Frost, Mice, and All Hallows’ Eve Magic

We woke to a stunning pink-and-orange Halloween sky, the ground silvered with frost and the temperature sitting at -5°C. Coffee was served in bed, and I moved on to publishing a blog post, working on photo downloads to OneDrive, and doing my Spanish lessons while Sheldon scrolled through his favorite updates on X.

Before showering, I suggested a soak in the hot tub, which was perfect in the cool, brisk air. once dry and dressed, Sheldon pitched hay for the horses while I made lunch.

Fridays are plant care days, so I tended to the houseplants—having done the orchids yesterday—while continuing photo sorting and editing for the next blog post. I finished one for Kaylin’s birthday, ready to publish. I also reorganized the pantry while S caught up on news, looked for a new kitchen TV, and browsed through blog posts on his laptop in big brown.

In the midst of that, Sheldon was on the phone with the service shop about Shaina’s Jeep. When he went to find the serial number, a mouse jumped out of the glove box, ran across his leg, and disappeared into the back! Shaina laughed when text and said, “Maybe it’s on sale for $10,000 now!”

I made Dave’s famous apple crisp while Sheldon took Harley for a walk in the now blustery, overcast afternoon, checking the bison skulls he has in the trees. Once back, he gave her a bath, and I cleaned her kennel, replaced the bedding, and washed the dirty blankets.

The Boysis family was coming for supper before trick-or-treating, so I made a big pot of chili—a Halloween tradition from when the girls were little. I usually made chili or hamburger soup so they and Sheldon could have a warm, hearty meal before heading out (or after coming home, frozen and happy).

While S napped in Big Brown, I worked on my password list. Later, when he moved the Ranger into the shop, he checked his “trap line” (aka the sticky trap in Shaina’s Jeep) and found the guilty party. I’m not one for torture—but I’m not fond of mice either—so I kept my distance.

The Boysis crew arrived at five. We powered down a quick bowl of chili, a short playtime in the castle, then loaded up to head to the Paetz’s, where Aislyn and Archer were waiting eagerly for our arrival to start trick-or-treating. Sheldon stayed with Craig to hand out candy and watch the ball game, while Nathan, Amanda, Kaylin, and I set off with the kids. After the first few houses—and a few game checks on his phone—Nathan gave in and joined the guys in front of the TV.

Thanks Amanda for this picture before Asher was off with friends

The grim reaper, Wednesday Addams and Baby Shark

First stop was the front door where Auntie Amanda let her choose what she wanted... well chocolate bar of course AND candy!

The littles covered plenty of ground (and stairs!) over the next hour and forty-five minutes, each filling a huge bag of candy. The weather was much better than last year, with a high of 10 degrees Celsius tonight.  Renn was over the moon—she just had to open her bag, say “trick or treat,” and be showered with candy. She happily accepted extra when offered, and many people adored her “lollipop” choice in her cute Baby Shark costume.

first official trick or treat stop

Wednesday giving the shark a lift

Many of the houses had candy givers in full costume, this one had a live creature on the deck that was instructed not to scare these little ones :)

Stop at Stouts

This house scared K last year but nothing super spooky this year, they do have cool bat lights again

This was the spooky house especially once behind the black curtain

Back at the warm Paetz house, the candy was inspected—by kids and at least one dad—while the ball game played on. Plenty of “taste testing” happened, too. Craig played the perfect host, keeping everyone’s glasses full. Unfortunately, the Blue Jays lost this crucial game with a few odd calls and errors, leaving the final showdown for tomorrow night during the church fundraiser.

Auntie B stopped after feeding her horses 

Cooper even came in from the car to join the party

Ada was picked up after the ball game ended having trick or treated with her "Toy Story" friends in another area of town.

Such a heavy candy bag

In Ottawa, Shaina and Matt were celebrating at a friends and did a couple FaceTime calls during the evening to be a part of the celebration here too

We laughed and visited late into the evening before heading home at 10:30 with Nathan’s excellent chauffeur service. Renn managed to stay awake until home, then everyone drifted off to bed.

What a fun, memorable All Hallows’ Eve—a day of frosty skies, family, and a touch of magic. 🎃

Sunshine, Spice, and Photo Sorting Woes

No wind and plenty of sunshine made for a beautiful day. We started our morning as usual—today I mixed up another batch of pumpkin spice creamer. This version was much simpler and, I think, even better:

Pumpkin Spice Creamer

• 1 cup each pumpkin, whipping cream, and milk

• ½ tsp each salt, cinnamon, and ginger (or pumpkin pie spice if you have it—sadly, I didn’t!)

