Harvest Moon? Hunter's Moon?

   Harvest Moon refers to the full moon phase during the month of October.  (That would be tonight!)  Some folks call it the Hunter's Moon and then there are a dozen or more regional names that can be found to go along with this month's full moon.  Mom always called it the Harvest Moon but Pop did occasionally mention the Hunter's Moon.  Both are correct as are the many others.  

  Harvest Moon was so named as October has been traditionally the month that crops were harvested and laid in store for the coming winter.  This dates back to when freezers and refrigerators were still unknown.  "Winter" crops were harvested and put in cellars or "banks" which were outdoor storage spots.  The cellar method was simple...harvest the crop, let dry, place in baskets and haul down into the "root cellar".  As for banking?  That was used mainly for potatoes (sweet potatoes).  This involved a bit more work as an elevated plot of ground had to be leveled and a bed of straw layered on top.  Next, sweet potatoes were mounded on top of the straw and left to dry during the day.  This was to "cure" them or remove most of the moisture that could cause rot.  (The potatoes were covered at night to prevent condensation from building up.)  After a few days, more straw (or hay) was placed on top of the sweet potatoes and then covered with a thick layer of dirt with only a "vent" left open.  To prevent rain from penetrating the soil and rotting the potatoes,  a "roof" was made from overlapping boards or even a thick layer of thatch.  We did this each October back on the old farm place where I grew up.  Mostly, I gathered potatoes as they were dug and then raked huge mounds of pine straw to be used in the bank.  Pop and the "boys" (my brothers) did the heavy work.  Very rarely did we lose any sweet potatoes when using this method.  Pop often tried to bank in other winter crops  but seemed to have the best luck with sweet potatoes.  

  The Hunter's Moon came from...you guessed it...hunting as a means of survival.  Animals have a great instinct to "fatten up" before the harsh winter months which also made it the perfect time for people to "stock up" on meat.  This was back in the day before many hunting laws and it was an ok thing to hunt at night.  The full moon made it easy to see unsuspecting deer, rabbits and hogs (etc).  Once the animal was butchered, the meat from was usually smoked or home-canned as preservation methods.  Almost every home had a smokehouse for smoking meat and fish.  This was all about feeding the family!  So..it is easy to see how this moon phase got its many names.  Most are all somehow related to storing up food for the winter months that were just around the corner!  

  Now...I have to be honest here.  This photograph is definitely NOT of the Harvest or Hunter's Moon.  In fact, it is NOT even a photograph of the moon, at all!  The picture was taken during midday while I was playing with the camera and the zoom lens.  The sky was an eerie orange from smoke (fire was north of us) and that gave a slightly odd appearance.  I sat in the bright light and focused on the distant shore of the Bayou with that long lens in place.  I did not even attempt to zoom in...just let it be.  The result?  This weird...almost moon-like...photograph.  I liked it so thought I would share.

Its been fun!

  It is time to close it down for another year!  We are late with this last running of the clue hunt as usually we never allow it to spill over into November.   This year, we had to wait until Mark came home from work to get that final team together.  It was perfect!  We had a "throw together" team due to the fact that so many were either sick, out of town or just could not be here.  Then in the midst of the hunt, a thunderstorm raged but that mattered not as the team was inside at the moment it hit.  Despite the setbacks, the hunt went off without a glitch.  The team did remarkably well with the puzzles and codes.  They figured out the combinations, found keys for locked boxes, picked up bits and pieces of evidence to solve a murder mystery.  AND...through all of this, I forgot to take photographs!  

  Now that this season has come to an end, it is time to pack up this hunt and get started on the next one.  It takes us a full year to pull this event together!  Son and I banter back and forth with ideas.  We throw them out there, twist and turn them, flip them every which way possible and then decide on what we are to do.  Once a theme is chosen, props are created and the puzzling gadgets are made.  This is our fun time. We work for a solid year merely to see the smiles of the teams that choose to come to the Bayou and try their hand at coming out on top.  The teams all do well with little help from us.

  For the next few weeks, the Little Bayou House will be quiet.  The hubbub that was October will settle into the peace of November then comes a busy December.  In a way, I long for the cold, dreary days of January and February.  It will be nice to have a break!  Thanks for tagging along on our hunt again this year! 

Feathers, Feathers, Feathers!

  My word!!!  It looks like several chickens molted in the Little Bayou House! Or maybe we had a massive pillow fight!  Or maybe my feather duster broke free and is flying away. Feathers are floating everywhere!  Fluffy, black feathers can be found scooting across the floor with each whirl of the ceiling fans.  Twirly, black feathers are peeking out from under furniture.  Tiny tidbits of black feathers are stuck to the sofa, to clothes and even the old dog.  Feathers, feathers, feathers are everywhere!  I have been startled more than once, in recent weeks, by a stray feathers wisping along the floor.  They sure are reminiscent of mice scurrying underfoot!

