2015 Halloweek Wrap-Up

So it was just Christmas. And I LOVE Christmas!

BUT I might love Halloween even more (by a small amount). So I wanted to do a Halloween wrap-up of 2015 before it becomes Halloween of 2016 (my one possibly feasible goal).

I've documented my past Halloweeks for the past several years, some more successfully than others, so this year I will just do a general photo list of all the fun things I participated in!

• participated in another Big Day! It poured the entire day so we got less numbers than last year, but it was still fun and I saw a couple of lifers
• drank a lot of pumpkin spice lattes
• made Dia de los Muertos skulls at lunch





• had a Nightmare Before Christmas viewing party at the apartment complete with NBC cake pops (that were SO ANNOYING to make, candy melts are the literal worst)
• made roomie dates to look at halloween decorations
• the halloween fairy visited and decorated our house!
• gave pumpkins to animals for playtime





• Kogi went trick-or-treating
• carved pumpkins: one super sad pumpkin and a death star pumpkin
• watched spooky movies





• went to Surftoberfest and drank some delicious beer!
• loved taking photos of halloweeny things for my 365 project
• visited the Ocearch vessel





• got bb chickens and a sloth!
• celebrated kitty's bday
• megan visited!
• went sailing at sunset
• went dancing at Roper's, got drunk





• went to the beach where it was LITERALLY RAINING SPIDERS, but we read Cosmo out loud to one another and that made it okay
• stayed up way too late each night and slept with the door open



• made my own Halloween costume, as per usual. Drea and I were KILLER unicorns, so we went for the glittery, beautiful aspect but drenched in fake blood. Our stories were that we seduce men, much like sirens, and then kill them and take whatever money, jewels, etc. they had. My personal thought was my necklace was a gift for the man I killed's wife >:)





• went to a BOMB Halloween party! Drea and I were killer unicorns and Megan was LANA from Archer! We played drinking games, created an "air form" of bobbing for apples that were hanging from a hula hoop (that Holly promptly broke), and watched horror movies. It was awesome.




I love Halloween

halloweek begineth

HALLOWEEK 2014 BEGINS

a banding tradition

It seems to becoming a tradition to band owls during the month of October, as we decided for the second year in a row to leave the warm glow of our flatscreen TV to head out into the forest and find some owls. Last year we went to Duluth during Halloweek to attend "Owl Night", where they had an educational program and we finally caught two little Norther Saw-Whets at the end of the night. Then we got to hold them like little ice-cream cones :')

We first headed to Noodles and Company in Steven's Point for the company benefit, 10% of all proceeds went directly to our organization! For some reason, I really enjoy going out and playing around after dark in the city. Steven's Point is an adorable college town, which I also LOVE because there are still people out, people my age, hanging out, riding bikes, walking around in jackets and scarves and boots with their breath fogging their vision. I love fall nights, especially when they're illuminated by lamplight. We cozied up inside of Noodles and ate macaroni and told our infamous drinking stories. I have...more than I realized...

After Noodles, we headed out to Linwood Springs Research Station, which was deep in the woods (my homeland), and took a seat in the classroom. We were treated to an educational program on owls and then released two Northern Saw-Whets that we'd rehabilitated back to health.











Since we were in the darkness since, you know, owls are nocturnal (or crepuscular), there wasn't the best lighting in the world. Also it's hard to catch the exact moment the owl actually flies off, so I didn't get any cool pictures of the owls being released into the great wild woods. Instead I got pictures of people looking amazed or thoughtful as the owl fluttered away. Aka a little bit stupid.



Little guys back in their natural habitat! May you never have to be in contact with humans ever again!

After we'd released them, we headed out to visit the mist nets, where we'd already caught a little Northern Saw-whet! We brought him back inside and took some measurements, like tarsus length and wing chord, as well as judging the age by the wear of the feathers.







The lighting wasn't too great again since it was low and fluorescent, but still. LOOK AT THAT FACE!!

We caught three Saw-Whets and at the end we got to release them. Well okay, Marge's grand-daughter and Kelsey, the other education intern, got to release them. I sort of co-released one with another rehab intern. But it was still cool!



having a complicated camera means that a lot of your pics you get back are going to be blurry, especially in the darkness when there's nothing to focus on



taking some cool pics since the owl was super shocked and didn't realize he was free to go...



OWL!

The person taking our picture didn't even get an after picture of us looking up at the sky, so unfortunately I couldn't add that one to my collection



But I did get this one!





Kelsey waiting for her owl to take off.

All in all, it was another great night filled with owls! I hope this continues to be an annual October tradition!

HALLOWEEK STARTS TOMORROW



SO. EXCITED.

I started out this fall season (and an early Halloween season) by staffing a booth at an adorable fall festival at a farm. Halloween/fall was in full swing, and there was even A CAMEL. It was pretty magical.











I like to take pictures of signs with my name on them



My season













I want to compare this to Lenny's photo (our crow) and ask people which one they think is the real crow, because you know this one is pretty realistic...





Thank you!





Lenny is too smart for her own good





Scarecrow man playing catch with Lenny. Clearly she is terrified

Last week one of the other interns and I decided to go explore our new surroundings. We ended up at the Dells of the Eau Claire, which is filled with beautiful rock formations, tiny waterfalls, and amazing fall scenery.











Sometimes I just scream, "WAIT" because I absolutely HAVE to take a picture. This was one of those moments.



There was a tree spanning the water and I was like, "I have to climb this" while Kelsey (other intern friend) stared at me sardonically. I gave her my camera and phone to hold (considering there was a 95% chance I was going to fall into the water) and hoisted myself onto the branch. I was too comfortable with the idea of staying dry that I didn't go all the way over the water, but Kelsey decided to document it anyway.

These past few days have seen some AMAZING weather, rainstorms and mist enveloping the fall foliage. I had to snap a few pictures yesterday morning.







I am so psyched for this month's activities, SO MANY AWESOME THINGS PLANNED!!