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 2 tsp maple syrup + a touch of stevia - more if you like sweeter
  Blend with an immersion blender and pour.

  

  In my rush to deliver Sheldon’s coffee to him in bed, I accidentally ran my cup through with the same pod—ending up with a warm mug of creamer and weak coffee. I rescued it with an espresso shot, thankfully. I did my Spanish lessons in bed while S scrolled through his favorite social media X.

After feeding Harley, I got my Vegas Day 12 post published. S headed out to park the dump trailer and toss hay.

Meanwhile, I spent 45 minutes on the phone with RBC—most of it on hold—while continuing my photo-sorting mission. I’ve been trying to back everything up to OneDrive since we already pay for it yearly, and it would make a great long-term backup for our photos from 2001 onward. Unfortunately, between low-memory computers and syncing glitches, the process has been frustrating. The digital world definitely has its headaches.

S left for town around 1:30, walking Harley to the gate first, to pick up Shaina’s Jeep. He’s had a few inquiries about selling it, but still no solid offers. To keep the battery charged and hopefully catch more eyes, he decided to take it to hockey.

I kept battling OneDrive and photo backups. A Microsoft tech called with a few tips but no magic fix—apparently, my OneDrive sits at 1.8 GB backed up with 26.6 GB and 22,000 photos still to go.

S returned from hockey around 4:30, just as I fed Harley supper. We waited for B to arrive with Cooper, then headed out to meet Grama, Papa, and Candace at Boston Pizza for supper. It was a lovely evening of good food and catching up before saying our goodbyes around 7.

Once home, B fed her horses while S and I made the bed with the fresh sheets I’d washed earlier. I worked on today’s blog post while he tried to sort out a GST issue after receiving a government reminder about last year’s submission.

B and Cooper hit the road just before 8, armed with leftover pizza for tomorrow’s lunch. S hit the bed to watch hockey with me joining after leaving the photo dilemma to work on a new project in bed. I was creating a password spreadsheet for easy alphabetical finding before starting the new season of Selling Sunset as S slept —a cozy end to a sunny, productive day.

Windstorms, Wins, and World Series Game 5

The wild wind through the night woke me up—along with Harley, who oddly needed to go out at 2:30 a.m. By morning, things had calmed down, but the gusts returned around 11 and blew all day. We had our usual two coffees each, and I ordered more pods for delivery.

Good news came for Sheldon—he won the $100 cash from the radio station at Origins yesterday! He actually missed their call because his phone was still on Do Not Disturb, but they awarded it to him anyway.

I made a few calls myself and tracked down a replacement shower sweep for our glass door—one more item checked off the fall cleanup list. I ended up ordering via Amazon as over double the length for the same price.

Sheldon headed out to pitch hay for the horses, hook up the dump trailer, and load the skid steer to tackle the church’s tile dilemma after lunch. I simmered a chicken carcass for soup stock after making lunch sandwiches.

He left for town around one to handle the tile issue and a few more errands, leaving me to work on photo sorting and blog posts. He also picked up his cash winnings! He returned later with an iced cap for me, an apple fritter for himself, and a dump trailer full of tiles. Tractor trouble slowed down unloading, but he got it done.

Nathan sent this funny video capture from a couple days back

B came by to feed in the howling winds before heading home. Shortly after, Sheldon followed her out to pick up the skid steer from the church. I finished chopping veggies, picked the meat off the bones, and turned the broth into chicken and rice soup for supper.

The day wrapped up with Game 5 of the World Series—and what a game! The Blue Jays took a commanding 6–2 win, with young Yesavage pitching seven brilliant innings and the team starting strong with two home runs. Game 6 lands on Halloween! 🎃⚾

Vision Checks, Vegas Posts, and Victory for the Jays

Awake after eight, Sheldon got dressed while I made our coffees. He unhooked the dump trailer, grabbed a few tools, and was off to a rodeo shelf building work bee before nine.

I quickly finished and published yesterday’s blog post, then ventured out into the chilly –6° air to pitch hay for the horses. Good thing I brought my plants in last night!

Back inside, I worked on more of the Vegas blog posts and started putting together a Christmas plan for the Kuhn side with Candace. Then I dove into photo organization — always a rabbit hole! It reminded me that I never made a tutorial for the blue paper towel holder project, which might explain why it hasn’t sold yet being forgotten. My paint payroll sheets were submitted. I also sorted and deleted a bunch of old, watermarked photos and tidied up my files.

