September 22, 2026

Countdown Badges!

The Badges for the Countdown are ready!

How cool are these?  I'm always in awe of Chad Savage's talent! 

I can't choose a favorite, so I'll have to rotate thru them! 



ngl - I love the cat!  
And the ghost in the cemetery matches my blog AND my display!




 

September 19, 2026

How many days!?

 Aw crap - 42!  

I'm so far behind. 

Our lawn guy ghosted us so the grass hasn't been mowed in over 3 weeks.  So it's crazy long - which is fine closer to Halloween - but I don't want to set up in a jungle!  I am hoping to set up next weekend. 

Not much is going on - the headstones are out of the shed and I took advantage of a non-humid day last Friday and put a coat of exterior paint on the bottom edges.  That's about all I've gotten done.  The skeletons were never put away last year so they're conveniently piled on the giant totes on the patio.  The blowmolds still need to come out. 

I was just thinking.... last year I got the info about Halloween Camp on September 12 - I haven't heard anything about it yet!  But I also saw that the lady who puts on Halloween Camp is teaching at a seminar in Tennessee over Halloween.  I know Camp is a lot of work to put on and I'm sure the seminar (which appropriately is for HRD K9s, aka human remains detection) is also a lot of work, so idk if it'll even be happening! 

The last weekend in August was my birthday - so we did some fun stuff.
The Goodwill Halloween Pop-Up store in Birch Run, MI
Breakfast in a 50s diner
The waitress loved Chuck!
Sis1 and I spent the day in Frankenmuth, MI (since it was her birthday, too!)
We went on the Bavarian Belle 
(grabbed from Google images)
We went on a horse drawn carriage ride around Frankenmuth. 
We helped out on the BikeMS and also met some new friends.



Have you ever felt like sunflowers were judge-y?

August 18, 2026

Eeek! 74 days!

First of all - let us embrace our inner basic white girl and have...
a pumpkin spice ice capp & donut!!

I feel like I should be dragging out headstones & touching up paint, making skeleton repairs, etc.  
But then I'd have to put them back away since it's just too early to leave them all sitting out!

I have 2 more headstones in the works - I have them sketched on plywood but still need to find the jigsaw to cut them out.  And I have a gallon of really dark green exterior oops paint and a quart of gray riding around in the back of my car for those.  The green will also be used to touch up the bottoms of the rest of the stones - since plywood + many years of Michigan Octobers = needs occasional reinforcement.     

I will make a video of when we open the shed.  It hasn't been open since things were put away last November, so I fear to see what our resident groundhogs and other rodents have done in there.  It probably doesn't help that at the end of last season, I sort of just tossed critter skeletons & stuff in there.  
A glimpse of my handy-dandy notebook.  
It doesn't look H'ween-y but this is where I keep all my thoughts & ideas & reminders & inventory lists (blowmolds, etc.)

Speaking of adding to the inventory...  I took the granddaughter into Michael's one day. 
One needs a praying mantis skeleton!
And also a giant mouse with antlers.  

Oh, and in my last non-vacation post I was torn about getting the koala skeleton from Target or not. 
Got it!

Looking at dimensions online are always deceptive.  The description said 8 inches, so I was not expecting life sized.  But this is still somewhat bigger than I expected! 

I gave up on the Home Depot jackalope.  I asked about it on the HalloweenForum message boards and someone was able to find a list of what skeletons they came out with this year. 
Damn. 

Last night I was scrolling on YouTube and came across Home Depot and Lowe's walk-thru videos from someone called @HappyHaunting (thanks, dude!).  I was mildly interested in the axolotl but didn't see it in the video or even where it would be on the shelf, but I did see the "wild boar" - it reminded me of a tiny Pumbaa.

Watching those 2 videos - it seemed to me like Lowe's actually has the better variety of animatronics.  Just my opinion, since I don't use them anyway.  I don't know the difference in quality, either.   

I might still pop in Lowe's on my way home from work tonight.  Just to see if they have anything out.  There's a few small things I might want, but the world won't end without them. 

Later this evening, we'll be making a field trip to Menards (with the grands, of course)
Same there - there's a few small things that looked interesting.  I just like to see them in person. 



Here's one thing that I did NOT see in person before buying! 
Walmart's 60" deer skeleton!  
Kudos to them for it collapsing down into a somewhat small box.  
The box also fits a small-ish 4-year-old girl with plenty of room to spare. 
The larger 6 1/2 year old boy fit with less room. 
The rear legs are attached to the pelvis but everything else fits together (and comes apart) easily.  I didn't attach the wires to see the whole body lit up, but I did play with the switch under the jaw - it has eight different flashing patterns which could be neat.  I missed where it said that on the website.  I thought it was just solid on.  And it came with 4 big metal U shaped landscape pins, too. 
In comparison to the Spouse's SUV. 

This is going to fit nicely in the giant tote with the HomeDepot horse & pony. 
It's definitely much smaller (and cheaper) than the huge deer Tractor Supply had last year! 
 
The forward-most tine of the antler is also exactly eye-level with the Spawn - 
ask me how she found that out! 

July 30, 2026

Vacation as seen by Chuck - Part 4 - the Garfield Trail

Saturday 7/11 was our last day of vacation.  We'd stopped the night before in Gas City, IN.  I only knew about this place because it's usually where the Spouse stops on his way home from Arkansas.

Grant County Indiana is where the artist Jim Davis is from.  He's the guy who draws the Garfield cartoons.  So of course there's the Garfield Trail here where there are 14 different statues of Garfield throughout the county.
this is #1 on the brochure - each paw pad has a little tidbit about Jim Davis or Garfield.
We didn't go by numerical order, more like map order - it cut down on the back & forth.
"Cool Cat" Garfield doesn't have a plaque but he's standing outside the James Dean Museum in Fairmount.  There was a family coming out of the museum as we got there so I chatted with the mom and they were also visiting from Michigan!   
Glass Blower Garfield happened to be right next to City Hall, so he had to play on the tank!
I love looking up high school mascots for podunk little towns.  
This has got to be one of the best! 
This was in the pro shop of a golf course!
Which explains why you can only visit during daylight hours between April & November!
Another one we were happy to visit - it's in the Marion Public Library.
Since we went on a Saturday, we were concerned if they were open or not. 
They were open and the librarians at the desk didn't even give me & Chuck a second glance!
This took most of the morning, so we were on our way home after this!
Woohoo!