15th October 2020 - New Toys and Nightfall

Thought for the day :"I've booked an appointment with my tailor to shorten the length of my trousers... I hope he turns up!"

LINK JOHNS HOPKINS

Office of National Statistics

Another nice day and Susie had some new toys to play with.. 

But first I decided to face the Stage area in the beer Garden - yes I know that there is no stage and we do not have a beer garden - but it is easier to call things by their future purpose.

So this is how we start out 

and though it may not look much better that is three bags of brambles taken away and a lot of logs found an recovered- which is why we got a little distracted...

And that was where toy no 1 came in... because the hydrolic fluid arrived today and though we over filled it a bit - it seemed to do the job - 5 ton of pressure !!

Of course - while I was chopping my patch - Susie was digging her beds...

The membrane has been down on the earth and therefore it was pretty well weed free but needed to be turned... A good job! - The other half tomorrow .

Meanwhile - as we approach Halloween - Charlie took up post at the entrance of the estate ...

Charlie has an interesting history - In Arizona there is a place called Old Tucson, which was in fact the Old Tucson Studios where many films and TV series were made, and all year round they have shows for the public who visit. Cowboy gun fights in the street, and a train that runs around the site and a stage coach... 

But, over the month of October they also have what is called "Nightfall". This is an evening / night show that continues with a spooky theme. Being a tight Scotsman it also appealed to me as there is no extra charge for staying after the day time shows and enjoying the evening shows - many come just for the evening but we went fr the day and watched as the place transformed. And transformed is the right word to use. It was quite subtle at first - the stage coach driver suddenly was a skeleton and the guy riding shotgun was a nebulous ghost - the windows started showing cobwebs and the townsfolk started being a little more "shuffling" and wide-eyed!

Yes, the whole place turns from a cowboy town to a Ghost Town - and it is great fin - with shows all over the place and guts and gore ...

Sadly, a notice shows that this year it is shut due to Covid... but back to Charlie!

Well we went near the end of the shows and t seems that they were wanting to get rid of some of the various artifacts and items that they had ( or they just wanted to sell merchandise - not sure which!) - but Charlie was for sale and it was only about $5 or similar - whatever it was it seemed like a bargain - so we bought him and took him back to my sister's where we were staying. 

This is not the only time that we have done something like this - I will tell you about Bonnie another time !!

But the long and short of it is that Charlie would not fit in a case, could not be checked into baggage and so Charlie traveled home by plane form Arizona on Susie's lap in the plane. We explained that Charlie was a "support" animal - I do not think that we fooled anyone. Customs was interesting in the UK - not sure how many people thought that we might be smuggling drugs in the carcass..

anyway - Charlie has been with us for many years now - but sadly - the latex is now splitting and the stuffing is beginning to come out. And so - for possibly the last year - Charlie will be on guard at the front entrance ... A fitting end - or maybe he will survive - who can tell???

And so .. I mentioned Susie's 2nd toy - we managed to get the 'Wash' finished and so she had the chance to play with her new air still and try her hand at her first batch of Hand Sanitiser. Managed to get it up to about 55 - 58 percent (should be 60 but getting close).

It is now cut to 40% and filtering - which looks as thought it may take an overnight drip - it goes through carbon filters...

We shall see whether we can put the Scottish Flavouring into it before tomorrow 

Best get on with the labels...

Cheers !