Gone Feral In Idaho

I'm sure I've made a similar post before, but this time of year is so dark and gloomy. I love it when it starts to get chilly and dark for Halloween, but right after it I usually begin to experience seasonal effective disorder. I never really got into Christmas, but in more recent years I've loved putting lights on the house to add some cheer to the long winter season. Last year was our first Christmas tree for my husband and I and the first for either of us in our adult lives for years. Today we got our tree all bought and set up. I spent the evening decorating it which is so much fun for me. The house smells amazing and the lights are so wonderful. Even the glass ornaments glow from within.  Here's to a happy safe warm winter to all!

I hope the host doesn't pull this too quick, But I finally got video footage of Thriller for the first time in years. The program I use is freeware (Vixenlights) plus an Arduino and lots of feet of wire from each prop and spotlight that I hook up to my PC that I move to the Living room window for a week for the show (apparently my laptop is incompatible and my tablet is too new). So for the last two years the show has run buggy. During that time I ran nice ambient spooky sounds and a random light show, just random channels dimming on and off (like I originally wanted, nothing more).  Guess what? I figured out the problem and had the whole 7 song synchronized to music thing running this year. When you run for 4 nights that is a bit obnoxious-yet very satisfying. People love the light show with the music. For the first time we has folks lining the streets each night the weekend before waiting for the "light show". Folks were dancing in the street Friday and Saturday nigh...

Harrison Blvd is the premier Trick or Treating locale in Boise Idaho. I haven't visited in a few years, but took some photos on All Hallows Eve Eve. They close the street off to vehicle traffic, thousands come. We don't get anywhere near as much.  The homeowners put up cation tape to keep their yards from being overwhelmed. I'm not sure if I'd want to haunt on this street. But the houses are amazing.  This is a seasonal icon, the lions in their pumpkin suits.  This is another iconic home. They usually have hundreds of carved pumpkins. It looks like they are moving out. I hope the new owners do a good job next year.  Some new haunts have appeared after years of the same old thing.  I loved the ghost in the window.  Poltergeist! The TV was on snow!  Single hanging ghoul.  A reference to a new remake. Finally, a rip off of my favorite haunter's work. Not the homeowne...

Click to photo for a quick video.

Y'all know how elaborate my haunt it. My neighbors put up their yearly homage to my haunt. It used to be a single old school poseable skeleton flat wall hanging form one of their old gnarled trees. This year its a single mask on one of their fence posts. They live in the only remaining building from the farm that my subdivision was built on. My house is where the old farm house stood and theirs was the farm hands house. It is well weathered and surrounded by huge old trees, so it's spooky in it's own right. As opposed to my generic tract house.

Click the link below for a short video. This is just the early stages of set up. We should be up and running next Thursday. Happy Haunting! 2017 Dead End Haunt is Starting to Set Up

We had some excitement last night. I was just taking note on how it is starting to get dark earlier and earlier. I looked at the clock and it was 8:30 so I made a mental note to plan for outdoor portrait photography times I'll need to start planning. I also heard a lot of sirens, which isn't totally unusual as I live along a north-south thoroughfare between town and the foothills. I settled in with the dogs to watch Sully. At about 9:15 I went to let the dogs out when I saw this: I can't quite explain the primal flight reaction that came over me. This is over a mile away, basically the beautiful backdrop to our backyard view, but glowing bright orange, and the sirens! It sounded like the whole valleys first responders were driving past my house to get up there. I later found out that that was the truth. All the local city fire departments, the National Guard, and the BLM were there. I scrambled to get my camera after taking a few initial terrible cell phone shots...

It's been in the 100's lately but today we didn't reach 90 degrees. I figured I'd get out the camera and inspect the front gardens. Kyle set me up with drip irrigation for my hanging pots and large urns. This is my first year at successfully growing Amaranth.   Our new maple tree is doing well. The old one was diseased and we had to cut it down.  Bees love the lavender.  Liatris  Black Vernon tomato, I got a free packet with the rest of my order from Johnny's this year.  Mexico midget- these are the first to ripen. We are going to have a ton of tomatoes by the end of the month. Hardy hibiscus-it's covered in buds.