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I am dead tired which seems appropriate. It has been a long day and the header of this post will let the masses know the reason we are tired. The Trick or Treaters started at 4:30 and we ran out of candy at 8:30. That did not stop them from coming still. We shut down, brought in all the props, pumpkins and Halloween 
paraphernalia and they continued to ring the bell on the dark house. 

The count of Trick or Treaters comes from my neighbor who has someone manning a clicker all evening long. I am confident it is accurate enough for our purposes.

Here are the pictures.

I had the presence of mind to take a video of the yard as well. I hope this works.

Thanks to Ron, Kelly, Mark, Randy, Karen and Ellen for helping out with everything. It makes it a lot easier to enjoy the evening when you can rotate between giving out candy, checking out the crowds and scaring young children.

Another successful Halloween is in the casket!

The Day Before All Hallows Eve

Susan and I have been working all week in preparation for Halloween. We had about 12 pumpkins to carve and lots of props to get out of storage.

I think we are in pretty good shape for the big day tomorrow. It's a Friday this year so we are expecting a big crowd. The wrench in that monkey is the possibility of rain.

We have still been experiencing an unprecedented Autumn season of warm weather and lovely, mild days. We have not had a freeze yet.

But rain threatens to fall in the late afternoon to early evening.

Here's a couple of pictures of the set up.

 Those are our real pumpkins. We still have about 20 synthetic pumpkins we put out every year.

I am taking the day off from work tomorrow and Susan is off at noon. With the help of a couple of friends, we should be ready for the onslaught by dusk.

We Are NOT Dead!

It's the start of the Halloween Season so the Heading seemed appropriate. I just wanted to get that in because it has been a long time since we've posted anything and it's a shame, cuz there is lot's to post.

We got our grapes from Prosser a week ago and the crushed grapes that became our must is currently percolating away. We pitched the yeast on Sunday after crushing the grapes last Wednesday. All seems to be going along smoothly. In a year, we will be bottling another batch of Tempranillo.

October 21st is the record set many years ago for the Boiler Game. Even though it has been an incredible Autumn with temperatures ranging in the 80's, it is getting close to time to fire up the boiler. I was prompted to make this post because I was checking the Blog to find out the exact date for the Boiler Game Record. I decided that since I was here, I should Blog. And so I am.

The boiler hasn't been fired up yet mainly because I was having leakage issues with the new radiator in the Living Room. We had it returned to the system earlier this Spring as we completed the Living Room project. It turned out to be a major project and I called in Handy Man Shaun to handle the re-installation. I had not filled the system until a week or so ago. I discovered a small but prolific leak in the right side joint. So I drained the system again and arranged to get my Boiler Guy (Shaun) here.

We finally arranged it for this evening. He arrived at 5:30 and the system was already filling. We enjoyed a beer and chatted while we waited for the system to fill and the leak to begin.

It took a while but the system was finally filled and to my surprise and Shaun's pleasure, no leak materialized. I just checked it again and it seems to be holding.

So now, the dilemma is whether I should fire up the boiler. I would like to go for the record, but the way the weather is, we are not going to make it past next Tuesday, which will be the 21st. So it really isn't a dilemma at all. I shall fire up the system and make sure it remains leak free.

10:10 PM: The system is fired up and operating. There is an ever so slight leak in the coupling joint of the Living Room Radiator. It drops a tear drop of water about every three minutes. It is collecting in a little bowl. It is slow enough that it should not be a problem through the night or through the work day, as long as we empty the bowl regularly. I'll contact Shaun and see where we go from here but I'm hoping it's small enough that it will seal itself. Yeah, sure! That happens all the time!