less than 50 days!

This sign will be going out onto the fence tonight!  

I just learned last night that it's just a paper sticker stuck to a sheet of metal, so I'm really surprised it's lasted as long as it has!  A couple touch ups on the red & black and a coat of sealant and it's ready to go for another year!

The burning bush in my yard is exploding with color! 

Oooooo - I stayed home from work last Friday (the Grandson started kindergarten on August 26 and already brought the plague home and gave it to me!) and got a text from my manager with just a photo....

Of course the Spouse & I made a Saturday trip to the office to go get it...

Chuck for scale.....

It's my giant pig!!

I almost gave up on getting Pork Chop (that's her name!) from Halloween Express, since it was back & forth between out of stock and on backorder.  But I'd still go check there and on Oriental Trading once in a while.  So when I saw it was actually in stock for sale - I jumped on it!  And held my breath until I saw the order confirmation email.  Once I actually ordered it, it delivered really fast - in like 3 days.

My mailbox guard.  This cicada sat there for a couple days, too.

So the plan this weekend is to start getting stuff out of storage and staging it on the patio.

Oooo and also - my last post must have gotten some divine attention because my search & rescue team's director sent a message that same day to the team asking if anyone was interested in Halloween Camp!  

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Of course, so far all the info I have is the date - the first weekend in October.  

But at least I know it's still on for this year! 

Birthday gift t-shirt from my manager - I love it! 

It's meteorological fall!

Bring it on!!!

We're now at 59 days to Halloween. 

  

The Spouse & I had to postpone our vacation to some other time TBD because the Spawn got into a car accident (thankfully her & the grandkids were all OK and only minor damage to her car) but said car needs to have the front bumper, passenger side front quarter panel & headlight replaced - which can be easily gotten from a junkyard. But until then, I'm her chauffeur. 💀 

I really don't know when we'll get to go now.  It might just be a long weekend now instead of a full week like we had planned.  Too much other random stuff going on here & there - including exhuming the skeletons from the garage and the rest of the cemetery from the shed, etc. 

Also - I haven't heard anything about Halloween Camp yet!  Last year I got an email about it on August 20. It's usually held on the 2nd weekend in October, but I'm hoping not this time, since one of the Spouse's friends is getting married that Sunday so I'd have to leave early on the day when all the action happens.  Of course there's the logistical issue - my house is about an hour drive south of where Camp is usually held - and the wedding is about an hour drive north.  Ugh.

My addiction continues....

Meet Ralph & Earl.

People who shop at Meijers must be sheltered since I got some weird looks for walking around with them in the cart!  

It was hard to see around them, too. 

Lat Friday was my birthday.  Chuck kept me company at work - and cut the cake for me. 

The Keep Out banner is from last year - we left it up hoping to would keep people out.....

it doesn't work. 

I grabbed this screenshot off FB last week - the advisory is still on because the temp said 53* when I left for work this morning!

So I got my fox skeleton from Michaels - look at this fantastic packaging!

His head popped off, but went back on easily enough.  

My mums are blooming!  

I love that a so called "annual" plant has been blooming regularly for 10+ years now. 

Altho I used to have a red one and planted a white next to it and now they're all white. 

Weird.

The Grandson went off to kindergarten last week!

He says he loves it - yay!

That's it for now.  

Sure wish I could be outside enjoying the day instead of being inside (not) working! 

74 days!

 Time is just ticking closer & closer!  But first, the grandson starts kindergarten next week and my birthday is next Friday! (cash & presents always accepted!)  The Spouse & I are planning to go away for a couple days soon and he's fully planning on hitting the last 10 real Maple Grove cemeteries we need to go to in Michigan!  We've visited 22 already and this will finish them off.  These are all in the SW-ish part of the state so they're somewhat close to each other.   

I was excited to look at my emails this morning and saw one from Dex at Countdown to Halloween - signups are happening for the Countdown Bloghop!  

I've already had a list going of topics I'm going to write about - so the official sign up makes it seem close!

Oh, and signups for the Card Exchange on the HalloweenForum have started, also!  

Since I'm passing on the Secret Reaper (like a secret Santa, but H'weeny), I thought I'd get in the cards.  

Basically everyone posts on the thread that they're participating - and how many cards they want to send out, if they want to keep it in the US or not - and everyone sends messages to exchange addresses.  Some people send really basic cards, others go all out making theirs - mine will be somewhere in the middle. 

I got my Target version of the "disco" skeleton.  I actually like it a lot. 

The body is silver and the JOL head is faceted and not glued on mirrors.  And since the Spawn spent many years in dance, the glitter that's in the eyes, nose & mouth don't bother me.  I can't vouch for the Spouse, but I'm OK with it. 

I've behaved and haven't bought anything else - except this!

I took the screenshot yesterday, but today it was available to ship, so you know I grabbed it up!

I also got a 15% military discount and had a $5 voucher to use.    

