Fading Fall

They said that the height of color would be last week or this week. I gambled on this week and lost. Still, there were some pretty scenes on our weekly Council Bluffs trip.

The bluffs had kind of a weird effect because most of the color was gone so it looked like one of those desaturated photos where only the red tones are left, but it was in person. Of course it didn’t photograph that way completely but it sort of did.

On the way home we took a bit of a different way and drove down Old Bluff Road or something like that. They had mudslide warnings, and I could see why, as we ran into what looked like one. I guess that’s the trouble when the hills are just made of dirt.

The clouds were also pretty interesting.

And last but not least some random trees in Red Oak and Villisca.

And now I leave you.

Have a fun trees kinda day!

Jo 🙂

Halloween Decorations Are Done – Blogophilia 17.4

It’s time again for Blogophilia, the fun blog group where participants use prompts in their weekly blog. This week’s prompts are:

Ecrits Blogophilia Week 17.14 Topic: Everything Pumpkin Spice
Hard Bonus: Use a line or quote by Henry David Thoreau
Easy Bonus: Include a “new girl”

It’s also the time of the year where Everything Pumpkin Spice is…well, everywhere, and the time when we see ghouls and goblins – or rather, this year, skeletons. As Halloween decorations have popped up, I’ve seen an overwhelming number of skeleton set ups, which annoys me a bit because I’d planned LAST year to do a skeleton-scentric display this year.

It’s been said, “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” And here I am, following right along with everyone else. Bah!

Anyway, I present for your viewing pleasure, this year’s Halloween display!

I haven’t done much with the porch, and probably won’t, but there’s something at least.

On to the front yard where Skully’s Lawn crew is working hard at getting my yard in shape. We have a guy who’s found a surprise in his wheelbarrow full of dirt, his friend who’s run into a snag while cleaning out the bird bath. The guy with the sheers looks to be doing a fine job – better than the guy who’s mowing, because I think he ran over one of his fellow workers. And then we have the guy who is supposed to be working on the tree. Looks like he can’t hike on, but luckily he has a cloaked friend ready to help…wait a minute. Maybe that’s not so lucky. Oh well, the guy raking the leaves doesn’t seem to worries, and neither does Skully, who’s supposed to be supervising them.

Considering the luck they’re having, it’s just as well they haven’t made it around to the side of the house. I don’t think these plants would take well to being trimmed. (The eyeballs are made out of those plastic eggs like the LOL dolls come in and the man eating plants are foam pumpkins, tree branches, some floral bits from walmart, and spray paint. I might add tongues to them on Halloween. We’ll see)

On down from the plants is the cemetery and the river Styx where the boatman steers some unlucky souls to the afterlife. Even the wildlife there is spooky, as this fisherman has found out with his catch. And look at that – the duck and the frog are just as skeletal. WooooooOoooOOoooooo….. (that’s a tarp – actually three tarps- and I made the lily pads out of felt because otherwise the frog didn’t show up well)

You might have noticed that the souls in the boat seemed very concerned, but they shouldn’t because the afterlife isn’t so bad. Why, look, they even have a park -a Helluva park, haha! It looks like it’d a good place to play frisbee…erm, unless your the guy who lost his hand, I guess. Luckily the Afterlife EMTs are there to save the day. And what park is complete without a dog walker? Fido and Spot look like theyre…oh, dear. Is Spot being a naughty boy? I hope that guy picks up after him! Meanwhile it looks like the dude on the bench is enjoying feeding the birds. (He was supposed to get a vulture, too, who would have been a new girl, so to speak, but at the last minute my order was canceled because they were out of stock. Boo!) But even if we didn’t get the vulture gag, the homeless guy (based on Madao from Gintama) worked well. My uncle is the one who put the bird on his head, and frankly it’s hilarious. Cerberus is also hanging out, though if he is one of the guys’ pet or just a stray, I’m not sure.

And last but not least are the spiders, which Mike put up. 🙂 They will get you if you’re not careful!

And that’s it. Hope you enjoyed the little tour.

Have a spooktacular kinda day!

Jo 🙂

The Weekend

Just gonna dump some photos on you because I didn’t get the blogs done. First we have some pretty sunset pics I took on the way to Council Bluffs, where Lillie Mae, Mel and Monica’s corgi, got her photo taken for the corgi calendar.

Then the next day we visited the new hot dog place in Hamburg. It was so good. I got my coffee made into a shake with chocolate ice cream and raspberry syrup and OMG. It was amazing. The hot dog was also amazing.

We also went to Sinister Sydney again, this time with Mike and Pam. And Pam screamed a lot, haha! Which made it super fun!

And finally here are the last of the good fall foliage pics

And that’s all for now. We got the yard decorations done, but I’ll do that in a seperate one.

Have a hot dawg kinda day!

