Halloween 2011

Last night Erin and I went to Beech Grove to Emma and Bruce's house to hang out for a Halloween party. We were late arrivers and couldn't stay long due to our work schedules and them being an hour from home, but it was really nice to see everyone. Bruce wanted to have a theme of Batman villians as he was going as the Joker and Emma as Hariquinn. So my Mom was kind enough to make me a Scarecrow mask and I put on some dress clothes to be Dr. Crane (dressed up as he is a Dr. at Akham Asylum before he puts on the mask to become the villian Scarecrow).

Chantel was Poision Ivy
Bruce was Joker
Emma was Harriquin

then others dressed up included
Arron as Batman
Cassie as Houndstooth
One of Emma's friends as the White Rabbit
A Black Cat
Joe as Thor

Erin couldn't dress up do to having to come right after work got off, but I'm really glad she was able to come with me.

Below are some pictures

Speaking of History

The end of October was a busy month for me at the Museum when it came to public speaking/presentations... so a quick recap of my work/life/events the last two weeks.

Optimist Club


A member of the Optimist club came into the museum one Thursday afternoon looking for someone to do a presentation for their meeting that upcoming Thursday, their previous program had fallen through so they were trying to find someone at the last minute.... so since I was there that person became me.

They were a great group to give a presenation to and very nice, plus side was I got a breakfast... the downside was... their meetings are at 6:30 in the morning... but everything went well and you can get a lot done in a day when you wake up that early.



Lions Club



This presentation I had plenty of heads up on, Erin's grandparents had asked me to give a presentation 2 months in advance so I was ready. They got a more expanded/better presentation than what the Optimist got complete with a slide show and everything.

The meeting went well and Erin's grandparents are still working on getting me to join Lion's Club.


Boy Scouts

One Thursday afternoon I came in late to open up the museum to a pack of boy scouts who wanted to tour our "Life Before Electricity" exhibt... they were a good group who were full of energy.





Indiana State Museum Volunteers

This group volunteers at the State Museum like their name says, I gave a 10 minute talk on the history of Decatur County to them while they ate breakfast at High Point Orchard before they came to tour the museum later on that morning.

Joys of Travel

This was a group that came to tour from Cincinnati, I think they had a good time walking through the museum. Many commented how they enjoyed the town of Greensburg and the museum.

100 Things about Erin #4

*This is the last part in a multi-part blog set for the month of October*

76. Erin is good at the card game hand & foot

77. She started dating her current boyfriend in Feburary

78. She has lived in the following states: Indiana, North Carolina, Flordia, Texas

79. She doesn't like cold weather

80. She likes to sleep in as much as possible

81. She does like it to be cold when she sleeps though

82. She is against killing people/death penalty

83. She has a nice smile

84. Erin is midly addicted to the game Bingo Blitz on facebook currently

85. She loves the show Cold Case

86. Really anything crime/cop related is a big hit with her

87. 4th of July and Thanksgiving are her favorite holidays

88. She likes to carve pumpkins for Halloween

89. Erin likes the sound of pianos

90. She does like skull themed items, more of the cute stuff though not the full on goth or Nightmare before Christmas types.

91. She has an iphone but puts very few apps/games on it... she says they are too clutery

92. She does have the app foursquare and we are the mayors of Arby's

93. She doesn't like McDonalds other than for their ice cream

94. She doesn't like waiting

95. She like Nachos

96. She wishes she had her own house instead of living at her grandparents

97. She is currently fighting a Mountain Dew addiction

98. She wants to visit the Waverly Hills Sanitorium now that I told her about it

99. She wants to have 3 kids

100. Erin is a very caring person

Halloween at the Museum

Last year the museum hosted a Halloween party for kids, and being the new director here I was put in charge of hosting our second annual event for Halloween.

We had good publicity on both the radio and newspaper but our numbers were a little down, probably due to all the other events going on around town. We still had over 45 people attend the event from 1-4 on Saturday so I was pleased with that.

Below are some pictures from the event and our great volunteers!

100 things about Erin #3

*This is a part in a multi-part blog set for the month of October*



41. Sometimes school can really stress her out

42. She goes to school at IUPUC currently

43. Next semester she will have to take some of her classes at IUPUI

44. She has taken classes at Franklin

45. And UCF

46. As well as a small community college in Flordia

47. Her life has made her educational journey an intersting and long one, but she values her education a lot

48. She even trained at a police academy for awhile in Texas

49. Her Major is Health Care administration

50. She currently works at an assisted living home so you can look at it as she is getting some hands on experience

51. Being a forester would have been her dream job

52. However, Foresters don't make a lot of money so she decided to go into another field she loves - working with the elderly

53. She is very cute

54. She wears either glasses or contacts

55. Her favorite Salad dressing is Ranch

56. She used to like Ceaser, but I made a mistake of telling her some brands contain an ingredient she can't stand

57. That ingredient is fish... she won't eat it

58. Fish are by far her least favorite animal
59. American Eagle is one of her favorite clothing stores

60. She doesn't like shirts with collars

61. She almost always has socks on

62. She hates the feel of carpet

63. She is a pretty good Wii bowler

64. N64 is her favorite video game console

65. She like the Mario Party franchise of games

66. However, The Sims is her favorite video game.

67. She is very competitive when it comes to playing games, she hates to lose

68. It doesn't matter what type of game it is; cards, board games, video games, trivia games, athletic games she will always be trying her hardest to win

69. She was an outstanding track star in high school

70. Discus was her standout event that even got her recruited for college

71. She trained with a member of the Purdue Track and Field team

72. Softball was another sport she loved playing while growing up

73. Football is about the only sport she cannot stand

74. She likes Carmex chapstick

75. In the woods is her favorite place to be

Gen. Wilder

A few months back a local history buff contacted me at the museum about hosting a lecture about his area of expertise, the Civil War specifically a man with Decatur County ties General Wilder of the famous "Lightning Brigade".
We set up a date for the 15th, and when it came close to October I did some leg work to get the event mentioned on the radio and printed in the paper as well as made a quick flyer for publicity. I was hoping we'd have a decent turnout, but as always with events like this around Decatur County its tough to judge what people will be willing to come to see.

