Kaitiaki Hamon’s Look At Weather And The World

[NOW PLAYING] 😈 Here Comes the Sun – Ghost B.C. 😈
/George Harrison's sunrise, inverted Swedish black mass style: little darling, the ritual worked/

🎧 Hear it: "Here Comes the Sun" by Ghost on Spotify (a Japanese bonus track off Opus Eponymous and region-locked, so this one gets a link instead of a player)

Halloween is Saturday. This week, be the house with the light on and the full-size welcome: check on your neighbours, then haunt responsibly. 🎃

🌤️ Intro

Hey crew, Kaitiaki Hamon here 🌳🚜. It is move day in Edmonton and Halloween week, Kyle has the truck, Matt has a truck too, the new unit opens its doors this afternoon, and there is no housing gap because the Hudson lease runs to Nov 30, so today is a lift, not a haunting 📦👻. The TANIWHA canvas, the one named for a guardian monster, is riding in the car where I can see it, and MANAIA travels like royalty the same way 🎨. First Halloween in the new place lands Saturday, the snow arrives Wednesday like it read the calendar ❄️, and somewhere under the boxes is a bag of candy I have already opened. Twice 🍬. Inside today you will find the 5 Things Most Pro Landscapers Won't Tell You, the Deep Dive, Today's Message, Today's Weather, the Star Wars galaxy forecast in its darkest variation, the Daily Landscaping LOL, and Ron Hairemy's Songs That Guarantee LAWNgevity, every one of them spooky 🎶. Let's ride. 🚀

🛠️ 5 Things Most Pro Landscapers Won't Tell You

1. 🌿🛠️ Carve the jack-o'-lantern from the bottom, not the top: it outlasts the week and lights itself
2. 🌿🛠️ Salt, sweep and light the walkway before Saturday: trick-or-treaters in snowsuits are coming either way
3. 🌿🛠️ No real flames in pumpkins by the door: LED tealights, always, no exceptions
4. 🌿🛠️ Retire the jack to the compost, not the lawn: a rotting pumpkin smothers turf and slicks the walk
5. 🌿🛠️ Photograph your yard at trick-or-treat hour: see the dark spots and trip hazards your guests see

👇 Continue reading to learn more, the full breakdown on all five is waiting for you after the joke.

🌟 Today's Message: The Haunting of Esther Cox: Canada's Great Amherst Mystery

In late August 1878, in a crowded little cottage on Princess Street in Amherst, Nova Scotia 🇨🇦, an 18 year old girl named Esther Cox came home from a carriage ride she would spend the rest of her life trying to forget 🏚️. A shoemaker named Bob MacNeal had tried to assault her at gunpoint out by the Tantramar Marsh, and she had survived it, shaken to her bones 😔. Days later, the knocking started. Esther and her sister Jennie heard rapping in the walls at night, then Esther began suffering fits in which her body visibly swelled and fevered, in a house she shared with her sister Olive Teed, Olive's husband Daniel, their two small children and more siblings besides 👻. Whatever had followed her home from that marsh, it was just getting started.

It escalated the way these stories are never supposed to outside of fiction 🔥. Objects flew across rooms in broad daylight. Small fires broke out on their own. Esther was slapped and pinched by hands nobody could see, and when the family doctor came, he watched her bedclothes move by themselves and heard scratching sounds he could not explain 🩺😨. Then came the detail that has kept this story alive for nearly 150 years: words appeared scratched into the wall above her bed, reading "Esther Cox, you are mine to kill." Hundreds of people came through that little house over fifteen months: clergy, journalists, physicians, the curious and the terrified, and the phenomena kept witnesses busy enough that nobody could agree on anything except that something was very wrong 📜. And when Esther fell properly ill with diphtheria, everything stopped, silent as a held breath, for the entire time she lay bedridden. The day she recovered, it started again 🕯️.

Enter Walter Hubbell, an American actor who arrived in Amherst intending to debunk the whole thing and make his name doing it 🎭. He moved into the cottage for six weeks with a notebook. He left having written the most famous ghost story Canada has ever produced: The Great Amherst Mystery, published in 1879, built from his diaries and sworn statements, and read across North America 📖🌎. But here is the part of the haunting that was never supernatural at all 💔. Esther's torment made her a spectacle while she was alive: crowds treated her house like a theatre, skeptics treated her like a fraud, and when a barn later burned, Esther herself was blamed, convicted of arson, and sent to jail for it, even though she swore to her last day the spirit she called "Bob" had set the fire 🔥. She died in 1912, having carried a haunting and a reputation in equal measure, and never once got to just be a girl something bad happened to.

