The Trap!

  Back when he was a small child, my oldest son was obsessed with the TV show "MacGyver".  He so wanted to be the man he was watching create all sorts of nifty things out of everyday stuff.  He even went so far as convincing his Papa that he "needed" a Swiss Army Knife and a roll of Duck Tape.  (Yes, it really is Duck Tape.)  The knife was a story in itself but this is more about the ingenuity behind the man featured in the show.  Mark was so bent on copying this man's every move that he started creating traps...for everything.  He set a net trap to capture his brother and sister. Possum traps, squirrel traps, minnow traps....he made them all.  He found he could bend trees over and make spring traps.  His poor dad caught the brunt of his creativity as each day, a new trap was set to "capture Dad"!   None of us were safe from his contraptions but it was ok by me.  He was being creative but also learning new methods of making things work.  The show was inspiring my kid to learn and invent and that was great by me.  Today as an adult, there is just not a lot of things that can stump my son.  He always figures out how to make things work with just what is on hand.  I guess you can say that his time in front of the TV was put to good use.

  This morning as I headed out the back door, I would have sworn that my son was back in town and setting traps to catch me off guard.  On either side of the back steps there is a nice size pear tree.  Spanning from tree to tree.....right across the steps....was the finest of all traps.  A spider had spent the night spinning the most beautiful web and this web was heavy laden with droplets of water.  Overnight a heavy fog had rolled in off the water and coated everything in its path.  The spiderweb was dripping with the jewel-like droplets!  I am sure glad that I noticed the web before walking smack dab into it!

  Seeing that spiderweb brought back memories of being caught up in some of Mark's string traps.  Balls and balls of kite string were wound through, around, under and over furniture and doorways.  It was his idea that if anyone ever broke into the Little Bayou House, he would capture them before they could rob the place. I think that I was the only one he ever caught.  Just try being a bleary-eyed, sleep-deprived mom stumbling her way to the kitchen pre-coffee only to be ensnared in a webbing of kite string.  The more I would turn, the more I became tangled.  Oh, the memories!  And...oh, how I would give anything to be back in those days!

MacGyver Wannabes!

Back in the day, my kids and I used to watch the TV show "MacGyver".  My oldest son would try to copy most every thing that man did!  Whether it was patch a leaky faucet with bubblegum or snare a rabbit using a shoelace and twig.  He tried out just about every maneuver the character did on the show.  Not that I minded in the least as it kept him out of trouble and kept him creative.  Nowadays, my son, Mark, can just about fix anything that needs fixing.  And his creativity has not been squelched in the least.  I do believe Mark could give MacGyver a run for his money any day.

Now, my other son, Michael has shown a bit of his inner MacGyver.  We are in the final days of preparing for the Mystery Party for my sweet grandniece and things are in a bit of a tizzy around the Bayou.  I want things perfect but I also want things..umm...cheap!  So, out come the MacGyverisms! On the show, MacGyver always did things with what he had on hand.  There was no "quick run" to the store to pick up needed objects.  After all, most of the time he was lost in some desert, on a island in the middle of nowhere or trapped in some unlikely, hostile place.  The local store was not handy! Our excuse is we are just cheap!  Michael has been creating most every "stumbling block" that the kids will encounter during their quest.  We have a multiple of locked boxes that have no apparent locks, unlockable doors and seemingly unattainable clues.  All of this, plus the decorations for the entire house and yard, have cost a grand total of maybe twenty dollars.  Some things were purchased that really cannot be added to the total cost since I would have had to purchase them anyway.  Things like light bulbs and other household items just happened to fall on the list of things I needed.

The "Mystery Party" Herb Potting Shelf.  I do believe it is just cluttered enough to make searching for the clue a bit difficult!

The entire Apothecary Room is filled with found or made items.  The Herb Potting Shelf was built from salvaged lumber.  The Outdoor Wash Basin is an old ice chest that now looks remarkably like a porcelain sink. It is complete with a working hand pump that was also a salvaged item!  Even our clues are written on scrap paper that is dyed with coffee and "aged" with soot from the fireplace!

Mystery Party Wash Basin!  Quite a bit of grunge going on here!

Today, I transformed an old plastic flower pot into the basin of a font where the mystery will culminate.  The once peeling paint has been replaced with a beautiful copper coating.  A copper chain from a broken belt suspends a funnel to add a bit of interest.  The funnel at one time was bright orange plastic!  This will be mounted on top of an old bird bath pillar.  The concrete pillar, itself, is being recycled as a freeze a few years ago broke it into several pieces.  All of these seemingly unrelated pieces are now married together in a single unit that will be of great significance during the quest.  (I can't spill secrets just yet!)

The recycled flower pot that will soon become the Mystery Party Font!

Yep, MacGyver might just be a tad proud of our meager attempts at "making do with what we have on hand"!  I can use all the money I saved on the food to be served after the kids complete their mystery quest and rid the Bayou of its ghost!  Why am I doing all of this?  Well, I could say that it is to prove to the younger generation that there can be "homemade" fun.  Or, I could say that it is so I will be the "Greatest Great Aunt" ever!  Truth be known, I am probably just crazy!  But live on, MacGyver!  You inspire us all!