Anyway things went great on the day of the event, we had around 36 people show up for the talk (which is a wonderful turnout for events like this). I learned a lot more about Wilder than I thought I would, the speaker certainly knew what he was talking about. If there was any negative to take from the event it would be that it went too long for the average audience member. I was told it would be an 80 min presentation but it ended with a time of 2hrs and 45 mins. If we could get him into breaking up the talk into 2 sections... I'd be intersted in putting it on again.

The Crowd

Mr. Jackson with one of his rifles


Showing off a Civil War era rifle that was made in Greensburg, IN.

Farming #3

The last in a series of photos taken on my camera phone while helping my Dad harvest the crops this fall.

Farming #2

Another series of pictures I took on my poor-quality camera phone of working with my Dad and Grandpa.

Pumpkin Patch

On Sunday Erin took me to a Pumpkin Patch down by Westport. We took her dogs, Jude and Juno, for a walk/ride along with us to pick out some pumpkins to carve.










The dogs brought "aww how cute"'s from people as always.










(Juno running back to me)

After digging through the field and picking out a selection of Pumpkins we headed back to Erin's house to begin a carving...





Thanks to Erin's pumpkin carving kit, even an beginner like me could make some cool designs.





After several hours of carving our hearts out, throwing pumpkin goo at the dogs, keeping Trudy from running off with the lids, and going to eat dinner at the mexican place near the old walmart... it was time for the ceremonial lighting of the pumpkins!

Concrete reminder

So yesterday I was unloading beans into the small bin by the old hog house and was trying to remember back when Dad put that bin up. I knew it was right after he bought the 50 acres that we call "The Flatrock Farm". We got the bin for free for taking it and another bin that was over there down, the bins were on a plot of ground right next to what Dad had just bought (it was a larger piece of property that was sold into 4 sections, Dad ended up with one of those sections).



I don't know why I remember this but I know when we opened the bin door the first time their was a large nest of hornets that we had to deal with before we could even start taking it down. We spray painted numbers on all of the sections (so we could put it back together correctly) and then took the bin apart piece by piece loading it onto the goose neck trailer.

The bottom of that bin has a floor in it that is supported by cinder blocks, moving those is the part I remember the most, because as a 5th grader it seemed like really hard work, with endless blocks to be carried out... (it probably wasn't that bad) I do know we didn't put all of the blocks back in that floor, and that their is a pile of leftovers sitting by the yellow barn. (I could be wrong on this, and that they were all from the second bin that we never put back up.)

Anyway... the reason for posting this blog is because when we put the bin up in its current location and poured the concrete slab we left our mark in it... Casey and I have our hand prints in the cement, Dad just wrote his name, as well as grandpas initials (B.W.) and the neighbor who helped us (Danny Barnes)* as well as one special individual who wasn't supposed to leave a mark at all but did anyway... Peppy. After she put her paw print in the cement, Dad went ahead and wrote her name next to it, leaving a lasting memory of her.



Peppy is one of the best pets I ever had, she was an Austrlian Shepard and I will always remember her as a great dog. She passed away in Feb. of 2006 when I was at Purdue, she had been in poor health for awhile, rarely leaving the poarch. Mom said she debated on telling me the night she died or waiting until I got home to give me the news.

It was nice however thinking of her today















*note I didn't get pictures of Grandpa or Danny's names because they were on the opposite side of the cement slab and shaded by bin so that a picture wouldn't have come out well.

100 Things about Erin #2

*This is a part in a multi-part blog set for the month of October*

21. Her favorite actor is Tom Hanks

22. Her favorite movie is Pride and Prejudice*

23. Her favorite band is "Five for Fighting"

24. She is also a big fan of Avril Lavigne

25. Her favorite color is Pink

26. Even though pink is her favorite color, she still thinks its a little silly that the football players wear pink for breast cancer month.

27. She dislikes the sport of football

28. She likes Def Jam Poetry

29. She has been to many more concerts than I have

30. Elton John headlined the last concert she saw

31. She is very good at canoeing

32. She likes watching TV series on netflix while she does homework

33. A good indicator on if she will like a series or not is to see how much profanity it has in it... the more the better

34. However, it doesn't have to have profanity... as she watched the entire "Musters" series not long ago

35. Avatar the Last Airbender is the first anime series she watched

36.  Her favorite ice cream flavor is "Cotton candy"

37.  She prefers ketchup over mustard

38. A1 sauce is her favorite condiment

39. She is gorgeous

40. Her birthday is in July




*correction needs to be made, she claims this is her second favorite movie behind "The Green Mile"

Farming #1

So I've been helping my Dad farm this week, I have taken a few pictures on my camera phone of different things and decided to post them here... I titled this as #1 because I will probably take some more next week. This includes pictures from the 5th, 7th and 8th of this month.

Opening up the field around the house


Sparky and Pepper having fun in the fields


Unloading


Dad driving the combine


Unloading a wagon


From the top of the bean bin.