Amherst, to its credit, never let her go 🕯️❤️. Her story has been retold in books and on stages for a century and a half, including a play, Guilty!, built entirely around her case, and the town now celebrates its haunted daughter every fall at Esther Fest, leaning into the mystery the way Salem leans into its witches 🎃. But the real lesson of Esther Cox is not the knocking on the walls. It is that a traumatized teenager told the adults around her that something was terribly wrong, and the world mostly answered with curiosity instead of care. So here is the call, on Halloween week of all weeks 📣. When somebody tells you their house, their life, their head is haunted, believe them first and investigate second, and be the porch light that stays on for them. And this Saturday, when the little monsters come to your door, tell them a real Canadian ghost story, the one about the girl from Amherst whose name the thing on the wall could not take from her 👻. Forward is always a choice, and that means YOU too!

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Amherst_Mystery
https://superstitioustimes.com/amhersts-esther-fest-celebrates-its-paranormal-heritage/
https://theunexplainedmysteries.com/amherst-poltergeist.html
https://saltscapes.com/include-a-haunting-on-your-holiday/

🌤️ Today's Weather

Edmonton: Today: Clear and cold to start, -3°C feeling like -7°C, humidity 77%, wind SE at 10 km/h, then partly cloudy and climbing to a high of 6°C by mid-afternoon with SSE winds at 15 km/h gusting to 26, rain chance 0%, and cloud creeping back in tonight down to -3°C 🌤️. Sunrise 8:22 AM, sunset 6:12 PM. The vibe: the last calm day before the cold crawls in for good, a move-day mercy wrapped in a frosty morning 🧊. For work and mindset, lift in the afternoon warmth, get every box inside before dark, and let Wednesday's snow find you already home 💪🏠. Scale of the Pantaloon: L5: "Time to Break Out the Sweatpants" (5 to 10°C) 👖

Aotearoa (Auckland): Today: Spring on the other shift 🌸: fair at 15°C, humidity 79%, wind N at 11 km/h, clouding over tonight to a low of 14°C with a 20% rain chance and NNW winds at 19 km/h. Sunset 7:47 PM NZDT 🌇. The vibe: warm nights and long evenings while we button up for snow 😎. For mindset, they get a wet Tuesday down there too, so both ends of the whānau world are about to get weather together 🌏. Scale of the Pantaloon: L7: "Bust Out the Booty Shorts, Baby!" (15 to 25°C) 👖

📅 Next 5 Days: Edmonton – Aeoteroa

Tuesday, Oct 27, Edmonton: Cloudy, high 4°C / low -3°C, wintry chance 20% rising to snow showers late at 40% and about 0.8 cm, humidity 82%, wind NNE at 8 km/h turning NNW at 16 🌥️. The first flakes slip in after dark, quiet as anything. Pantaloon: L4: "Jeans… No Cap!" (-5 to 5°C) | Aotearoa: Rain, high 18°C / low 12°C, rain 90% and about 5.91 mm, humidity 85%, wind WNW at 30 km/h 🌧️. Pantaloon: L7: "Bust Out the Booty Shorts, Baby!"

Wednesday, Oct 28, Edmonton: Snow showers all day, high -1°C / low -5°C, snow 50% and about 2.5 cm by day with more at night, humidity 83%, wind NNW at 18 km/h ❄️. The cold makes its entrance and does not leave. Pantaloon: L4: "Jeans… No Cap!" | Aotearoa: Partly cloudy, high 18°C / low 13°C, rain 20%, humidity 58%, wind WSW at 27 km/h, UV very high 🌤️. Pantaloon: L7: "Bust Out the Booty Shorts, Baby!"

Thursday, Oct 29, Edmonton: Morning snow showers easing, high -2°C / low -8°C, snow 30%, humidity 82%, wind WNW at 10 km/h 🥶. The freeze deepens its grip on every puddle. Pantaloon: L4: "Jeans… No Cap!" | Aotearoa: Afternoon showers and wind, high 19°C / low 13°C, rain 50%, humidity 70%, wind W at 38 km/h 💨. Pantaloon: L7: "Bust Out the Booty Shorts, Baby!"

