Why I Oughta...

The ceramic Santa bank wasn't the only Christmas item we picked up at the garage sale this weekend.  We also got this guy.  Look at that hand-painted mustache!  He's about 4 inches tall and has this made in Japan sticker on his hat, so we can *kinda* date him.    The sticker is in an odd spot, though.  Not on the base of his feet, but up on the back of his hat.  And...it seems to almost be stitched in there. He'll look great in the mix with the rest of our stuff.   Talk about Chrismas Creep?!?  Guess I'm just as guilty as Costco, eh?

Speaking of Christmas Creep ...we got into a bit of it ourselves with a few purchases at a garage sale in our neighborhood last week. I couldn't pass this guy up and I think he'll go great amongst our collection of other vintage Santas in our holiday decor.  T he most recent example of one of these guys here .  And, here's another one with Spaghetti Trim . This one is old, but I'm not certain the exact date of manufacture.  As you can see below, it is a bank, but it also has a "Made in Japan" sticker on it, so that gives it some historical markers and places it amongst the rest of our collection. Pay no attention to the price tag on this one.  Every year we go to the Vintage Christmas show, we always pay quite a bit more for these ceramic guys, so I was thrilled to find a deal like this. I'll post about the rest of the stuff we bought, but after putting together a 'package deal', I think we paid less than even what they were asking here (

We were at Costco over the weekend and what did we find?  Christmas stuff was already out! Last year, I documented Christmas Creep all the way to August 30th and in 2012, it wasn't until the first week of September that I spotted the Christmas decor making an appearance. This year it was August 19th - almost two weeks ahead of schedule. Like I've said in the past...I'm not a Scrooge, so I don't mind these things.  But....I *do* feel bad for Thanksgiving.  Halloween has hired the right PR firm the past few years and has started to keep up with Christmas in terms of 'stuff'.  Thanksgiving on the other hand?  Not so much.

This was the second year we grew carrots in our garden.  Last year, we had a bunch of those short stubby ones that I planted way too close together.  So this year, I decided to try to use carrot seed tape to make sure the seeds were evenly spaced and I wouldn't have to yank a bunch of seedlings out. Something happened.  Either I planted them too deep or the seeds in the tape had turned or something because I only ended up with about 20 or so carrot seedlings.  Instead of the 300 or so I was expecting. This is the first one that I pulled out to see where they were in their growth process.  They're much longer than last year and have a nice orange color up near the leafy greens.  I'm going to leave the rest of them in the ground a bit longer, so hopefully we'll have some carrot stick 'mixers' for a bloody mary bar during one of the Bears' games this season.

Just two months after I noticed that the pear tree in our backyard had gone through a growth spurt, we're dealing with our first *real* pear harvest.   With a little bit of reading, turns out you're not supposed to allow pears to ripen on the tree .  I pulled down as many as I could, but I need to get on a ladder this weekend to remove the rest. From the fine folks at Oregon State University : Pears picked when slightly immature will ripen with better quality than pears that are over mature when picked. To tell if a pear is mature, a general rule of thumb is that, while still on the tree, most mature, ready to ripen pears will usually detach when "tilted" to a horizontal position from their usual vertical hanging position. Bosc pears always are difficult to separate from the spur.  "Unlike apples, which are ready to eat from the day they are picked, pears must go through a series of changes before they can deliver their full splendor," explained Sugar

This sign is posted in a garage in Elmhurst just south of the tracks.  We went and had a meal at the Snuggery .  Is that an "other" activity?!?!

This is the view of a backyard of a home down the block from us (as viewed from the alley).  They recently did a pretty amazing upgrade of their backyard and in lieu of a fence, they put up this really tall stand of arborvitae.  It looks really great. The reason I call it a "battle" is that someone else on the block recently installed a row of taller arborvitae as a privacy hedge adjacent to a new tear-down home. We have a few of these things in our yard that I planted.  We bought them from Costco and are a bit less than half the height.   And they weren't cheap, so I know these folks made a sizable investment with these! I'm jealous of them and the privacy they've given the homeowners almost instantly.