Halloween From Last Year (2023)

 Here's a video from last year's Halloween display. See if you can see a difference from this years display (besides the firepit burning), it may be burning, and it might not be. You should see a difference by this year there is a gate that says "Boneyard", and you will see more things to the far left that we added.

The Halloween display this year should be finished next week. Right now, I'm waiting for four gallons of "fog juice" to arrive which should be here on Wednesday. I did get the fogger out today and hooked it up to make sure it was working and ran some distilled water through it to clean it out a little. Must have been a little fog juice in the machine being when it first started it was putting out fog rather than steam from the water even though I ran distilled water through it before putting it away last year.

The fogger isn't a very big fogger, only a 400-watt fogger. If it decides to quit working sometime, I plan to get a little bigger one, like a 700-watt or maybe even bigger, The 400-watt fogger does a pretty good job for what I use it for. I have it fog for like 10 seconds, then off a few minutes then come back on. The little container you put the fog juice in will last for 4 hours that way, from 8 pm to 12 am.

Well, I'll post a video of this year's display as soon as I finish up.

Last year's Halloween display (2023)

Video For Today: Ric Ocasek - Emotion In Motion  

New Chainsaw Tomorrow

 I told you before how my Worx 10" chain/pole saw stripped the big gear inside and I can't find the part anywhere being it was discontinued, yet a lot of places still sell the exact same saw (Worx WG309). So I ended up getting a pole saw and a bigger 18" electric chainsaw. Well, both work really well but being they are electric, your limited to where you can cut wood. So tomorrow I'm going to get a 20" gas powered chainsaw.

I had a Craftsman 18" chainsaw which I had for years which was pretty good chainsaw even though it was under water in three different floods! I ended up giving it away for a guy to haul some junk out of here. It still ran but needed a new chain, bar, and drive sprocket. Besides that, it was getting pretty old and I done got my money's worth out of it.

Looking around at chainsaws, I was looking for something that had around an 18-20" bar and had a good bit of power. I was looking at Husqvarna chainsaw's but man, I was seeing a lot of bad reviews about them. This one guy but one and it ran for about 15 minutes before it quit and wouldn't start again. The guy took it back and decided he needed two, one for a backup. Turns out, one started then quit running, the other one never started at all. He ended up taking them both back and got two other chainsaws of a different make which they both ran fine.

I'm not saying Husqvarna isn't a good chainsaw, like the guy said, he thought they got a bad batch that had a problem with the ignition system.

So after looking over a lot of chainsaws, I decided to go with the Prorun 20" 55.5 cc chainsaw. Pretty much everywhere I read it got good reviews.

Another chainsaw I had good luck with was an Echo chainsaw which I bought of a guy really cheap. I forget wat size bar it had on it, either a 12" or 14" bar which I ended up take off and putting on a 14" or 16" bar. Did a lot of sawing down trees with that saw and cutting the wood up for firewood. That was many, many moons ago so I don't know how their chainsaws are today. I just know that saw was a good saw and lasted a number of years.

Song For Today: Egor - Street  

You probably won't like this song, but for some reason I do.....

A Few More Halloween Pics.

 Ok... this will soon end, maybe one more set of pics and a video once I get things finished which should be maybe next week sometime.

These pics were taken down close to the road. At least I don't have to worry to much about someone jumping out of their car and stealing stuff! If they tried it, probably fall and break there neck being they have to go over a guardrail, down a steep bank, cross a really deep ditch, up the other side, just to get to the ghosts! To get to the other stuff they would have to climb up another steep bank, which I about break my neck when it's daylight out! Yea, it's that rough.

Song For Today: Eddie Money - Shakin'  

Still Working On Halloween Stuff

 Yea, I've been busy. Besides being busy I'm still dealing with this damn ear infection. After seeing five doctors and trying eight antibiotics, both pill and eardrops, It's not really bad except for the itching at my eardrum at times. Anyways... I'm still dealing with that. Another doctor's appointment tomorrow.

As for the Halloween stuff, I'm pretty much done but I still need to put up a large skeleton and get the fog machine hooked up. Plan to order four gallons of fog juice on Friday.

There is some more stuff down in the one part of the yard which is nothing more than some ghosts with a black light on them. I'll have to wait until it gets dark to take a picture to post. The next time I post about Halloween, everything should be done then...

Song For Today: The Dramatics - Whatcha See is Whatcha Get  

I Think This Is Going to Be a Slow Process...

 I think decorating for Halloween is going to be a slow process and probably be glad I started now. If I didn't, probably wouldn't get done until Halloween night! Already changed the lighting on the gate entrance four times, maybe more, have to wait until it gets dark to see how it looks.

Did put a new display up today, a gargoyle to look over everything.

The two tree stumps you see in the picture I plan to put a big skull on each one that has lighted up red eyes. I still have some weeds to clear out. Where the gargoyle is sitting, I cleaned most of it up today. Would you believe when I came down off the wall I freakng fell! Gir a couple of cuts and scrapes but nothing serious and nothing that bothered me much. I'm just glad I didn't fall off the other side! The other side is probably a 20–25-foot drop onto rocks!