Jo 🙂

Burning Trees

Yeah, I got busy, but I have some stuff to blog. Time is short, so this is what you get instead. A neat effect caused by the sun and clouds today as the sun set.

Have a pretty fall kinda day!

Jo 🙂

Bye Bye Leaves

I went to bed and there were leaves on the tree. I got up, and they were mostly on the ground.

That was just grass the day before. Wow. I imagine it’s to do with the cold snap. It’s been in the 40s the last two days. Brrrr.

Still, we got some more of the Halloween stuff up. Not sure what I’ve posted already, so there may be repeats. But we gave Madao (the guy in the garbage can) a pet in a cage, added a couple birds for Gin to feed (Of Madao is there, Gin-san has to be somewhere) and put the vinyl on his sack. Also made red crosses for the back of the paramedics shirts (though they’re not on them yet) and you can see the patient’s fellow Frisbee players waving goodbye to him as he is hauled away, sans his hand. And in the front yard we gave our clipper guy something to clip (it’s the dead sunflowers tied to smaller pieces of rebar). Oh, and I tucked in the skeleton snake.

And then I started on the signs, which means I cut rhe vinyl on my cricut and stuck it on and then painted them. Yeah. I need stencils.

And that’s all I have worth sharing.

Have a dancing in the leaves kinda day!

Jo 🙂

Man Eating Plants…

Yesterday was chilly, but we got a couple of things done. Like some work on the Halloween signs.

And then we got the man eating plants assembled. I used the spray foam the directions said to use, but it didn’t puff up the way her’s did in the video. Still, it did an excellent job of holding up our branches, so there’s that. After we got them forced in (that took some work) then we attached the pumpkins- we used screws for sturdiness – and added some construction adhesive around it. After that we stuck our foliage on – they’re some floral branches from Walmart that we just used wire ties to hold on. Gonna have to wait to spray paint them, though, until it warms up because it’s been on the 40s. (They’ll be all green)

That’s the exciting thing for the day, so I leave you with some adorable pet pictures.

Have a pumpkin monster kinda day!

Jo 🙂

Halloween is Coming Along

So, Halloween is inching closer and we got a bit more done on the decorations, this time we worked on Skully’s Lawn Service. As you can see they work very hard. The lawnmower comes care of our very awesome neighbor Bob, who was kind enough to loan it to us.

We also ran down to the local salvage yard to get some cement block bits to put in the bottom of our buckets. I always enjoy going down there. It’s like a dystopia landscape.

With Halloween coming, so is winter, so we picked the last of the tomatoes and had fried green tomatoes. Since Mom passed, I’ve been the only one who likes them, but my uncle was here and he likes them, too, so it was worth the effort. Not really worth it just for me.

Not much else worth mentioning. Got some neat clouds pics:

I leave you now with some decorations from Stadium 34. Live when businesses decorate!

Have a skeleton lawn workers kinda day!

Jo 🙂

Autumn Photos Take Two – Blogophilia 16.14

I mentioned the other day that I had some autumn photos from Wednesday, but was having upload issues. Well, got them done, finally, so here you go. I’m using them for my blogphilia blog, because I can!

What is Blogophilia? It’s a fun blog group where participants use weekly prompts to write a blog. This week;s prompts are:

Ecrits Blogophilia Week 16.14 Topic: Harvest Moon

Hard Bonus: Incorporate your favorite song title (Wicked Game)

Easy Bonus: Mention fire

So, the first batch of photos was taken on the way up to Council Bluffs along Highway 34 again. There was some nice colors, but nothing that looked like the trees were on fire or anything.

This is a park in…I forget the town name. But, anyway, every time we go past it the bro makes the same joke about the helicopter taking forever to land.

And then we changed directions and the sun became a nuisance… I mean, it made for some interesting photos, especially the ones where it reminds you of the harvest moon, but…

Not top notch quality, but not bad for a cellphone I reckon.

Got some more done on our Halloween stuff, but this is so long I’ll put it in tomorrow instead. It was a bit of a Wicked Game on WordPress’ part, getting these all uploaded and embedded, but I finally made it. I think I need a glass of wine…

Have an autmny kind of day!

Jo 🙂

Plague Doctor Family

My plague doctor collection arrived from Squishables!! I already had the normal plague doctor and nurse, but now look at them all! The Christmas versions and then the five little alter egos. Aren’t they adorable??? (If you want your own, check out Squishable.com

Not much else here. I have some more autumn pics to share from this Wednesday but have the same upload thing, so they will have to wait. I leave you with Taffy and JJ.

Have a plague boi kinda day!

Jo 🙂

Surprise Picnic

Tuesday we got invited to a little picnic at Viking Lake for supper. We had a good time, yummy food, and I got some pretty photos. Can you ask for anything better?

And because I’m not sure what else to do with them, here are some random sunset photos from a few days ago.

Have an autumn picnic kinda day!

Jo 🙂