jason's head turns slowly from side to side, the same motion as the fan did. I *REALLY* want to continue him, making legs that come down and bend at the knees to surround the toilet, but we'll see how that goes. Right on the wall as you walk in is a skull inside a cage. It's motion detected as well, and pops out of the cage yelling "surprise!!".....hehe it's right above the light switch at head level.

We have more planned, and I'll post those as they are completed. I really can't wait for this party, and to hear my friend admit that I kicked his ass in the Halloween challenge. The best part about all of this is that we have spent very little. A lot of this we bought last year after Halloween at 75% off or more. Some was loaned by my friend Ben, who also built the coffin. Some was loaned by one of Lisa's co-workers, and a lot given to us by a few more or them. We'll probably spend more on food for everyone than we have on decorations or props. WOOHOO for awesome Halloween on a budget!!! Below I'll post a bunch of pictures, but I'm not gonna sit here and label each one...you can figure it out. hahaha

It's been a "blah" week

It's been a terribly blah week for me around here, I really haven't done much of anything. There are a hundred things that need done, but I haven't touched a single one. I do dishes, make dinner, and thats about it. I'm just in another mood thanks to this layoff, it happens, and it will pass again. I hate being this way, but honestly most of this week I could have just stayed in bed. I'm up now at 1am just because I forgot to wash jeans and Lisa needs some for work tomorrow.....I'm such a bad house-hubby, lol.

I did get motivated today to spend some time in the garage. The past few nights we have been talking about the Halloween party and looking at some home-made decorations and props. I decided that we needed more headstones for the front yard, so I hit the garage with my jigsaw in hand, attacking the pile of scrap plywood. I managed to make 9 total, mostly smaller 24 incher's or so, but I did make one nice 8 footer just to stand out a bit. I'm thinking of starting to do the front yard next week. It's a lot of work and I hate to just do all of it for a week or 2. I even made a fake cemetary sign that I'll be putting on a couple of posts for people to enter into. Our little graveyard is now officially named "Dark Gardens". I'll put it on posts, and use one of the gates from the neighbors pile with it. Of course it will be off-hinge and look like it's falling apart. I plan on using some other fencing to put in front of the "graveyard", and to mark the path to the front door. I'll have a couple shepards hooks with oil lanterns burning for a bit more effect. Next week (after the next check), I'll paint the headstones and let Lisa come up with some eptiaphs for them. I REALLY wanna get a can of blacklight hair spray for them too, and have a couple lights laying out in front of them. That's all of course going to depend on the budget. I did get Lisa's old sound machine that we had in the bedroom and modify it a bit. I disconnected the tiny 2" speaker and wired it to a 6" from an old bookshelf stereo. It sounds awesome with this creepy heartbeat going through it! I'll hide that out there somewhere too. I *might* work on a mannequin design I saw that used duct tape to mold someone and drywall mud for plaster....still thinkin on that one. Our friend Ben built a full 6 1/2 foot casket for our living room turned funeral parlor, and he's delivering that on Wednsday.

Quick side note: Does anyone know why we call the room the living room???????? In victorian times, there were no funeral homes. People set up the bodies in the "parlor" for all to see and to have the traditional wake. The people of the times thought this was an awful tradition, and started the funeral homes we now know, though at the time they were called Funeral Parlors. The name of the home's parlor was changed to "living room", thus a room for the living. Neat little tidbit, eh? LOL Just think, if that hadn't changed, you could be sitting with a casket in front of that big 'ole flatscreen! Sure would add a whole new creepy level to some of those video games, wouldn't it??

This weekend I'm going to try to can more tomato's, then start on salsa, which is always last for us. We have no set recipe for salsa, it's just made with what's left in the garden. Tomatos, green peppers, jalepenos, wax peppers, onions........all go in the mix in whatever combination we have. (though we can't make it very spicy for the wimps lol) I may let the plants go till we get the first frost, just to milk everything we can out of them, and maybe get a few more things canned up, but that again is going to depend on weather. It's getting colder and colder at night, and it seems like the days got shorter almost overnight. I do love fall, but I sware sometimes it just jumps right in with no warning.

But.....fall brings me into hunting season. I'm really excited about getting out this year, I haven't done much in the past few. It's hard to think about when all of my hunting buddies are gone. Some quit, some I don't speak to anymore, and my oldest hunting buddy just plain refuses to grow up. (not a lotta details, but he's a bad drinker-4 DUI's and 2 wives hasn't taught him a thing) My favorite old squirrel hunting woods have been logged out, and the newer people in the area call the police every time they hear a gunshot. The neighbor tells me he has an excellent place to squirrel hunt, but going out with them makes me kinda nervous. Remember the weddin'?? Yea, those guys. I may venture out and look into some public hunting areas, but they still make me a bit nervous too. Working on the other side of a gun counter will definitly make you think twice about public hunting lands, trust me! Either way though, I plan to get out more this year. I'm still not sure about deer hunting, but only time will tell on that one. I'd be happy for a freezer full of rabbit and squirrel. I guess I should just bite the bullet and research those public places, ughhhhh.

