Almost time for the Countdown!

I just signed up over at the Countdown to Halloween blog for this year's bloghop!

I always love to check out all the other "Cryptkeepers" because there are always a variety of topics to read. 

Oh, and signups for the Secret Reaper are happening over on the Halloween Forum, too!

Anywhooo.  

Watch out for scary monsters!

 Actually - the bay (brown) horse is named Ghost!

They were mooching treats from me. 

So I have a dilemma. 

After I went & ordered the raccoon from Oriental Trading (right) - I learned that Michael's (left) also carries them this year!  I like the Michael's one a lot more, even if it is gray.  I'm on the fence about keeping the OT one. It doesn't really look like a raccoon, and I don't even think painting the trail rings would help. 

I need to decide soon!

I really like the hand sanitizer holder from Bath & Body Works.  The eyes flash green & purple, too. 

I also like the car fragrance thingy but my car doesn't like it!  It's barely holding onto this vent.  The vents in the middle of the dashboard are vertical so it won't hold and I can't hang him from the visor because his arms & legs dangle! 

In case you don't know - CVS has awesome earrings!

And they have some H'ween ones out!

Snacks, too!

The Spouse & I went to Tractor Supply to get my hen & donkey!

I might have to go back & get the rooster, too.  

But first I'll see if they send me a birthday coupon.  

Can you believe this nonsense???

I've seen more since I took these a week ago, too. 

This astounds me!  This tree never changes color this early!  

I am usually still raking leaves off my maples at Thanskgiving! 

Compared to October 23, 2023 and every other year.

The burning bush is blushing!

I got this cute little blowmold from Big Lots.

The only issue is that he's battery operated so he won't get to spend all of October out in the Mosh Pit with everyone else. 

I bought him online since the BL website said the closest one available in store was about 1/2 hour drive to the east of us. Of course the one right in town didn't show any.  But the kids in the store told me that the BL website is not accurate at all.  It said they had 2, which is why I hurried and bought online, but they had 4 on the shelf, plus mine they were holding.  So the closer one probably did have them.  Oh well.  I also took the opportunity to go into Lowe's which was right next door to get the plywood & screws I needed for a project. 

This is the inspiration picture I took last year when we went to Tillson St.  I like to go there during the day just for this reason!  It helps to direct spot / floor lights and also blocks them visually from the road.  I usually hide mine behind a headstone, but this will give me more options to put the spot/floodlights. 

I'll make a post about that for the Countdown.  

The Spawn and I were just talking about the cemetery this weekend.  The big project this year is sealing & repainting most of the headstones!  There's a couple that need updates, too. 

We'll have to get those out soon!  87 days - time is getting short! 

Happy October Eve! #countdowntohalloween

Welcome to Maple Grove Cemetery!

Since this is my first entry for this year's Countdown to Halloween linkup, I'll introduce myself and what I'm all about. 

My name is Lisa.  The other characters in my household are Randy (the Spouse) and Angela (the Spawn) and at Christmastime, there will be a Grand-spawn added to the mix.  The feline family members are Rusty, Maddie & Daisy.

 I started decorating our front yard with a quaint little cemetery in 2008 and it's evolved into what you will be seeing soon.   I don't do blood & gore.  MGC is a mix of spooky / cute / goofy.  I have a LOT of skeletons.  Sometimes they dance, sometimes they trick or treat - who knows what they'll decide to do next?

You'll be seeing a lot of this guy - this is Chuck.  The best way I've heard to describe him is like Flat Stanley.  He travels with me and I take pictures of him at neat places / doing fun things.

Here he's on the coast of Maine, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean.   

And if he doesn't go... I have a smaller skeleton named Steve that goes. Sometimes its just easier to carry a smaller guy - like on a plane or horseback riding. 

I'm also a taphophile - or a "tombstone tourist".  I enjoy exploring cemeteries, the older the better.  I'm currently working on visiting all of the 30+ real Maple Grove Cemeteries in the state of Michigan.   Randy graciously plans our vacation road trips around cemeteries I want to visit. 

I've been participating in the C2H since 2011, which was also the first year of this blog.  I don't really have a theme other than Halloween randomness.  We'll explore some cemeteries, take a few road trips to cool local places, do some shopping, etc. 

Hope you enjoy the trip!

#Creepmas day 1

Welcome to Creepmas 2018!

I'm going to leap right in, proudly displaying my geek-ness!

Chuck went with me last night to the National Weather Service Office in White Lake, MI!



We got to pop in & say hi to the Meteorologists on duty and get some pics in their office.


Watching out for airplanes!

It was kind of a bummer that it was already dark when we got there - s
o enjoy these older pics of 

 the Doppler radar dome....

And the evening weather balloon launch...

So the whole reason we were at the NWS was for Skywarn Recognition Day!
It's an amateur radio event where hams (aka my husband & his cronies) operate radios out of the NWS and try to contact as many other NWS offices as possible in 24 hours.
I also am a ham (N8LTG is my call sign) but I've never actually contested before.

K8DTX is the station that the hams use during severe weather activations. 
This is also the station they're using for SRD. 
I say using because it's still going on - It's from 0000-2400 UTC, which would be from 7pm EST last night until 7pm EST tonight.

Checking out the K8DTX map.

 Chuck trying out Randy WF5X's station.

 Nada.