  I had no idea when I bought the two long, black feather boas that the things would shed so much.  With the theme of the Sixth Annual Clue Hunt on the Bayou being a masquerade ball, I needed a ballgown.  I had the bright idea (with the help of darling daughter) to pattern my costume after a raven.  A raven has made its appearance in almost every hunt since its beginning, so it was only logical that I be the raven.  That said, a raven needs feathers so my gown has feathers.  Two long boas have been stitched along the hem and up the front right side of the gown making it flow nicely.  More feathers are to be added to the wrists and the shoulders.  I will indeed resemble a bird!  The gown has lots of feathers...at least for the moment.  As it stands, the boas are molting and are soon to be bald, at this rate.  The first clue hunt run is this Friday so I need to gather up all of the loose feathers.  What am I saying??  No need to do that as I am sure I will be leaving a trail behind me with every step I take!  Fun times on the Bayou!

October Time!

  Ok, so I am a day or so late but, hey, its October!!!  That means one thing.  I can admit publicly that I am decorating for Halloween.  Well, actually, I am a day or so late saying its October.  The decorating has been going on since about mid-September.  Yes.  I know.  There are those folks who would chastise me for being eager but, in my defense, I sort of have to put up the decorations this early.  The Clue Hunt on the Bayou runs the month of October and if the decorations are not up early, they will never get put up.  Besides...its no one's business when I decide to stick a Jack-O-Lantern in the window.  Don't like it?  Go home.  The Bayou is far enough down the lane that it is my decorations are not intrusive to any one's attention.  They cannot be seen unless you venture down that 400 foot driveway.  So, I decorate.

  As I was passing by the china cabinet earlier today, I stopped to glance inside and just had to smile.  The mishmash of decorations that fill the lighted cabinet is filled with memories.  Some recent...some from long ago.  It is sort of neat how Halloween can pull together both modern and antique pieces without a problem.  Usually, this cabinet is the first to get attention just because it offers so many possibilities.  The prized pieces fill each nook and cranny of the cabinet.  It does, indeed, make me smile.
  

 The entryway and bathroom are usually next in line to receive a makeover.  Each receives a new look with the orange and black.  My decorations are never gory but are either reminiscent of days past or have an implied creep.  It depends on the mood of the day.  With the first run of the clue hunt just days away, the entryway is receiving its "orange" makeover.  By the end of the week, the entire Little Bayou House will be happily adorned!  I love this time of year!

October can mean only one thing!

  It is October and that can mean only one thing at the Little Bayou House.  It is time for the Annual Clue Hunt on the Bayou!  This is the fifth year that Son and I have thrown this massive event!  It seems to be growing each year.  So far, our teams are family and friends.  While many folks have asked, we have not gone public. Time constraints would put a kink in the production.  As it is, we are running willynilly to get things ready each year.  Perhaps if we had a different venue the idea would work but since the Little Bayou House is home to the hunt, it is impossible.  Space is limited!  We do still live here!  

  During the months of September and October, the place is nigh on unrecognizable.  Weird and wonderful things fill every nook and cranny (even more so than usual!).  Sometimes people, who are not here for the hunt, ask why the place is "decorated" as such.  I hear things like...."Those are not Halloween decorations!"  or "Why do you have a strange box on the table?"  Folks who participate each year have come to expect the Little Bayou House and the surrounding outbuildings to be a bit strange.  They know something is afoot and the unusual trappings just add to the anticipation.  The box on the table?  Yep, it is there.  A rather large, wooden box with windows on the front is barred with boards, chains and a lock.  The idea is to get into that contraption and retrieve the very visible keys that hang in the windows!  This is actually only one of many such things that adorn the place at the moment.  There are twelve other huge props besides several puzzles that need to be solved, opened, unlocked or smashed!  (Yep, smashed!  But we won't go there...yet!)

  With two of the teams already having competed, we are resetting all of the props in advance of the next team that comes tomorrow night.  What fun!  There will be a meal served and three hours of fun filled tromping about the hillside in search of clues that will help solve our mystery!  As the teams are using their abilities to crack the case, Son and I will be already pondering how to make next year's hunt even better!  

Family Portraits!

