October 31st means several thing to me. It is my goal for finishing harvest, that will not be met this year. It is the anniversary of the biggest rain I ever saw, 14 inches in 1998. Had my combine sitting on what I thought was high ground, the water still got to the top of the drive tires. I shelled corn today on some of our lowest ground, spent the afternoon dodging trees in amongst the corn from the flood June 30 of this year. Just as I was about to finish the field I was in, and the day, I blew a hydraulic hose on my 4wd unit on the combine dumping all the oil and leaving me sitting still, in the lowest part of the field.......had a little trouble leaving it there, but there was nothing I could do, too late in the day to get a new hose. Thankfully, no rain is forecast for tonight or tomorrow.
I don't know if Halloween is even celebrated in the UK, it is a semi important holiday in the USA, little kids dress in costumes and trick or treat, heard a poll today that something like 79% of parents end up "raiding" their kids candy take(my dad always did that to us, he generally got all of the good stuff). The slightly older kids generally get into alot of mischief on Halloween night, throw eggs, smash jack o lanterns, toilet paper alot of trees and cars...in our small towns usually nothing criminal. In the old days they use to turn over outhouses, and my father tells of rolling burning tires down the highest hill in our town. It isn't as lawless as it sounds, if you don't do these things in the UK it may sound rougher than it is. Generally the fire department gets called to a minor fire or two. The student government at school use to sell "spook insurance" around town as a fundraiser, meaning if your house got egged or shaving creamed, or anything else you owned, the stugo kids would clean it up. My tractor was toilet papered once, actually the night of the flood, by 2 of the high school boys that helped me during the summer. They were very proud of themselves! Many of the TV channels will carry the classic horror shows, Dracula(Stuart probably is a neighbor to his 7 or 8 great grandchildren) Frankenstein and then the new ones like Scream. Just giving you a glimpse into our culture........you've got the Queen and Ascot, we have toilet paper and smashed pumpkins. After Halloween we move rapidly toward our two biggest holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas.