Go get me some candy.

My wife and I took turns on Halloween chores tonight.  She took the kids out for the first candy basket filling, and I took them out for round two.  My younger daughter went as a Super Hero Cat, and the older one went as Adam Savage from Mythbusters, because she rocks.

During my stay at home to hand out candy, I decided I had to get myself in the mood by watching one of the....lets say 5 best horror flicks of all time, Poltergeist. Gosh, what a good movie, even if a few of the special effects(like the face peeling scene) don't quite stand up.  What I can't get over is that it's rated PG. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be rated that now. 

1st Halloween in this house, so we didn't know what to expect for visitors...I'd say we got somewhere between 30-40 kids, and while the Kit-Kats were the #1 requested treat from the bowl, the little gummi-bear packs my wife bought(gluten free!) were more popular than I thought they would be.
Still, we have three or four bags of left-overs for me to bring to work tomorrow so I can try to effect the number of diabetes cases we have at work. 

Yahoo!

No band wagon jumping here...I was born in Quincy.

There are two questions at the old homestead though: My wife wants to know if the players are going to have some kind of ritualistic beard shaving party.  I want to know if this means I can't complain when the Patriots win their division, but don't manage to win the Super Bowl?

Penciling it in.

I now have something to do May 23rd.

I guess I didn't care enough.

Found an interesting article today about sailors and soldiers that are desperate enough to pass the militaries physical fitness standards that they are going out and getting liposuction, hoping that those inches removed in the belly will help them out. 

Now...the fact is, all 9 years I was in the Navy I was in constant danger of exceeding the Navy's body-fat standards, determined by comparing your neck and waist measurements with a height chart.  It's safe to say that the years I did pass was just as much due to a large neck measurement as the years that I failed could be blamed on my waist line. 

Still, never once was I tempted to go get liposuction to try to pass the 'rope and choke'. 

It's entirely possible, that because I was a nuclear trained operator at a time when we had a growing economy, I wasn't as worried about my fate should I get kicked out as a grunt less technically trained soldier in today's job market is. 

Possible bordering on certain. 

Paging Andy Rooney.

Why is it that I just can't go to the store and buy regular, plain old light bulbs?  The folks we bought this house from must have decided they wanted to stick to whoever bought the house from them, because the only thing in this house that uses 'standard' incandescent bulbs are the table lamps we brought with is. 

The spot lights in the kitchen and living room use the funky GU10 base bulbs.  Overhead fan lights use a circular 22-watt fluorescent light, OR an incandescent with a smaller 'candelabra base', while today I learned that the security lights out front have a funky G8-type bi-pin base. 

I'm smart enough(and I have learned my lessons) that I bring an example of the bulb I need to replace to the store with me.  Today, that didn't help.  Next time you are at the hardware store, take a look at the 'specialty lights'...there are about 6 different type of 'bi-pin' bases...G4, G6, GX6.35, GY6.5, G8, G9.5...and I'm sure there are more. 

Of course, the bulb I pulled before going to the store this morning wasn't labled around the base...but I wasn't worried...I mean, how hard can it be to find the right type of bi-pin base bulb?(read the paragraph above again.'

Grrr.  Of course, I picked the wrong kind. The G6 base looked right, but when I swapped out the 2nd bulb...it was labled G8.  Grrrrr.  Back to the store.  Would it have mattered?  I don't know.  I'm not willing to risk it for a bulb that is mostly on when I am asleep, and not able to quickly identify any problems. 

I'm going back to oil lamps. 

Putting the beds to bed.

One of the nice things about being in a house you have bought after three years of renting other places is that you can actually plan ahead for the next year.  Planning often means work though, so I decided that Saturday, a beautiful not rainy day, would be a good time to prep my raised beds for next spring. 

Was not nearly motivated to take stage by stage pictures...but, I'm sure you can imagine what it looks like to rip out whatever is still growing in a raised bed.  Now, the fact is, a lot of things that I read said that ripping your old plants out is BAD, BAD, BAD.  They say just cut your plants off at ground level, and as the roots decompose, they will leave nice little aerated channels in your soil.  I'll buy that...but ripping them out is more satisfying, and since I had planned on turning everything over and raking in a bunch of stuff, I didn't want all those root balls in my way.

The next step was getting a bunch of organics in the soil.  I was not at all happy with my soil this year, and so boosting it before next year is a huge priority.  Once I had all this years growth(and weeds) pulled out, I mixed some commercial compost, a couple of big handfuls of mulched up leaves, and chicken manure into each bed.  I know that adding fresh chicken manure to the garden is bad, because the nitrogen levels are too beaucoup, and it will burn your plants, but with 4 or 5 months to mellow, I didn't see any reason not to mix it right into the beds.

Finally, to keep the weeds away, I set a nice blanket of straw over each bed.  The big decision in the spring is whether I want to pull all the straw off, or just plant through it, and leave it there as a mulch. 

Luckily, I have a few months before I need to make that decision.

Circle of life.

Got to drive to Wapato today to pick up my second deer.  She was a little bigger than the first one, yielding 10 pounds more of venison.  The first one I did strictly steaks, chops and ground...this time I had 10 them do steaks, chops, 10 pounds of Italian sausage, and then do the rest as ground.

All total, the two does I shot this year gave us just over 80 pounds of venison in the freezer. For comparison, my boss shot a decent 4-point whitetail buck this last week, and I am sure he will get at least 80 pounds from that one deer...but mine is more tender. 

While there, I also picked up some of the butcher shops usual fare, including bacon cheddar brats, and beef bacon, which I have never tried before.  Reports on how that tastes to follow.