Tag: fall leaves

Boo……..Halloween fun

November 1, 2010

I’ve started to make a bit of a tradition out of Halloween pumpkin carving w/ kiddo. A review of last year’s Halloween post showed we had more pumpkins, and I took a more of a leading role in the carving. This year, kiddo did them all….I just cleaned out the insides and roasted the seeds.

We only had three carved ones this year. Kiddo did one “freestyle”, the others following a pattern. Must say he’s getting the hang of things.  Only one type of pumpkins seeds this year – the more savory with a touch of garlic olive oil, garlic salt, hint of pepper. These came out quite well.  My kitchen tho, did not fare as well. Apparently, I attacked the scraping out the insides with a fury. Bits of pumpkin flew everywhere. Must have needed to work out some aggression or something…dunno.

Admit to in addition to slacking a bit on the pumpkin carving, didn’t really go all out on the outdoor decor. Used all the fun motion sensitive stuff, the scary music, fog machine,  new talking face in the tree, but no spider webs, not a bunch of lights. Few pieces out in the garden, under the watchful eye of Kutya the wonder dog. (which reminds me, I never put his costume on either…what was I thinking???)

This year we did stop by a party for a bit. Kiddo even got second in the costume contest for his “when the Brewers slaughter the Cardinals” costume. Found the food names a great touch – shredded rat sandwiches (pork), moldy fruit pizza, maggots (a great coconut and banana rice pudding), vampire bat wings (homemade tortillas shaped like pumpkins and bats. WOW), blood soaked deviled eggs, bat guano, mummy wraps, witches fingers. 
Looking back at last year’s post, made me realize another Halloween weekend tradition….tackling the leaves. The job was somewhat helped by last week’s wind storm, moving a good part of the masses of leaves covering our lawn into the woods. The rest were piled around the driveway farm pots, my potting shed. Hubby and son pile the leaves onto a tarp, and drag them to our woods. Kutya supervises all outdoor activity. In the woods, Mt. Leaverest is about 4 feet high by 12 feet in diameter, and growing. Should have a good bit of leaf mold for the garden in a year or so.
While checking out the pile had a thought….maybe we could make a little bit of singletrack through the woods. Kiddo and I had been practicing riding over rocks and logs last week in the yard…. may have to add this to our yard skills area 😉

Random Thoughts from the Saddle

October 21, 2009

1) When geese are spooked and caused to take off as a flock, many of them poop in the process. If you are riding down a bike path and flush a flock of geese directly in front of you, not only do you have to worry about a 20 lb goose hitting your head, you have to dodge a shower of crap. According to my husband this is quite funny to watch from behind; take it from me, it is less fun to experience.

2) Leaning right when only your left foot is out of the clipless pedals – not smart. That makes two falls since I got bike shoes and clipless pedals. Both in my driveway. The first hurt, really hurt – stll have a bruise and knot on my right, uh, glute. This second one yesterday evening (after several rides and more than 75 miles of city riding w/ no incidents) just hurt my pride.

3) Speaking of falling, it is amazing how many thoughts can run through your head in a split second. On Sunday’s ride, another cyclist coming the opposite direction passed wide , really wide, way into my “lane” of the trail, running me off the trail. My bike got squirrley, I went sideways. In the split second of realizing I was about to wipe out hard among all kinds of people; I went through a whole series of thoughts and emotions – anger, denial, fear, embarrassment, acceptance – and then remarkably relief, as I somehow regained my balance, got the wheels under me and kept on rolling.

4) Walnut balls make formidable road hazards. There is an especially egregious downhill section of road full of them right by my house….from a tree in my own yard.

5) Since I’ve started riding bikes, I am much more aware of hills while driving. From the gentle ones around my house, to the many not so gentle ones in the area. There’s basically no flat land to be found around here.

Stop reading now if you know me and have this view of me as a prim and proper thing – or if you are offended by talk of bodily functions.

6) Cold weather riding makes my nose run, really run. And try as I might I don’t quite have the moving snot rocket thing down. I don’t think the goal is to catch them on your sleeve. Of course, my 10 year old son thinks it’s very cool that his mom is even trying……..