Older People 55 and Up

[Janet H]

I quit giving out candy some time ago .. since I refuse to contribute to the childhood obiesity epidemic, I attempted to had out guitar picks one year (I'm kidding) and people sneered at me like I had a booger hanging out of my nose .. (maybe I did, who knows) ..

But seriously, I did hand out temp tattoos and cool stickers and folks acted like I was the Grinch that Stole Halloween .. so now, I turn out the lights, retreat to my Man Cave and watch a spooky movie (probably "The Shining" tonight) and sip a good bourbon .. if any of you would like to make a reservation, let me know ..

And yes, it's likely just an excuse to break out the bourbon .. like I need one ..

I thought temp tattoos and stickers were great until we had a scare one year about them being laced with .... Sigh. I used to love it when we got homemade cookies from our neighbors, but even that was ruined by stories of 1-2 sickos out there. That's probably why people looked at you like you were the Grinch that Stole Halloween. I always made the kids dump out their bags so we could inspect what they got. The kids probably knew their parents would throw them away.

 

[my4jewels]

Mike and a friend spent the afternoon trying to save one pine tree that was leaning and cutting up another that was half way over and not savable. Sad to see good trees go down. The weeping willow still needs to be cut up and hauled away. We're just really thankful our trees were way out in the back yard and not anywhere that was dangerous. It breaks my heart to see the damage that some people have endured with this storm, but on the good side, neighbors are helping neighbors, even bringing equipment from other states to help.

We had 9 trees taken out last summer that were dangerously close to our home. They weren't in very good shape.I am so glad we had them removed. Hubby always used to worry when we got high winds, especially in the winter. My brother-in-law is an arborist, so he gives us a bit of a discount. It's expensive getting tress removed, even with a discount.

We have 4 apple, 2 pear, and 2 plum trees in our front yard that we planted back in '90. They have done really well, but one of them is leaning toward the house after a particularly bad snowstorm last winter. Hubby is going to try to support it before winter, but we may lose it. Our apple trees didn't produce a single apple this year. I think the buds were all killed off by a late frost.

I thought temp tattoos and stickers were great until we had a scare one year about them being laced with .... Sigh. I used to love it when we got homemade cookies from our neighbors, but even that was ruined by stories of 1-2 sickos out there. That's probably why people looked at you like you were the Grinch that Stole Halloween. I always made the kids dump out their bags so we could inspect what they got. The kids probably knew their parents would throw them away.

 

[my4jewels]

Yeah, remember the razor blades in apples? We used to check our kids candy very closely as well. My mom used to give nickels instead. But I doubt nickels would be appreciated nowadays.

I thought temp tattoos and stickers were great until we had a scare one year about them being laced with .... Sigh. I used to love it when we got homemade cookies from our neighbors, but even that was ruined by stories of 1-2 sickos out there. That's probably why people looked at you like you were the Grinch that Stole Halloween. I always made the kids dump out their bags so we could inspect what they got. The kids probably knew their parents would throw them away.

 

[MikeE3]

We had 9 trees taken out last summer that were dangerously close to our home. They weren't in very good shape.I am so glad we had them removed. Hubby always used to worry when we got high winds, especially in the winter. My brother-in-law is an arborist, so he gives us a bit of a discount. It's expensive getting tress removed, even with a discount.

We have 4 apple, 2 pear, and 2 plum trees in our front yard that we planted back in '90. They have done really well, but one of them is leaning toward the house after a particularly bad snowstorm last winter. Hubby is going to try to support it before winter, but we may lose it. Our apple trees didn't produce a single apple this year. I think the buds were all killed off by a late frost.

Removing 9 tree's from our property wouldn't be noticed by anyone but Janet and me. We probably have about 100 trees on 3 1/2 acres of ground. So only losing 2 and having to winch up straight and stake a 3rd today, we got off lucky. Down the street a property had very old and mature fir trees lining the edge of the property. These trees had to be 75-80 feet tall. Five of six of them fell in the storm. Luckily they fell away from the house and still have the street blocked. It'll be a few days before that road is opened.

 

[mattiem]

There is going to be a super big prize this time in the http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...a-prize-monthly-contest-giveaway-568.html#top

The game has just started.

 

[Janet H]

Yeah, remember the razor blades in apples? We used to check our kids candy very closely as well. My mom used to give nickels instead. But I doubt nickels would be appreciated nowadays.

Uh Oh, My post got censored. I mentioned what those tattoos were laced with. Never occurred to me not to mention what it was. Yes, that was around the time of the razor blades in apples. It's so sad that some people would be so sick. It's not that they don't like Halloween, they see it as an opportunity to be evil. I think people are more careful these days. Except with the much older kids there's always adults along. Geeze, as a kid I always went by myself and ranged far and wide. It's sad that kids from here on in will never know the security we knew as kids. Of course we grew up in the "country" next to a corn field so I'm sure that had something to do with it.

Did you carry around the UNICEF carton? That's the only time I ever got money and yes, it was nickels! A nickel won't go too far these days.

Boy, ecf is working very strangely tonight. Some witches working some bad magic on here tonight? Older Folks thread just took forever and Mike has been having an awful time with the general search feature.

 

[Semiretired]

Naw to keep the kids interested you would have to give away $20 bills. They might even stop an extra time or two for that.

