It officially feels like winter. The clocks are turned back so it gets dark early. Most trees are devoid of leaves and the weather has been brisk and it has been dreary a lot.I have finished all of the necessary fall garden clean up. There are only a few things remaining, but if they don't get cleaned up, they can also wait till spring. I am hoping for some dry weather to clean up the last of the leaves to grind up and mulch my russian red garlic I planted once the weather freezes. Speaking of the Russian red...it has broken through the soil surface. I planted it the second week of October and hoped it would not sprout above the soil, but Gary P. who gave me the bulb said it would be ok.
The big news at the house is my new windows! I waited 28 years for them. Since I moved in the house in 1986 I have hated those windows. They barely opened, some needed to be propped up with a 2x4 and one was broken. They all leaked and had those crappy triple track storm windows that were a day long project if you wanted to wash the windows.The new windows are Energy Star and look great. The crew that installed them also used white aluminum trim and there was no rot in the window frames. Now I just have to pay for them. I do have a year to pay with zero financing.
On Saturday I got another Star Wars event in. This one was nice and close in Joliet. We were invited to attend a Children's Halloween Party at a hall. There were not many kids that showed up, probably because the weather outside was so beautiful! It was one of those last gasp of summer kind of days that I am sure everyone wanted to be outside enjoying. I wore my X-Wing costume again and was relieved to find that it was again fitting a little more loose so that means I am losing a little more weight. I also brought Artoo with me. Even though Artoo is not hugely electronic, the kids always seem to love to see him.
I have been doing a whole bunch of costuming projects again. I completed a new sculpt of my Endor rank badge. I didn't like the one I had so making a better one was a long time coming. Also, since it would appear that the Biker Scout greeblie for their thermal detonator is half of an Endor rank badge, I decided to sculpt one of those too. After making the sculpt, I molded both of them. I had issues again with the mold and have narrowed it down to the paint on the surface of the sculpt. Rebound fares much better than the Mold Star, but I am going to have to seal the pieces with clear or something in the future. I had to mold both the badge and greeblie twice.
I also tried my hand at a 2 piece mold using a Pilot code cylinder. It came out ok, but not great. No matter how hard you try, you do end up with an annoying seam and there was lots of issues pouring the casting material down that little hole and not getting bubbles on the "honey wand" portion. I managed to cast about 8 of them but am not really happy with them. They can be something held in reserve in case I lose one of my metal ones.On Sunday I went to visit Tom Olmstead who has ALS. He no longer has use of his arms and legs as the disease has progressed that far. He talks to you using a computer that is somehow activated using his eyes and a metal dot that is on his forehead. His spirits are surprisingly good and I am blown away by his courage and the courage of his wife Lisa. I just don't know how I would be in a situation like that.
On Saturday, a few of us went out to Hickory Creek Barrens and did some prep work for the Work off the Turkey workday which will be held at the end of this month. We got two piles started so that two to four groups of people can be working and hauling brush to burning piles and be working in two directions. I hope to get a LOT done at the workday.
