Why I Oughta...

I walked by Marshall Field's Macy's this week and noticed that they've converted their State Street windows to the usual 'Pardon our appearance.  Something Magical is in store.' signage covering up the soon-to-be-revealed Holiday Christmas windows. One big flag to me is that they've only covered up the State Street side and not the one or two windows on the Randolph Street side.  In year's past, they've used those two windows to do something a little bit history-oriented like this one in 2017 .   Hopefully there will be a little Uncle Mistletoe in the windows and we don't get NYC's sloppy seconds again . 

Post where I initially pondered walking path edging On my post yesterday where I scored my yard/garden activity for the year , I included some initial thoughts about what I am thinking about doing next year.  On that list was to build the first section of the backyard 'path'.  I mentioned that I also need to figure out the edging - because what I start with is what I'll end up using going forward. I recently saw this photo from Laura at Garden Answer where she was sharing the beds out front of her chicken coop and was drawn to the brick edging that she's using. View this post on Instagram Chicken coop area is all cleaned up! Next thing to do is add some greenhouse plastic to the top and sides of their run to give them a warmer, dry place to move around for the winter! It’s going to look so classy... 😆🤦‍♀️ Oh well, happy chickens are more important! A post shared by Garden Answer (@gardenanswer) on Oct

Earlier this year, I set out a Yard & Garden To-Do List and a To-Do List Addendum that outlined 17 (10 on original list, 7 on Addendum) tasks that I wanted to tackle.  With the month of October coming to a close, I think it is worth taking a look and scoring myself. So...how did I do?  7 of the 10.  Missed on the Belgian Fence, Angel Topiary and raised beds. The original ten items on the list : 1.  Improve the soil.  Check . And Check .  And Check . 2.  Plant a Belgian Fence.  Nope. 3.  Try metal frame topiary.  Kinda.  I tried pruning small shrubs for topiary or bonsai . 4.  Do the Angel topiary.  Nope. 5.  Plant a Yew hedge.  Yes! 6.  Move Automower Boundary wires.  Yes.  No more getting caught up under the trampoline. 7.  Prune the Linden Espalier.  Yes . 8.  Add conifers.  A couple of them .  And planted six tiny Canadian Hemlocks.  Lost one so far . 9.  Build and plant a raised bed vegetable garden.  Nope. 10.  Remember the 'path'.  Yes.  Behind

Another 'new' for 2019 building from Lemax at Menards is this Sugar Plum Bakery.  The product page is here on Lemax's site .  It is part of the Santa's Wonderland collection.  This is the 3rd Christmas Village building from the Menards Enchanted Forest Christmas display that I've posted on the blog this year. First was the North Pole Tower - part of Santa's Wonderland. Yesterday was The Hop Stop craft brew building - part of Harvest Crossing.  This is a standard, non-animated building that is being retailed for $34.99. Once again, Mantleburg isn't growing as it seems the citizens won't be having a prosperous Christmas once again this year as the town continues to shrink. 

The craft brewing craze has hit Lemax's Christmas Village in the form of The Hop Stop .  This is new in 2019 - for Lemax and being sold at Menards and is currently listed for $34.99 as part of the Harvest Crossing series .  This is the second day of posting some Lemax Christmas Village buildings from Menards.  Yesterday, I posted some images of the animated North Pole Tower .  Mantleburg had a tavern back in the day , but one would think that the tough times might bring about even more drinking establishments, but the Hop Stop is a little too bougie for a town like Mantleburg that is down on it's luck. 

The time has come for the Lemax Christmas Village posts from the setup at Menards.  I've done this over the years as my interest grew in the little village things and now that my interest is on the wane, I still enjoy going to see the setup and posting some of the more interesting structures.  The first one up is this North Pole Tower that is animated and makes some sound.  You can see the animation in the top image and the product page is here on the Lemax site .  This is new to me - and I think new to Menards - but it was released in 2018.  Part of the Santa's Wonderland series, I suppose it would be nice in Mantleburg, but the town has fallen on some seriously hard times.  Oh, and for you crazy people...this thing retails for $99.99.  Woah. 

A couple of weekends back, we took the kids to Richardson Adventure Farm up near the Illinois/Wisconsin border for some - you know - "Fall Fun".  This place has pig races, corn cannons, jumpy houses, zip lines, little rides and...the "World's Largest Corn Maze".  This year's theme is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo program.  We decided to try one of the smallest sections with the kids and they provided us a tip:  "take every left turn".  We did that and ended up at the exit in short order.  How do they make these mazes?  Sounds like there's a technology-enabled GPS way .  And a different, more old-fashioned way .  The Richardson folks also run a tree farm that we visited to check out as a potential option for trees this year.  More on that in another post.