 Let's go check out Ted N8ZSA's station....

 The High Frequency bands are DEAD!!!

Let's explore the rest of the office. 

It's Mr Bill!

They have a lot of beautiful Michigan artwork on the walls.

 

 

Holly crap, November is almost 2 weeks old!

Is it just me, or is time flying faster than it use to? 

 Is this an age thing?  Please tell me it's not an age thing!

I feel Halloween was a success.  It ended up being an absolutely perfect Michigan fall evening - in the low 50s when the sirens went off at 6.   The sun even came out for a bit that afternoon!   It got chilly when the sun went down, but there was no wind or anything.  Ideal!

We got about 45 trick-or-treaters and they were all polite & in costume!  I can't imagine being in one of those neighborhoods where they get 100s of kids.  You con't enjoy being on the giving end of something like that.  I like to see the costumes & reactions of the people coming up my driveway.  

My favorite costumes of the night.... a little guy who was a Waste Management garbage truck driver - complete with garbage truck!  Hilarious / adorable!  And the other has to be a neighbor, since he walked back so we could see his costume after dark.  He had glow stick necklaces taped to his arms & legs & body - he was a stick person!  He came by the first time before it got dark, since he was bringing a little one up to get candy.  We were laughing & asked him to come back - so when he did, thanks to lack of streetlights, we could see his stick person walking down the street!  Epic!

Last weekend was the Cemetery Removal of 2018.

By the time the afternoon school bus rolled by Friday (11/2) afternoon,
this is what they saw.

It took us approximately 5-6 hours each day, Friday, Saturday & Sunday to get the cemetery taken down & put entirely away.   We actually took it easy, since Randy hadn't been feeling 100%.  

We both took Friday off work, since it was silly to take Thursday off then go back to work Friday.  Anyway, I had a meeting Thursday night, so it would have sucked to work all day on the yard, then go to that.  As it was, I was out at 0600 Thursday morning (with a flashlight, in my pjs) taking clothes off the skeletons, since it called for rain.

Bettina helping out.

And it rained all day Thursday.
On my way home from the meeting late Thursday night, I drove down Tillson Street and I'd say over 2/3 of the houses were in some stages, if not 100%, taken down.  In the freakin' rain!
That's dedication.   We had no excuses!

Some stuff got staged inside the fence, until we got to them. 

Chuck having a word with everyone.
(the pony got moved - I promise I don't have 2!)

I came across the original Maple Grove sign!
How quaint!

Brr, a little chilly!

So, do you want to know where we put all this stuff?

The shed that holds our lawn mower also has the animal skeletons, the fence, the spool, the sign, the fenceposts and all the dowels & rebar

Speaking of - this is how the skeletons get stored.  Hanging from the rafters in the back corner of the garage.  This pic is from 2015, but the only thing that's different now is that I double up on the 3 foot guys so there's 2 on each rope.

Here's how I string them up.  I put a loop around the tailbone, another loop under the ribs and while this on has a loop thru the ribs, I now only put the 3rd loop around the neck.  That way it distributes the weight of the skeleton all down its spine instead of hanging all from the neck.

 We have a 4 foot deep add-on across the back of our garage. 
These 2 pics show one side of it.  It's most of the blowmolds (and 3 window a/c units).  The coffin is also on the bottom shelf, and is storage for the smaller detail items from the cemetery. 

Ignore the people in the red & white and also the bunny in the purple dress- I have blowmolds for other holidays, too.  They're about all the decorating I do for their respective holidays. 

The other side of the add-on holds the shack, as well as the patio furniture, etc. 

I didn't take any pics of the totes inside the garage.  There's a wall of them, also for all holidays. 

Jack likes to supervise, too.  But he's feeling the cold more in his old age, so he gets a cushion and shorter times outside with us.

So here's Ethel.  I laid her on top of the trash can to work on her shoulder, attaching the arm that is broken.  Damn if she didn't slide off & break the other one, too!  So both arms are currently ziptied on.  Let's see how that holds up.

I have a stray horse treat in my kitchen, I should have put it in this skeleton's hand!

Speaking of treats....

This happened Sunday night.
FYI - Culver's pumpkin pie shake is AMAZING. 
It tasted exactly like the best pie ever.

So now that I've kind of gotten a chance to slow down a bit & think...there's quite a few things I wish I would have gotten around to doing.  But like I said at the beginning of this post - time is just flying by!  There weren't enough weekends!!  And work kept getting in my way.  And the shorter days.  Wah wah wah.
I never made it to Northville, MI to see the skeletons.  We never carved pumpkins.  We did get some cider & donuts but we didn't make it to an orchard. I didn't get to go to Hell, MI.  I'm not happy with the pictures / videos I took of the cemetery.  I wish I would have taken a lot more. I did absolutely ZERO decorating inside the house.  I didn't make a big deal about it being the 10th anniversary.  My Countdown to Halloween posts kind of fizzled out towards the end.  Same with Blogoween.

But on the plus side - we spent a weekend in Ohio with my brother, we made it to the Halloween Festival in Fairborn and also to the Lewisburg Haunted Cave again.  The Spawn turned 21 the end of September, so there were still birthday celebrations going on for her - Rochester Pedal Ride with the family was one of them.  Spent a day horseback riding with my sister, too. 

I guess I really can't complain - it was a great Halloween!