  October has to be my favorite month!  With it, not only do we have the Annual Clue Hunt on the Bayou, but it is the month of fall and Halloween!  It is a time that I can decorate to my heart's content with no worries of anyone thinking I am slap crazy.  Well, a lot of folks think that anyway but at least during October, I have an excuse.  This year is especially happy for me since I can decorate for Halloween AND the clue hunt.  With most of the clue hunt being in outbuildings, the house is mine for Halloween decorations!  

  One of my most missed decorations for the season is the "Family Portraits".  Several years ago, I did Halloween on a budget.  I wanted to see if there was a way to fully dress the house with minimum cost. There was.  For a mere $10, I managed to outfit the entire house.  I pulled a lot of Christmas lights, strange knickknacks from the cabinets and used my computer and printer to no end.  My favorite of these was the "Family".  I did a search for vintage movie monsters and came up with a jackpot of goodies!  These were printed in black ink and framed with an assortment of old frames (some with no glass).  The frames had seen better days so a quick splash of black paint covered a multitude of sins. 

 That first year, I placed them on a long sofa table with a string of white lights under a piece of cheesecloth.  This year, they proudly hang above the mantel and have the eerie lighting provided by a blacklight. It is amazing!  The light causes the paper to glow a weird blue and the shadows to deepen.  Perfect!

  My "family" portraits bring compliments from visitors to the Little Bayou House.  It seems that these bring back a lot of memories of happier times...memories when movies were decent. (With the exception of two photographs all are vintage movie monsters.  One is of Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd...not so vintage but definitely from a movie! And one is of a long ago mayor of Biloxi...not a movie monster but definitely vintage!) They are all from an era when times were better. I love my "family"!

Happy October!

Happy October!  I do believe as of today, fall may be at least trying to make an appearance.  This burst of fall-like weather may be short lived but I aim to enjoy every minute of it! The bit of coolness is invigorating!  AND...with October comes decorating!! Fall decorations are up and now that the calendar sheet has turned over, I do not feel so bad about adding in the Halloween decorations! Let the fun begin!!!  A couple of weeks ago, Mark and I went shopping for a few decorations.  If you remember, he bought the cutest owl! I pondered just where to put my owl and finally decided to redo the entire china cabinet!  The whole thing was emptied out and carefully filled with fall and Halloween items!  While doing this, I came up with the idea of decorating the Little Bayou House as very old place.  With all of the antiques that normally fill the house, it was easy!  A few touches here and there would be all it takes to turn this place into a creepy old house! Keep in mind, I said creepy..not gory!  Personally, I do not like all of the "gore-type" decorations on the market today.  Those are not scary..just sickening.  I would rather go for the implied creep factor than get carried away with some nastiness. So..I am slowly turning the place into something that may give chills just because the imagination allows it.

Still, the china cabinet is more of a pretty collection.  There are scarecrows, crows and pumpkins along with old lace, feathers and some wood carvings.  Thrown all together this does make for a quite pleasing effect.  One of the funkier things in the cabinet is merely a chalice that has a bit of dried Spanish moss in it, is draped with a few beads and is topped off with a small ceramic pumpkin and some fall leaves.  Why?  I don't know...I just thought it was appealing...so a pumpkin is sitting on a chalice!  Fun!

Another interesting piece is a clear glass pumpkin that I bought at the Goodwill Thrift Store.  I paid a grand total of seventy-five cents for this and really had no idea how I was going to use it.  Should I leave it empty or perhaps fill it with candy?  Should I try painting it to give it a bit of color?  What to do..what to do?  I got creative!  I filled it with moss and added a few fall colored Mardi Gras beads (yep...Mardi Gras beads in October!).  Filled like this, it seemed to be the perfect touch! A bit of creep added to something pretty!

Mixed in with the fall and Halloween items, I left a few of the glass platters and added quite a bit of  Mom's, Grandmom's and Great-grandmother's pewter pieces.  The dull grey color goes well with the bright oranges of fall.   In one corner, I propped up an antique children's book that is opened to pages depicting a children's Halloween party.  The kids are all dressed in the cutest costumes and are bobbing for apples!

Then there is that owl!  That most comical, black-glittered owl that fits so perfectly in with this whole scheme of things!  He stands proudly on the center shelf as if in full reign over this Halloween domain!  His glittery elegance speaks for itself!  This is something that I would have never bought for myself but since Mark stuck it in the shopping cart, it has become one of my favorites!

A few more items such as glass Jack-o-lanterns, old clocks, bits of antique lace and an antique vase filled with assorted feathers finished out the cabinet.  Now, this is ready for fall..for Halloween.  October is such a fun month!  Each day as I complete decorating another corner or do some fun, creative Halloween project, I will post descriptions or instructions!  Let the fun begin!  Let the fun begin!