Happy Thanksgiving 2022

I'd been wanting to have a fire since we got the load of wood a few weeks ago.  I had all the wood splinters and small bark pieces that were swept up and put in the firepit and so have kept the lid on to keep that as dry as possible until I could burn it up.  Yesterday was my first good opportunity with the next day off and agreeable weather and wind.

It gets dark early now, sunset was at 4:27, so I got a start shortly after getting off work at 3.  I wasn't planning on spending the whole evening out there, just a good, small fire to burn stuff up, including the small stick pile that was out front.  I had the idea to film it and see what I could do with it, and only realized later as I was reviewing the footage that I did pretty much the same thing last year.  Not the first time I've repeated myself here, I'm sure.

Last year's video was clips of the evening, so since I had the footage already here's the first half hour of last night's firepit compressed into about 2 1/2 minutes.  Watch it or not, I had fun, and what I was watching on my phone was the end of a very close Badgers basketball game - they won :)  

Not much happening around here for the holiday, just a welcome break from work for 4 days.  Happy Thanksgiving weekend, everyone.

The Demise of Jack O. Lantern

What a difference a week or two can make.  Three weeks ago I got a load of wood and thought the outlook was good for several more fires before winter would not allow it, and I haven't had a fire since.  Due to weather; first wind, then wet, now snow and cold.  I still have hope as it's early yet in the season.

Today I brought in the trail camera to go through the pumpkin-eating footage, and there was lots to go through.  It was triggered enough that it ran out of space early on November 14th, so no footage of the snow we had for days afterward.  The camera is low on purpose and crooked not-on-purpose, and shakes in the wind or if the squirrels shake the chain link fence.  Still, I was happy with the footage it captured this time out.  I have video evidence of a neighbor's two cats that appear to hunt in our back yard at night, the likely backyard shitters.  Now I want to think of a new place to put the camera for a while.  It's interesting to see what goes on in your yard when you're not around.

I narrowed down the 10-second video clips to 103, out of 482, which would still be over 17 minutes long - and no one wants to watch that.  I also wasn't going to mess with the chronological order or edit any of the clips, just stitch them together.  But, of course, it was my first time using Clipchimp software, so it was interesting going, but manageable.

Anyway, the next pare-down was to 27 of the most interesting clips coming in at less than 5 minutes, a more reasonable length, I think.  Enjoy!

Winter, Ducks, Dave and Jack

It was a nice day yesterday, getting into the low 70s ºF again.  Last night we went out for dinner and I wore just a tee shirt and jeans comfortably.  This morning I wore a winter jacket and gloves to go shopping as it was below freezing and hasn't gotten much warmer since.  Quite the temperature change in just a few hours, more evidence of climate change in Wisconsin, I guess.

The gutters are cleaned and the garlic is planted, so not much else to do yet for winterizing.  I still have leaves to deal with, but mowing to mulch the black walnut leaves in the back and being down to just one maple tree out front means there just aren't as many leaves to deal with as there used to be.  Depending on the weather, I may collect what leaves I can out front to mulch and put in the flowerbeds or I may just mow everything and be done with it.  There's not enough to worry about even if it snows and I don't see those leaves again until spring.  Things have certainly changed in the last decade or so.

The creek is low, but the ducks get fed by some neighbors across the creek.  I expect most to be on their way south soon, but inevitably some choose to stay the winter.  Why?  I just don't know.

Neighbor Dave called me over a week or so ago to catch me up on what's been going on.  This last summer he was laid up with a torn achilles which has since healed, but he still had that rattle in his lungs and lost breath easily.  The doctors have recently determined that he has lung cancer, though they won't do a biopsy to verify.  They've not given him a timeline, but he is now on oxygen and is in hospice at home.  He has a hospital bed in the front room he sleeps in now and needs oxygen 24/7.  I've agreed to help him in any way I can, but it sounds like he has good support with his kids, nurses, and meals on wheels stopping by almost daily.  Still, I will take care of his garbage, putting it out to the curb and bringing the bins back in, picking up his sticks, clearing his snow as I did last year, and anything else he may need.  Even watching for where his newspaper is in the mornings and putting it in his door if it's not put on his top step where he can reach.  He's been a wonderful neighbor to have and I don't look forward to losing him.

Mr. Jack O. Lantern is still around, but barely.  After Halloween I put him on the stump for the critters and they have been steadily eating him up.  Shortly after, I put the trail cam on the fence facing the stump so soon I will hopefully put together a video of it getting eaten up.  I've not checked any footage yet and probably won't until it's mostly gone, currently about halfway there so maybe next weekend.

Today is Veteran's Day here, so if you served then thank you for your service.  This hasn't been a day off for us in the past but work has changed up our holidays with more of the federal holidays off instead of the religious holidays, which only makes sense.  Some good games on this weekend and a trip down to Mom's again tomorrow to keep me busy.  Have a good weekend, everyone.

Cold And White, Not Snow

 

Happy Halloween 2022, and Wood

I'm not really a holiday person but for taking advantage of the occasional paid days off work, but of all the holidays I like Halloween the best.  It has the most fun imagery and characters, with the least apparent religious connections.

I wore the same mask as I did last year since these are still Covid times, and again it went over pretty well with the few trick or treaters that came by.  We had over 400 pieces of candy to hand out, after our own nibbling the last few days.  We waited to get candy so we wouldn't get into it, but we buy the candy we like so what else would happen?  We expected lots more kids to come by this year than last, but that was far from the case as we only got a dozen or so.  Leftover candy will go in the freezer.

I had bought a pumpkin for the first time in maybe 20 years, and carved it with the classic jack-o-lantern face.  And I used a sharp kitchen knife, just as I used when I was a kid, and I still have all my fingers.  Later, after I bought this one, I saw the lumpy gray ones for sale that you don't normally see.  I like the look of them, maybe a bit spookier, so next year I'm going to have to keep an eye out and get one of those if I can.

And for the 5th year in a row (skipping 2020) I put the mummy in the front corner windows.  I kind of like it, and it's a good decoration for a few hours while the kids come around.  At the same time I bought the mummy I bought a couple window cling film decorations but it's always been too cold to try to put them on the door windows in years past, but the weather was very good for Halloween this year so I finally got them out and put them on the front storm door.  It was only 2019 when we had several inches of snow for the holiday and the other years we've been colder than what we've seen this year so far.  And our immediate forecast is rather favorable, too.

Favorable enough weather for weekend fires for some time yet.  Fresh load of firewood after the break!