I *SHOULD* be up in Michigan landing more of these babies, but alas, money stops me and my old fishin buddy/roommate grew into a real jackass. Ah well, they sure were fun to catch!

Another kitchen day

Today I decided to go ahead and make some chili to can. I didn't follow any recipe, so it was just made on the fly. I used some hot chili peppers, lots of jalepenos, a few green peppers, plenty of fresh tomatos, 3 onions, lots of seasonings, and LOTS of black beans. I love black beans, so I decided that this first batch would be nothing but them. I just tasted a bit and I gotta say its pretty good! This batch isn't very big, so I don't expect to get but 3 or 4 quarts out of it, (less what I eat of course), but I'm ok with that. It will be 3 or 4 more than none! LOL the smell is so strong in here right now....all those peppers and spices in the chili, plus the pot of roma's cooking down. Mmmmm.....strong but heavenly.

Yesterday's canning went well..... The kraut looks funny since I mixed half and half green and red cabbage. The pumpkin on the right is out of the garden too. We kept looking and looking at that big thing and finally decided to pick it. It's 33 1/2 pounder!!! There are 5 or 6 more out there still, but nowhere nearly as big. Last night we did an actual count on empty canning jars, WOW. This spring we had a 6x8x2ft shelf stacked completly full, and almost half of another one the same size. Last night we counted 13 wide mouth pints, 8 widemouth quarts, and 32 regular quarts. Those will get burned up fast when we start soup.

We're taking this weeking off of all homestead duties. Tomorrow Lisa is working a half day, and after she gets home we're going to a Mabon festival not far away and having a bonfire later that night. I'll more than likely clean the chicken house in the morning before she gets home, it's definitly overdue. Sunday is her neice's 18th birthday, so she'll go there. I'll drop her off and I'll go visit my folks since they're only 10 minutes away. I've been going over during the week, but decided to wait to save on gas in the car. Besides, always being the only guy at her family functions isn't always fun, lol. Even when there are guys there, there's always a game on tv, and me being the lone guy that hates sports ends up sitting with the women anyway. Those people still can't figure me out. I *HATE* sports, I've never watched a game in my life. I don't sit around and swill beer. I don't golf. I don't wear pretty little matching shorts and gym shoes. I talk about getting rid of electric gadgets while they go on about their new $4000 plasma tv. I help around the house. I enjoy gardening and being outside. I'd rather spend my money on a new shotgun than a gym membership. *sigh* I'll never fit in with those kinda people lol ah well......I kinda like being a hermit!!!!!!

At the moment, I'm sitting down for a few minutes while there are 6 more quarts of whole tomato's in the canner. I have 3 more jars to do after that, then the canning is done for today. I already canned the first batch of kraut that was fermenting, yay! I picked more peppers yesterday afternoon, and I'll have to do those soon. After dinner tonight, I'll cut up the last 4 heads of cabbage for one last batch of kraut, then start cooking down another 5 gallon bucket of roma tomato's that I picked yesterday before dinner. I'm not going to pick anymore peppers now until I have enough hanging to do one good batch of jalepeno jelly. I thought I had one jar left last night, but I didn't.........grrrr how disappointing.

This is the first year I have been so involved in doing the canning itself. Usually Lisa does all of the work, and I just pick and carry. But since I'm home anyway, I've taken on the responsibility of doing it all myself. I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit, which surprised me. Normally I'll find ANYTHING to do outside so I'm not stuck in the house, but canning gives me a great feeling of accomplishmant. It's a great feeling to know that we can grow enough here to feed ourselves throughout the summer and fall, but can and store enough to last until next season or more. Knowing that trips to the grocery store are monthly or less, and normally just for basics like coffee, milk, and flour. Knowing that we aren't eating canned vegetables full of preservatives, pesticides, herbicides, and packed in a can with a lining that leaches into the food. Knowing that we have done the work ourselves, and that the food we eat wasn't produced in Mexico, Peru, or god knows where else. This is a goal we set for ourselves years ago, and are finally reaching it.

Now if I could just find an apron thats camoflage with some of my favorite bands on it.............oh Lissssaaaaaaaaaaaaa...wanna do some sewing? LOL