One thing I forgot to mention in my other post, I'm hoping the letters that spell "BONEYARD" holds out. When I bought them it said "wood", yeah, particle board wood. :-( There were painted white when bought, but I put two coats of white paint over them plus two coats of Spar Urethane. So, I'm hoping they at least last until Halloween. Guess I'll find out....

Song for Today: Donnie Iris - Ah Leah   

Getting Ready for Halloween.... Already?

 Yes, started putting decorations up for Halloween already because there is a lot to do! It's just not putting up decorations, but it also involves cutting weeds and trees that have grown up since last year. It's pretty bad when you cut trees down one year and the next year, they are 12-feet high or higher. Of course, most I'll probably be able to cut off with a branch lopper. They are tall, but not real thick at the base, yet. The worst part is they are on a steep bank which makes it hard to stand. The other thing is doing it out in the heat, so I'm hoping for a few cooler days.

We had a pretty good set up last year with a lot of people slowing down and even stopping on the road to take a look. This year it's going to be even bigger than last year!

One thing I was concerned about was the "gate" I wanted to make, like an entrance to a graveyard. Well, I made one from scratch, putting different things together to come up with a kind of a decent looking graveyard entrance.

I call my graveyard entrance "Boneyard". Below are a few pics of how it looks now with different lighting. Still need to do a little more such as hand a few bats, etc.

This is during the day while it's still light outside.  

Another shot during the day but further away.  

From across the pool as it's getting dark.  

A closer shot as it's getting dark.  

Closer still as it's getting dark.  

This was at night but with a flash.  

This was at night with a flash and a blacklight.  

This was at night but a closer shot with a flash and blacklight.  

This was at night with blacklight only.  

So, that makes the start of Halloween here. Still have lots of stuff that needs putting up. Have number of things here in this room as well as getting things out of the attic. About the only thing I need to get yet are maybe a few little things plus 4-gallons of fog juice for the fogger.

Song For Today: Eagle-Eye Cherry - Save Tonight  

Who Would Think?

 Who would think it would take so long to smoke a few chicken legs in the smoker? How long is long? About 4-5 hours! Ok, there not little chicken legs, actually a pretty nice size I'd say.

It's also probably the way you smoke them. I have smoked chicken legs now a number of times, the first maybe 2 times where ok, but not how I liked them. Those first two times the legs were done but they were how should I say it, soft or gummy, rubbery? We get chicken at a local store at times, and you need to get it at just the right time.

If you get it right after it was cooked, you'll get that rubbery, like chicken. Wait too long, then its dry. So, you have to hope and get where it wasn't just made, nor has been sitting too long. When you get it just at the right time, it's just right.

So finally, I figured out how to get my chicken in the smoker to be just right. I don't do much with the chicken other than rub oil all over them then put whatever rub I'm going to use on them. While I'm getting the chicken ready, I'll fire the smoker up and bring the temp up to 225 deg. F. 

I'll then put the chicken in the smoker and let it cook until the internal temp reaches 175 deg. F. Once the chicken reaches 175 deg. F., I'll open the air intake and exhaust to bring the smoker temp up to 400 to get crispy skin on the chicken legs.

After taking the legs off the smoker and letting them sit a few minutes, the chicken legs are just the right texture, just the way I like it.

I tried boneless chicken breasts a few times but wasn't real thrilled with the end results, they were ok, but not as I really liked them. The next time I do breasts I'm going to try and do them the same way as I do the chicken legs and see how they come out.

Song For Today: Donovan - Hurdy Gurdy Man (1968)

Ever Had an Ear Infection?

 Well, I had one now for about a month! About three days after figuring out I had an ear infection I went to the doctors. He gave me an antibiotic pill and eardrops for 10 days. After 10 says the infection seemed the same. I called the VA clinic hoping to let them take a look, it was a Friday, and that person wasn't at the clinic, but they wanted me to go see my doctor or go to the outpatient place before the weekend.

Being it was Friday, I figured my doctor would be busy, so I went to the outpatient place. They looked at my ear and said it was infected, so they gave me another antibiotic to use for 10 days. Well, 12 days passed and not much has changed, so I called my doctor again this morning and went out there. This time he said I had a fungal infection after I told him what happened. He asked if what he first prescribed helped any which I said it pretty much didn't do anything.

So, today he put a wick in my ear and prescribed me Acetic Acid to use in my ear. In two days, I go out to have the wick removed but will continue using the Acetic Acid for a total of 5 days.

So, what happened, or how do I think I got the infection? On one of those really hot day's, the pool was getting pretty warm as well as it was just hot in the sun. I decided to hook a hose up and have it spray a fine spray over the pool to cool off when going under it as well as cool the water down in the pool some.

Altogether there was around 300 or more feet of hose going from the front of the house out back to the pool. The thing is, there had been water in the hoses, so hard to tell what all kinds of crap might have been growing inside of the hoses. It just so happens the one tome I went under the spray of water, a drop of water went straight down into my ear, and I'm pretty sure that's what caused the infection.