New Halloween Lights and make your own ghosts

Normally we don't buy more Halloween decorations until November, but when we saw these spider and 24' purple and orange lights on sale at Kroger we couldn't help ourselves. It looks a little busy now, but next year we'll either be in the new house or will try to find a better place for them here. The spiders are great I'd like to get some more after Halloween. The purple and orange are cool, but I wish they were more purple. Hopefully there will be a string of solid purple lights this November.

   How to make your own ghosts. These simple, lovely Halloween decorations are very easy to make. Most of the items are garbage. Mom came up with this design years ago, using some gauzy fabric she had left over after making curtains. The best part is the older they get the better they look. Right now we have four and plan to add more. She made a bunch of little ones using dryer lint for the head.




What you'll need:
 Tulle or sheer white fabric
 Newspapers/ handful of plastic grocery bags (preferably white)
one plastic bag (preferably white)
Fishing line
Optional: Glow in the dark paint

   Cut the fabric into a rectangle-ish (you could cut a big circle too) shape that's about 8 inches longer that you want the ghost to be about 4 1/2 feet long and 2 wide. Make a ball about the size of a head (most of ours are around 5 inches in diameter) out of the newspapers/ plastic bags and cover with one white plastic bag. Place the fabric over the head so that some of it hangs a few inches below the head. Tie fishing line around the bottom of the head. Optional paint a face on the head. Thread an embroidery needle with fishing line and use that to hang your ghost in a tree. The lighter the fabric the less wind they need to fly.

They are great for telling which way the wind is blowing. They are very easily customizable, too.            



 In honor of Halloween Bats Bizarre is having a sale! From today October 3rd until November 1st use coupon code HALLOWEEN for 15% off your entire purchase.

                         Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

Rain in Barbie's Dream Chicken House

We got a little more than two inches of rain this weekend and learned that the new chicken house floats. Or at least is so light weight that water seeps under the walls and puddles up before it sinks into the soil. With a chance of rain all week we knew we had to do something quick. The girls were walking around in water that covered their feet.

  Fortunately Mom just happed to have a thirty-three gallon trash can full of pine needles. We put a five inch layer of pine needles inside so the girls would have something dry to walk on. Now their feet are dry when it rains!
   
   Surprisingly they haven't scratched all the pine needles out. Mom thinks the threshold kept them in. I like to think it was because they liked the pine needles so much.


In honor of Halloween Bats Bizarre is having a sale! From today October 3rd until November 1st use coupon code HALLOWEEN for 15% off your entire purchase.

    Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

The New Chicken House

   We where out of cages, and the Surprise chicks were out of room. We didn't want to put 'Possum, Handful, and Amy's girl in with their parents because the peaking order is so horrible and we have a thing about putting all our hens in one house. Mom and I were trying to figure out what to do when it hit us: put my old play house in between the house and the garage and use the two 10'x6' fence panels to make a run.

                    The panels were going to be part of a second chicken house we planed on building, but didn't, because we might be moving soon and were afraid taking the building apart would weaken it.

    We've taken to calling it Barbie's Dream Chicken House, and have named the girl from Amy's brood Barbie.

   Here is a picture of the nest Handful made for herself complete with egg, which for some reason looks blue in the picture. 'Possum who is the same age as Handful isn't laying yet, but both of the Ameraucana girls took a while to start laying.

  The cats love it. Bird watching, particularly close up chicken watching, is one of their favorite things to do. And the chickens in turn seem to enjoy cat watching. Whenever they see a cat laying on the cinderblock or in the dirt near the pen they run up it and hang out. When they aren't watching cats they are usually ruining Mom's heirloom Amaryllises and Pineapple plants. The little flock is all together for the picture to the right. Possum is in front, Handful's facing her, and Barbie is to the right with her back to the camera.

   A couple of days ago when the cold front blew in Persephone, who's favorite place to hang out is the roof, jumped off the garage roof onto the play house and hung out in there while Mom and I finished setting up the light for the little girls. Before we were done Sephy was out. As you can see in the picture she was looking at the roof from the top of the chicken house so she might have jumped straight up onto the roof. We're not sure.



In honor of Halloween Bats Bizarre is having a sale! From today October 3rd until November 1st use coupon code HALLOWEEN for 15% off your entire purchase.

             Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

Halloween Sugar Cookies

While sugar cookies are usually a Christmas treat Mom and I always have to make a batch for Halloween. Mom loves Red Hots; I put them on as much as possible. They are best if you put them on before you bake them.

  The frosting is milk mixed with powder sugar and food dye. Put powder sugar in a bowl and add a little milk. Continue adding very small amounts of milk until it reaches an almost spreadable consistency. Add food coloring. (It will make it more liquid.) If it's not spreadable at this point add more milk.
  These are ones we made from some new metal cut out shapes we fond on sale at Michaels. Some of the shapes are weird, like the cat that looks more like a chipmunk, or the candy corn (Seriously?). But the price was right and you don't have to worry about them getting stuck like with some of our older one that have a covered back so you have to dig the cookies out if they get stuck. And the bats are cool. 
   You could also use them to make Halloween biscuits. :)
    Here is a recipe for really good Sugar Cookies. There is a link to a printer friendly version at the end.
                                                              Sugar Cookies

1 cup sugar                                              2 cups Flour 
1 stick butter                                           1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg                                                       1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon Vanilla
                                                        
 Cream butter and sugar. Add an egg and vanilla. Sift in flour, salt, and baking powder. Chill for an hour. (Hint: leave the dough not being used in the refrigerator. It's easier to work with when cold.) Bake on a cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Makes two dozen.

    Here is the printer friendly version:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/136TAN9EWeFhOvoBV6dUydKbEDmYjKjlSA8g7c-cOIpA/edit?usp=sharing

Bats Bizarre is having a sale! From today October 3rd until November 1st use coupon code HALLOWEEN for 15% off your entire purchase.

         Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!