Happy Halloween

Halloween is always a BIG DAY around here. Our outdoor decorations are pretty minimal and have been with us for many years - nothing very scary here...
We made these little ghosties out of grocery bags and paper towels when the Man-Cub was two and we pack them up and get them back out every year - we're down to about 10 of them now - we used to tie them all in a tree but here they flutter on our deck...
The witch cutout is also from the Man-Cub's second year and that's about as scary as it gets here - when he was little - he didn't like her - I got the template from Martha Stewart's website - I wonder if it's still there. The purple window cover is actually a door cover - but you can't see our front door from the street so I put it in the dining room window instead - we got it when we moved to Columbia when the Man-Cub was three...
We love making our costumes and getting dressed up. Tonight, we'll go to the Man-Cub's school for "Fall Festival" (designed to keep kids from trick-or-treating) and then we'll go trick-or-treating afterwards.

This is the inside of the Darth Vader shoulder pad thingy - I cut out the shape from poster board and covered it with a trash bag.

These are the quilted gloves - per the Man-Cub's instructions the quilting on the tops of the hands is vertical and the quilting on the wrist bands is diagonal...
I attached quilted sleeves to an old black turtleneck...
This is the quilted skirt thingy (but don't call it a skirt) - it's just a big rectangle with a string closure that opens in the front - vertically quilted...
The groin protector thingy - also poster board covered with trash bag - it's sewn onto the bottom of the shirt so that it hangs appropriately...
I'll post pictures of Darth tomorrow...

And we love carving our pumpkin - we got this one when we were at Red Willow.

Here is the Man-Cub's design.
And here he lights the Jack-O-Lantern - the wind blew it out immediately so we had a dark Jack...


These two guys have little light bulbs in them so they don't blow out...
Happy Halloween!!!

Replication

I'm trying to create a vegan version of a casserole my MIL used to make - I don't have a proper recipe - but I know the ingredients were a can of cream a celery soup - a carton of sour cream - some dried beef - and some chicken.

So I got started with the celery soup. I chopped up some celery and cooked it with a little water and a sprinkle of tumeric - so the finished soup would have that yellow-y color - then I added some flour and soymilk. This was really good - I'll make it again and just eat it with crackers - it's been a long time since I had cream of celery soup. It looks perfect - doesn't it?

Then I sliced some tofu up - ready for baking in a little olive oil - to take the place of the chicken.

And I sliced some tofu thinly and sauteed it with a little olive oil and then some soy sauce...

to give it the leathery/salty feel/taste of dried beef...

The finished chicken/tofu...

...torn into chunks...

I mixed some tofutti sour cream (thanks Mom) with the celery soup...

put it all in a casserole dish and baked it until bubbly...

it was really yummy - not quite like the 'real' thing - maybe next time I'll use seitan or some other chicken substitute.

Your Regularly Scheduled Programming - Cont.

I actually did some knitting while we were on vacation - not much but I'm ready to turn the heel on my first ever toe up socks. The very pretty Campanula pattern from Mezzodiva.

The Custer Trail - to the NOT burning Coal Vein

We played at the nice playground in Medora in the morning before heading to...

the Custer Trail...

We drove for about 30 miles on these scoria covered roads - the car and everything in it - including us - was covered with a very fine red dust...
At every ranch there were these cattle guards - and they warned you ahead of time with a sign at every one...
There were several oil drills - did you know that oil/petroleum income has just recently outpaced wheat for the most dollars in ND...
More Badlands views...
More scoria covered roads - 30 miles is a long way on a dirt road...
pretty buttes...
slumping...
When we finally got to the burning coal vein there was no more evidence that it had been burning than there was anywhere in the badlands - where there are scoria covered hills everywhere. We had followed the brand new ND state map to the burning coal vein printed on it - when we got there the Man-Cub said - 'do you think we ought to write to the governor and tell him that it's not burning any more...'

White Butte the tallest point in ND - that was on the same map - it actually is still there...

National Grasslands on the way to Montana ...
Just after we entered Montana there was this large cross - so we had to drive up and see what it was...

Just to say - we've been to Montana...
On the drive home - we took a different route - scouting out future vacation spots - we passed the North Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and we crossed a huge resevoir - Lake Sacagawea.
I hope you enjoyed this vacation as much as we did - we will now return you to your regularly scheduling (knitting) program...

Life in the Vast Lane - Parte Deux - AKA - The Theodore Roosevelt National Park

The Maltese Cross Cabin - this sits at the entrance to the park.
His tiny little bedroom - with the buffalo fur cover YUCK! - and his chest with the initials T.R. on top - there's actually a little sleeping loft where his cowhands slept too.
His dining room
His living room His kitchen - actually all one big room...
Hiking down the Little Missouri River.
Hiking up the Little Missouri River.
The Count of Days - showing the battle with Custer - commemorated not as the year they defeated Custer - but the year they 'lost the horse' - as they were forced to go to the reservation (without horses) after the battle.
A clinker covered hill.
A badlands view.
It's hard to get the scale and depth of some of these shots - they were spectacular.
We're on top of a cliff overlooking the river - there was no railing of any sort - Eeeep!
Ooooh pretty rocks...
more evidence of slumping...
More Badlands...
an un-burnt coal vein...
The dead trees where the coal was burning until 1977...
a toadstool - which looks exactly like - well a toadstool...
More scoria - it looks from a distance just like North Carolina red clay...
An aptly named overlook...
This overlook was called "scoria overlook"...We spent the whole day hiking around in the Park. We were close to the end when we got back to the car - the Man-Cub said I hope there are no more trails - we just did a couple more short ones.