Before long, I realized time was slipping away and our eye appointments were coming up, so I stopped that task, got dressed, grabbed a hard boiled egg and grapes for lunch and headed to town. We’re trying a new optometrist this time. Sheldon was just coming out of his appointment and looking for glasses as I went in for my eye testing. My prescription has only changed a fraction, so I’m good for another two years. Sheldon, however, decided to get new glasses — all his pairs, including his sunglasses, are scratched to bits. He’s not exactly gentle with them! 

Renn at "school" with her buddies Yara and Rowen XOXO

Afterward, we stopped at Origin Brewing since Sheldon had heard about a contest running between two and four. We had a couple of beers and he ordered the brisket taco for a very late lunch. We entered the texting contest before he dropped me back at my car and headed off to pick up Cooper.

I ran into Sobeys for a rotisserie chicken and a few groceries, then made it home as Sheldon was fitting the new Ranger windshield — just a small adjustment needed to make it perfect.

I prepped rice and a salad to go with the rotisserie chicken for supper, ready for Game 4 of the World Series. Sheldon started watching but left for the Ag Society AGM meeting at seven, leaving me to text him play-by-plays. What an exciting game! Brittany came by to do her feeding and took Cooper home. S made it home before 8:30 to catch the rest of the big win. The Jays win again — and now they’re heading back to Toronto for the next game on Halloween night! 🎃⚾

Fall cleaning continues

When Sheldon took the cat food out this morning, he spotted two moose in the hayfield! We’ve never seen moose on our land before — only at a distance over by the winery — so this was pretty exciting.

After our usual slow start to the day with two cups of coffee, I decided it was time to descale the Nespresso machine. I skipped the pricey descaling packs and went old-school with 50/50 vinegar and water instead. Of course, I reused the hot vinegar water afterward — pouring it into the sinks, adding baking soda, and letting it do its bubbling magic. You know me, I can’t waste a thing.

Sheldon had a quick TeleMed check-in with his surgeon — literally under five minutes — and then moved on to trying to recoup some money for leftover roofing tiles the church still has. Meanwhile, I dove into another deep fall-cleaning project: the dryer lint filter. I found a new replacement filter online since our flap broke, but before that, I wanted to get every bit of lint out of the area. I started unscrewing the frame but hit some issues and didn’t want to strip the screws, so I called in my trusty assistant. 

He managed to remove two more, only for us to discover a hidden fourth screw behind the door flap! Since we couldn’t get it off completely, I just kept vacuuming with the Dyson and crevice tool, then used a serrated bread knife to pull up more debris. There was still some sand way at the bottom, so I asked Sheldon if he had any tubing that could fit onto the crevice tool — and sure enough, he did. We hooked it up and voilà — it worked like a charm! My new favorite cleaning hack.

ewwww

serated bread knife and crevice tool get lots

fancy suction tube we made

Around 11:30, Sheldon headed to town with the dump trailer to get two more tires replaced (it’s definitely our “year of the tires”). I stayed home and kept scrubbing — tackling the washer and dryer doors, seals, and running the Eco Drum Clean cycle. Once everything was wiped down and sparkling, I had to smile. You can’t have clean clothes without clean machines, right?

Bottom line - you need spray cleaner and the crevice tool with rubber tubing for all your cleaning needs :)

OK- a tee to get tight grooved areas and flashlight help too.

The washing machine rubber seal is like layers of belly fat, one must reveal the folds and clean these areas out good! Gross the gunk that is caught in the folds.

A chopstick works well to get in the inner edges where more gunk hides. Use lots of spray cleaner and scrub all the nooks and crannies to get everything clean, then run your drum cleaning cycle. Voila!

the tubing tool works great to get along the tight edges full of lint too! And under the stove and in registers.

Outside, the wind was howling under thick gray skies — a perfect day to stay in and clean. Then I noticed my rubber plant had more of those little black dots. ChatGPT suggested washing the leaves with soapy water and using neem oil, so I gave the leaves a gentle bath and ordered neem oil online.

While I was there, I got back to work on finishing the white dresser tutorial — still no bites on the dresser yet, sadly. Lunch was simple: hard-boiled eggs and leftover salad. Then I jumped into another Vegas blog post until I accidentally deleted my Paris date night photos while clearing out phone space! Thankfully, K was able to resend them.