And as for my big ol' piggy from HalloweenExpress - my account still says out of stock, but the actual listing just says on backorder - with no other info.  But Oriental Trading has the exact same pig and they say it's shipping on 8/21.  So fingers crossed!  I'm half tempted to cancel the HE order and get it thru OT, since I've ordered from them before and never had a problem - just in case - even tho I'm pretty sure they're the same company....but anyway.   

I better start thinking about when we'll start exhuming the skeletons from the garage and getting things staged out on the patio.. it won't be until next month but we don't want to wait until the last minute to pull weeds from between the bricks and move the grandkid's toys out of the way!

Later, peeps!

Gratuitous backyard selfie - because I don't hate this pic!

Augtober??

I've been seeing a lot of posts & memes about Happy Augtober?  Kinda weird, but I guess it goes along with "Summerween"!  I kind of see what they're getting at with that.   

Anyhoooo.  Check out that tree!  I noticed it a week before I took the pic, too. 

I've been noticing a lot more trees already changing, too.  I wonder if it has something to do with all the haze we're getting from the Canadian wildfires?   We've been getting a lot of days with weird lighting and odd colored skies. 

I was in Ohio the last weekend in July and we stopped at the Cracker Barrel in St. Clairsville on the way home Sunday and saw this across the street!  

OMG.  I went onto HalloweenExpress.com and look at what may have fallen into my basket!

This guy is 36" long x 24" tall x 14" wide!!!

They also show a wide of someone moving its head so the dimensions are accurate. 

And this one!  I have one peeking skeleton similar to this, but mine isn't waving.  

Love it! 

Both things were on backorder when I ordered and gave reasonable estimated delivery dates, but now I'm concerned because the piggy is now showing as out of stock.  I emailed the company and haven't heard back yet.  

OMG - Michaels!

A fox???  Where was this the first year I had my horse skeleton and wanted to do a fox hunt scene?

and ~why~ is it currently unavailable for store pickup AND unavailable to ship to me???

I picked up all my goodies from TSC - they're all absolutely adorable. 

Of course I had to pose the raccoons on the trash can!

If you look close, there are real raccoon footprints on the lid. 

The possums!  LOVE!  

And the babies have hooks on their undersides to hold them onto the mom.  

The Goose!  Love it, too!  It's nice & solid and obviously life-sized.  

He's going to be fun. 

Super cute towels and they feel really nice, too. 

I never saw this on the Cracker Barrel website, but they sure had it in the store!  At least the one I mentioned earlier in St. Clairsville had it.   

Since I had a coupon....and it was the last one!

I'm jumping all around here - when I saw the foxes online at Michael's, I still stopped into the store where I got 2 raccoons from last year, just kind of hoping.  Nothing.  But I did find these guys! 

They're paintable, but still cute even if they're not painted!

So with the exception of the fox skeleton, I think I'm finally done with skeleton purchases this year.  

I think.

My fabulous 3' disco wannabe is due to be delivered today. 

I can't wait to see what he looks like in person - I'm obviously ok with it not being completely covered in little mirrors like the one I got from Party City last year.  Very neat, but there are tiny mirrors all over my house! 

I confess to be mildly guilty when I ordered the disco guy.  Not about the fact that I bought him, I have a 'fun money" account at the bank where a bit of each paycheck goes into just so I can get the H'ween stuff that I want.  But I've kinda gone crazy this year and I do believe that storage is going to be a BIG issue come November.   Currently the horse, pony & unicorn are all neatly stored in the box that the horse came in.  But it's cardboard and wrapped in a lot of duct tape. Something sturdier would be nice.  There is a small loft in the backyard shed - there are a lot of critter skeletons just loose in there - at the mercy of real critters who like to get in there and knock them down.  The smaller skeletons are in a box in the garage.  And the new ones I've acquired so far this year are pretty much just floating around loose in the garage.  

I've mentioned the new giant totes they have at Home Depot to the Spouse.  If they're big enough to hold a 12' skeleton, they're big enough to hold a lot of critter skeletons!  But then again - where to put it?  I'd probably need like 3 anyway.  

Ugh. 

Anyhoo. 

I realized last night that I had a headlight out and just learned that they look like flames! 

They're not usually on when I look at the front of the car. 

I also learned that the fancy headlights that turn when you turn the wheel are very expense to replace.

And you have to go in thru the tire well to replace them.  

This is going to be an adventure!

Double Digits!

First of all - GOOD NEWS!  

Tractor Supply put most of their stuff on sale!  Not ON Sale as in $$ off, but as in available to purchase!

Saw this on IG a couple days ago...

"Halloween hits different in a farmhouse"

LOL!!!

I also noticed the deer skeleton isn't listed anymore.....

I already expected to spend an embarrassing amount of money here, once I saw all the skeletons - but I didn't spend as much as I thought I would!  I also got a whopping 5% off for being a "Hometown Hero" - that's their military "discount" altho on certain days they kick it up to 10%.  And also free shipping since I'll be picking everything up at the local store - that saved a ton of $ right there. 

