I looked out the window, and what did I see....

I think maybe I'm feeling a bit like Scrooge this year. It seems like 50 years ago...maybe even 30 years ago...we celebrated Halloween and then had nearly a month to consider Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving, Christmas decorations magically appeared in the stores. Between then and Christmas, houses were decorated. We always had a real Christmas tree, so we didn't put it up until mid-December to make sure it wouldn't lose all its needles before Christmas.

Halloween was pretty much about neighborhood trick or treating and costume parades at school. Thanksgiving was about gratitude, dinner, family and pilgrims. Christmas certainly had commercial aspects, but not nearly like it is now. Now we have to be PC and ignore the whole reason for Christmas.

Now apparently the 2 holidays that rake in the most cash are Halloween and Christmas. More and more, Thanksgiving is just being squeezed out of the running. We skip directly from Halloween to Christmas. I don't have a problem with folks who like to decorate, but really...Christmas lights put up on November 1st? Here is the scene down our street...taken the day after Halloween.



What ever happened to the reason for the season?

A swimming pool no more

We've had the big hole behind our house for a while now. We started considering that maybe we were meant to have a swimming pool out there when the rain started to fall, but today the weather was beautiful..especially considering that it is now November! The grass is still green, some leaves are still on the trees, but the 'swimming pool' idea died today as they came to pour footings for the house to be built there. Once the concrete was in, they brought forms to prepare for pouring the walls. We look forward to seeing the huge mounds of dirt disappear.

Sunset

There is no real reason for this post other than I loved the sunset I could see from the back of our house the other evening. The picture doesn't even do it justice.

The 'Bye-bye' Game

Some years ago one of our young grandsons delighted in the game of shutting himself in a dark closet and then jumping out to surprise people. Now, his young sister seems to have developed the same game. Could it be heredity? At Great-grandma's house is an enticing pantry closet. It is a step up from the rest of the kitchen, which means that from inside, even a short person can reach the doorknob!

She waits patiently for someone to open the closet to get something, then scrambles inside, shouts 'bye-bye' and shuts the door. Of course, the best part is popping out to greet everyone outside the door. I think she could play it for hours. I KNOW she can outlast me!

What is that I see falling?

"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting
and autumn a mosaic of them all."
- Stanley Horowitz

It has been a lovely, long Fall. Though this is hardly a forested area, there is plenty of variety in the trees to give us many Fall colors. It is a changing season where some varieties of trees are still green, while others have put on their Fall colors.









Yet it is far enough advanced that some trees are long since ready for winter.




The deer have started to come down from the higher elevations.



It won't be long before the city sends out the huge vacuum cleaner trucks to suck up all the fallen leaves that are hiding the lawns and streets.



All of those leaves falling are just a precursor to the next thing to fall. After a day of rain, this morning the clouds parted to give us a glimpse of what is coming next.

AWHC--Farewell for the Season

It has been a fun year at the American West Heritage Center. We enjoy our co-workers as well as the guests who come to visit us there to experience 'Living History'.

Today was our last day of Fall school groups. In Spring and Fall we host school classes who come to learn what life was in 'the old days'. It is always fun to take the children through various stations. Some stations we have for them from the pioneer era include candle dipping, pioneer school, pioneer games, visiting pioneer cabins, pioneer cooking, pulling handcarts, woodwright shoppe, and spinning wool. The children generally enjoy their time with us.



When we take school groups to the 1917 era farm, stations for the kids include running the cider press, making jam, shelling corn, milking the cow, visiting the farm house, doing laundry, visiting the outbuildings, playing 1917 era group games, and visiting the blacksmith shop.

It's always fun at the AWHC. Maybe we'll see you there sometime. Bye for now!

Rumors no more...

Back in July, we heard rumors of the vacant lot behind us being sold. Later we noticed someone was parking a trailer there off and on.

Today we left home around 8:30 AM to work at the AWHC and came home at 12:30 to find a large tractor in that lot digging a rather large hole.







That lot has become the residence and haven of the neighborhood grasshopper and vole plagues. Maybe with a house and yard there, they will move on to bother someone else!