By late afternoon, I took a quick shower — no hot tub for us tonight with the wind still howling. After feeding Harley, I realized I’d better rescue my dahlias before the forecasted -1°C hit. They’ve been so beautiful, I let them die yet.

I rounded out the day writing a new Hometalk post for the MCM chest of drawers— it’s been ages since I updated that space. Sheldon was home before five with two new trailer tires, a new Ranger windshield, and Cooper in tow after hockey and a coffee catch-up. He peeled off the protective film from the new rock glass — which, by the way, cost half the price Polaris wanted for a replacement windshield — and gave it a good buff ready to install. Turns out, while I was in the shower earlier, two repair parts had arrived by courier: one for the truck and one for the quad. Looks like he’s got a few new projects lined up for the week!

After a comforting spaghetti supper, we settled in front of the big TV for Game #4 of the World Series. What a marathon it turned out to be — the second longest game in history, lasting an incredible 6 hours and 39 minutes! B was out before eight for a quick feed and to take Cooper home, just as I brought in warm apple crisp for dessert. It was a nail-biter right to the end, but disappointingly, the Dodgers hit a homer to close it out at 12:50 a.m. Crazy how evenly matched these two teams are — though it sure didn’t help that four of our best players were taken out of the game.

A Surprisingly Calm Sunday

The day began with a rare treat — a calm, quiet Sunday morning without a hint of wind. While Sheldon  showered, I finally made a batch of homemade pumpkin spice coffee creamer, something I’ve meant to try for years. It turned out tasty, though I suspect it would be even better with true pumpkin pie spice instead of my improvised blend. We enjoyed two cozy cups before he headed off to church.

lazy Sunday in the city

I spent the morning marketing my latest tutorial and publishing a recent blog post. A message popped up from a lady wanting to buy Britt’s old Polaroid camera, which sent me on a one-hour scavenger hunt through bins and listings trying to find it — no luck yet! The upside was that I ended up refreshing, updating, and deleting several old online listings while tossing a load of laundry in.

Next came a Costco try-on session with my recent haul. The keepers were hung up, and the returns bagged. That led to me posting a few extras — a guest purse and a lightly worn summer blouse — on the local free site. I’m still sticking to my goal of us each letting go of 5–10 items a month.

Outside, I sprinkled a year’s worth of crushed eggshells into the garden beds and buried around 30 toilet paper rolls for compost. The horses got their hay, as I enjoyed the calm, sunny air.

Sheldon surprised me by returning around noon — the SLiK Services job turned out to be a bust. The clients hadn’t mentioned needing a drill bit extension, so the task couldn’t be completed. A frustrating waste of time, but at least he was home early.

We made egg salad sandwiches for lunch just as Britt and Cooper arrived. She ate her prepackaged lunch after finding her camera! Yeah, now she has some $$. She ventured out to trim Roo’s feet while I walked the free purse down to the gate with the dogs for pickup. Sheldon unloaded the skid steer before hopping into Big Brown to browse the internet (his kind of downtime). I continued laundry even though it was now clouded over.

I moved my little Mexican saddle from from door to here for now

After finishing with the horses, Britt popped back in and recruited Sheldon to help haul 10 straw bales she’d ordered from Matt for winter. They made quick work of it, and the bales were soon stacked neatly beside the horse trailer.

Britt then fed the horses and prepped feed dishes for tomorrow and off at 3 while Sheldon took a nap in Big Brown. I used the quiet time to work on the “Day After the Wedding” blog post, leaving the big wedding one for later — there are just so many photos to organize!

Once he was up, Sheldon tackled a deep clean of the bathrooms, which desperately needed it. I tossed in yet more laundry, hit publish on the new post, and called it a productive (and surprisingly peaceful) Sunday.

By late afternoon, around four, I fed Harley and then S and I settled into bed to continue watching Black Rabbit. There were a few breaks — one to get the short ribs going in the instant pot and another to prep carrots — but the show had me distracted, the pot may have gotten a bit too hot. The bottom was definitely more “blackened” than planned, though S insisted he likes that kind of flavor, so we rolled with it and enjoyed the meal anyway.

After dinner, we dove back into Black Rabbit until we suddenly remembered the Flames game. S headed downstairs to watch while I kept busy with the blog, laundry, and finishing up season 1 of Leanne before switching over to Outlander.  I did deliver him a dish of hot apple crisp with the last of my cherry ice cream mid game which he always enjoys. Eventually, the Flames pulled off a rare win, and S came back up. We ended the night finishing the Black Rabbit series together — right around midnight.