I couldn't resist these hand towels!  

I've already gotten the text that these are ready to be picked up, but everything else is due on Monday 7/28 so I'll just wait to get everything at once. 

Now onto the skeletons! 

Decided on only one goose.  I have 2 smaller ones from Michael's already. 

I am having feelings about only getting one, kinda wish I'd gotten two.

It's hard to tell scale, but this is the bigger of the possums.  

Only got one of those, too

However - I got 5 baby possums!

I know they show 4 here, but if the last one doesn't fit, I'll figure something out.   I'm not sure just how they have them attached, but I always have zipties around so I'll make it work.

Lastly is the racoon babies!  I got 3 of them because why not?  

I thought about getting another "big" one, but I already have 2 from Michael's and one from Oriental Trading.  And destiny spoke when I went to put it in my cart and it said it wasn't available for pickup OR delivery at this time.  So no more big racoons for me! 

I'll be in Ohio this weekend and as usual, I was looking thru Find A Grave to find some cemeteries to explore.  I found 2 of the coolest little cemeteries!  One has only 30 burials, stone walls, all sorts of cool ambiance.  Noted as being the oldest cemetery in the county.  The other has 56 burials.

But then I see notes that they're both on private property and to get permission first.  

From WHO???  HOW???  WHERE???  

The one appears to be in the woods behind a church, so other than it being Sunday morning when I plan to visit, I don't think that one would be difficult to get permission.  But the other is most definitely on private property.  So I'm not too sure about that one. 

I sent a message to the peeps at Find A Grave, asking how to find out this info. They suggested contacting the county historical society.  OK.  While I was looking for the historical society info, I came across the website for the county recorder (which I get the impression is the Ohio version of the county clerk) Noted, especially after seeing detailed plat maps of veteran's graves at these cemeteries!  The historical society had no idea other than go knock on doors.  Ummm, no thanks!  They also suggested contacting the genealogy department at the local library.  Also noted.  But I opted to contact the county recorder   He sent me a little bit of the backstory on the one behind the church and suggested contacting the church and then basically going to knock on the door for the other.  Ugh.  Anyway, I'm waiting to hear back from the church peoples.  

I also looked up the person on FindAGrave who has taken a lot of the photos at these cemeteries.  His bio says he's doing a lot of family genealogy in the county and since he's been to where I want to go - I messaged him, too!  Fingers crossed. 

Oooo another thing I'm slightly miffed about (not really) I've mentioned before that I volunteer on a search & rescue team (yes - we look for missing people).  Anyway, we to do ton of training and basically jump on any courses that become available to us.   We just found out that 2 very important courses are being offered this fall - one all day on October 25 and the other the whole weekend of November 7-9.  This is besides Halloween Camp that usually happens the first weekend in October. 

That's squeezing into my Halloween time!!  

Dammit.

FYI - Shop Around!

 I find it crazy how there's such a wide range of prices for very similar decorations / props!  I've had to flip back & forth between items on the same website, since it seems like they have things listed multiple times but with different prices.  

For example...

Halloween costumes 5' poseable skeletons - $80

Comes in a large variety of colors..... basic white "realistic" / pink / pastel rainbow / acid green / pastel purple / black / red / dark gray / orange (w/ jol head) / winged

why????

basic white, face & chest lights up red $90

basic white "Georgie" $60 (cheaper looking)

basic white w/ blue eyes ($70 sale)

basic white w/ yellow eyes ($40 sale)

black light ($60)

disco ball - non poseable ($200)

Werewolf ($90)

********

I'm mad about this one....  guess where I bought mine?  

Steer Skeleton 

At Home - $90

Oriental Trading - $50

Tractor Supply - $50

********

Beagle Bonez

Halloween Costumes $40

Oriental Trading $55

I recall seeing these at CVS in the past years - I just don't remember the $$ but they have tons of coupons there.

********

So far one of the best prices I've seen for 5' skeletons has been Target for $35 and they come in a variety of odd colors, like "iridescent" and "champagne" and "pink blush" and "ghoulish green alien" which is a cool metallic grass green, then an orange one with a JOL head, and "silver disco", which not gonna lie - I think I might get one of these - I just don't know what size yet!  It's not like the individual mirrors all glued on, but it's still pretty neat.  I like the glitter eyes/nose/mouth.  It also comes in very reasonably priced 2' and 3' sizes.  

********

And these guys....

Most places I've seen they're $200+, they're $160 at At Home. 

Oh, and 5' pose & stay skeletons are $30 there. 

I guess the point of this post is to NOT grab the first thing you see - it's always good to shop around.  

Of course, quality is always an issue, too.  

Sometimes you HAVE to grab an item as soon as you see it, because there's the possibility that you won't ever find it anywhere else and it'll just ***poof*** be gone.

 

Halloween shopping is such a crap-shoot!