 

[Semiretired]

Over the last couple of years I have taken out 5 or 6 trees on our acre of land and we still have 30 or 40 left depending upon what you want to classify as a tree. If you only want to count trees that are over 50' tall then we have about 20... Gotta take down one this winter that is about 80' tall since it got hit by lightning this year and one side died... I doubt it will survive till next spring...

 

[gordon50]

Naw to keep the kids interested you would have to give away $20 bills. They might even stop an extra time or two for that.

heck, for 20 bucks a pop i'd put on a costume and go trick or treating!!!

 

[super dave]

 

[Janet H]

heck, for 20 bucks a pop i'd put on a costume and go trick or treating!!!

That's why I never let him have any money.

 

[Janet H]

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween. We had 3 clusters of kids. One was dressed as a Thanksgiving table. All set, including the turkey! Really cute. So now I'm left with a 1/2 bag of Hershey miniatures that I can't waste...

 

[MikeE3]

Naw to keep the kids interested you would have to give away $20 bills. They might even stop an extra time or two for that.

Like someone else said - def, I'd put on a costume for $20, wouldn't even have to be a halloween costume. (oops)

Over the last couple of years I have taken out 5 or 6 trees on our acre of land and we still have 30 or 40 left depending upon what you want to classify as a tree. If you only want to count trees that are over 50' tall then we have about 20... Gotta take down one this winter that is about 80' tall since it got hit by lightning this year and one side died... I doubt it will survive till next spring...

Over 1/2 of mine tower to 50+ feet. My front property on 2 sides is lined with 35-40 year old spruce, pine and fir. When we 1st moved here 30 yrs back I had a tree guy remove every other one. Now you can't even tell I did it, they've grown together again, like a solid wall of green.

He came in with the big equipment and popped them suckers out and put 'em on a flat bed truck. Then took an exact fit plug off another trailer and filled the hole. Gads, my kids jumped into one of the holes and their heads weren't even at ground level. At that time the trees were ranged from 15-25 feet high. He took them to Connecticut to landscape some rich person's house who wanted mature trees for their new house.

Worked out good, I made a couple thousands dollars and didn't have to do any work. I didn't tell the tree guy but he could of had them for free and I would have been happy. I just wanted them gone.

 

[my4jewels]

Yeah, we have loads of trees on 1 1/2 acres. The ones we had taken out were not healthy and very close to the house. Just try to picture rural Maine. Yep, that's what it's like.

 

[Semiretired]

Mike, you reminded me of my neighbor a few years back. His wife wanted a row of 10' red tips cut down (about 50 of them) so she could plant something pretty that flowered.. He got out his rope, backed up his 4x4 truck and jerked them out of the ground two at a time... His wife just looked on with her jaw hanging down in awe. He was not about to dig each one up, which is what she had in mind. Just had to buy a load of topsoil to back fill when he was done..

 

[Semiretired]

Good Morning Folks. Coffees on...

 

[MikeE3]

Good Morning Folks. Coffees on...

Coffee 'on' don't count. Coffee 'in', now that counts. 'Morning Semi.

 

[Janet H]

Mike, you reminded me of my neighbor a few years back. His wife wanted a row of 10' red tips cut down (about 50 of them) so she could plant something pretty that flowered.. He got out his rope, backed up his 4x4 truck and jerked them out of the ground two at a time... His wife just looked on with her jaw hanging down in awe. He was not about to dig each one up, which is what she had in mind. Just had to buy a load of topsoil to back fill when he was done..

Don't think I ever could rip out perfectly good trees. I would have had to plant them somewhere. We hated the thought that we were going to have to cut down every other pine tree from our property until Mike stopped to talk to a tree guy who was removing them from a property near where he worked. We were surprised that the guy would actually pay us for our trees and the added bonus was that they were going to be replanted elsewhere. They have a high success rate if popped out with one of those big machines. If we had to pay to have them removed it would have cost a fortune. This definitely worked out well. Might be a good tip for others who have trees in places they don't want. See if a tree removal company is interested in them.

 

[Janet H]

Yeah, we have loads of trees on 1 1/2 acres. The ones we had taken out were not healthy and very close to the house. Just try to picture rural Maine. Yep, that's what it's like.

Sometimes trees have to be removed for the health and safety of what's around them. It worked out well when we lived in the woods and heated our cottage with wood. There was plenty on the forest floor and nature took care of felling dead ones. We did have to take down one black walnut tree that was next to our house though.

That reminds me. Right around that cottage were tons of black walnut trees. One year we had a sudden cold snap and we were awakened one morning by loud crashes on the roof as the walnuts were all dropping at the same time. I actually used an umbrella when I went outside! Prior to that day it was incredibly beautiful there because all the leaves all turned a bright yellow gold. That contrasted by the dark branches turned it into a beautiful wonderland. We have very fond memories of that place in the woods.

 

[Semiretired]

Oh, I would had to of saved some of the black walnut wood for projects... Back when me and my wife first got married I had almost an entire wood shop. I used to take old pallets and make things as a hobby and then sell them. Back 20 or so years ago you could find pallets made out of oak, mahogany, etc. It made some great end tables and such. I also used to make molding on my router (6 ft pieces from the larger pallets). Mahogany molding sold real well. Nowadays pallets are most made out of disposable wood so it is not as lucrative as it used to be, but I have thought about playing with them some and see what I can come up with... Just do not have all the tools I used to have so my choices would be more limited...