This and That

Happy Halloween! Boy does Halloween look differently these days than even just a couple of years ago. No more trick or treating with my teenagers....they are out doing that with their friends this year. They did want to carve pumpkins so here they are.

I've been hauling this behemoth of a plant inside and outside each fall and summer and it's rewarded me by getting HUGE. The down side is I have very little space for it since I've started collecting more houseplants. It's now sitting where the Christmas Tree is going to go. The thought has crossed my mind to just decorate it this year. I'm pretty sure it's around 35 years old. 

We have this huge family of turkeys that have been visiting us almost daily all summer long. Three females started bringing their 20+ chicks down the driveway in early spring and each day they lounge around eating grasshoppers and drinking from the fountain. I'm glad I've created a yard that is inviting to wildlife. The chicks are now full grown and they still hang around in the back yard most days.

We have found that we really enjoy hockey games and plan to get to a game each month this winter. The October game was fun (except for the dunk guy behind us) and we look forward to seeing more.

Zinnias and Tortoises

 I planted a lot of flowers this summer. Like a lot. I wanted to see blooms all summer so I tilled up the ground right out back near the fire pit and put down about a ton of zinnia seed in four giant rows. Once they were around 6 inches tall I mulched the heck out of them with old horse hay and then they took off. By the end of the summer some of them were as tall as me.

Throughout the summer I'd go out and snip off dried blooms and drop them into a big paper bag. I think I have 6 big bags of my favorite blooms to collect seeds off of for next summer. Late winter I'll pull the dried petals and collect the seeds.

I put down several pounds of clover seed in the outdoor tortoise pen and the tortoises are loving it. We also decided to get going on building them an outdoor tortoise house. It's been on the to-do list for a couple of years and it's nice to get something started. It's an 8X8 shed that will be insulated well.