Tag: Fall decorating

Return of the “Square Crow” (Scarecrow)

Spooky new residents on our front porch.

I gave in and decided to do just a little bit of decorating for the season. I did not expect any kids to stop by here partially due to the pandemic, but also the kids in the neighborhood have all grown up, so we have only seen maybe four or five groups of kids stop by the last couple years. Then I saw the newest neighbors outside with little kids. Two neighbors across the street. They put pumpkins on the porch, and I thought that was like us when our kids were that little. They need a safe place to stop on Halloween. I am thinking about printing out something to tell where the Trunk or Treats are this year so they will know the best safe places to take the kids.

So…I dug through my shed where I put the bigger stuff from last year. I found a couple of straw brooms and got all the stuff for my scarecrow and started setting him up. I will have to finish stuffing him and find his gloves. I think he could use a straw hat too, but it got dark before I finished. He doesn’t look to bad though, for not being finished. My youngest son got home from work and noticed I had started. He had a couple things to add, but he said to wait on setting them out, because it was supposed to rain. So that was it for today.

Post in the comments if you know what type of spider this is.

My son went to his church where he plays drums. When he came in, he sounded all excited and said, “Mom you gotta see this”. So I went out to see what he had discovered. Low and behold a huge spider had set up resident above our scarecrow. My son wanted pictures, so I grabbed my phone. While we were taking pictures, so we could look it up and see what kind it was, it started chomping on its prey. That was when he decided to get some videos and super close. Hope you are not to squeamish when you see a spider but remember this is just a natural way of pest control. And a funny coincidence since I just started setting out a few of the decorations for the season.

I did some research to find out what kind of spider this is. The best information I could find shows it to be a Brown Widow. A few other sites also daid it was a brown widow, but this is the one that seemed to have the best information. Please post in the comments if you find a better source.

https://bugguide.net/node/view/23403

More October Fun Memories

A new “Square Crow”

My youngest son was born a few days before Halloween. He loved costumes and we often bought him a costume that could double as pajamas in his youngest years. Knowing he would outgrow his costume we decided to let him get more use out of it and continue wearing it at bedtime until he outgrew it. If it was still wearable after that we added it to a tub of old costumes and decorations.

As he got older, he began creating his own costumes. We would go to rummage sales and thrift shops all summer long, picking up something her and another there. Usually by September we started putting things together. Sometimes a little paint, maybe some hot glue and a little sewing here and there. Eventually it turned into the costume he pictured in his head.

Then we would start on decorating the front of the house for Trick or Treaters. We did that the same way we did the costumes. Getting out the tub of last year’s things and combining our new rummage and thrift store finds we would start putting everything together. Something new and a little different each year.

Last year he turned 18 and he didn’t need any help with a costume. He pretty much had what he needed and did his own thing. I got out the old tub of stuff and a lot of things were not in good enough shape to use. So, I cleaned it out and was looking over what was left. My niece had posted a picture of her and her brother with that first “Square Crow” and I decided to make a new one.

We had several pair of outgrown jeans, that I was getting ready to donate, so I picked a pair I thought looked good for this project. I had a lot of plastic bags which I save and usually crochet into things like beach bags. I began stuffing the legs and then added a flannel shirt. Instead of a real pumpkin I had an artificial one. It had been getting shabby, so I had painted it the previous year. Added some gardeners gloves the same as the original. Then used an old pair of boots for the feet. I didn’t get a picture of the boots, but you get the general idea. By day it was just a friendly fall decoration, but at night it had a spooky twist.

Please feel free to add any of your favorite October fun memories in the comment section.

Christine