Friday, Oct 30, Edmonton: Mostly sunny and cold, high 1°C / low -7°C, wintry chance 10%, humidity 75%, wind S at 13 km/h ☀️. One bright, brittle day to finish the Halloween setup. Pantaloon: L4: "Jeans… No Cap!" | Aotearoa: Partly cloudy and windy, high 18°C / low 13°C, rain 10%, humidity 62%, wind WSW at 36 km/h 🌤️. Pantaloon: L7: "Bust Out the Booty Shorts, Baby!"

Saturday, Oct 31, Edmonton: Partly cloudy for Halloween, high 3°C / low -6°C, wintry chance 10%, humidity 71%, wind SSW at 9 km/h 🎃. Costumes over snowsuits, the great Canadian tradition, under a cold clear sky. Pantaloon: L4: "Jeans… No Cap!" | Aotearoa: Mostly sunny, high 18°C / low 11°C, rain 10%, humidity 56%, wind SSW at 21 km/h ☀️. Pantaloon: L7: "Bust Out the Booty Shorts, Baby!"

⭐ Star Wars Galaxy Forecast: The Dark Variation

Monday drifts misty at 6 degrees over Dathomir 🌫️, where the Nightsisters move through red fog and Mother Talzin reads the weather in entrails and star charts, and every rancor in the swamp keeps one eye open 🐉. Tuesday storms at 4 degrees over Exegol ⚡, lightning splitting a sky that never truly brightens, the Sith Eternal chanting under the citadel while the cold does the Emperor's work for him. Wednesday the snow settles at -1 degree over Malachor 🌑, ash-white drifts covering a battlefield of petrified warriors frozen mid-scream for five thousand years, the quietest place in the galaxy, and the loudest silence. Thursday fogs at -2 over Dagobah 🐸, where the Dark Side Cave breathes slow and cold under the roots and even Yoda pulls his blanket tighter. Friday glows at 1 degree over Mustafar 🌋, Vader's black castle staring down at rivers of fire, the one warm horizon of the week and nobody sane wants it. And Saturday, Halloween itself, freezes at 3 degrees over Ziost 🧊, a dead Sith world locked in ice mid-scream, where the trick-or-treaters gave up centuries ago and the only door worth knocking on is your own. Dress warm, carry a light, and do not answer if the knocking comes from inside the walls 🚀👻.

😂 The Daily Landscaping LOL

Two nuns are driving home late on Halloween night when suddenly Dracula himself drops out of the sky and lands on the windshield, wings spread, fangs out, hissing like a punctured tire 🧛🦇. The younger nun is screaming, the car is swerving all over the road, and the older nun, cool as a February morning, leans across and says, "Quick, Sister! Show him your cross!" So the younger nun rolls down the window, leans out into the night, and shouts at the top of her lungs:

"GET OFF THE CAR, YOU ABSOLUTE MENACE!!" 😤🤣

🛠️🌿 The Deep Dive: 5 Things Most Pro Landscapers Won't Tell You 🌿🛠️

1. Carve the jack-o'-lantern from the bottom, not the top 🎃
Everybody saws a lid around the stem, and by Thursday the lid has shrivelled, shrunk and dropped into the candle. Cut the hole in the bottom instead: the pumpkin sits over its candle or LED puck like a lampshade, the light source stays planted on the porch instead of inside a drying gourd, and the whole lantern lifts off for relighting without a singed sleeve. Two refinements while you are in there: scrape the walls to about 2 cm thick on the face side so the features glow instead of smouldering, and rub the cut edges with a little petroleum jelly to slow the freeze-thaw shrivel that Edmonton weather guarantees by the weekend.

2. Salt, sweep and light the walkway before Saturday 🧂
Edmonton Halloween runs on a simple rule: the kids are coming whether the steps are icy or not, and half of them will be wearing costumes that restrict vision, movement and dignity in equal measure. Wednesday's snow and the freeze behind it mean Saturday's walks and porch steps can carry a skin of ice by trick-or-treat hour. Sweep the walks Friday, put a light layer of de-icer on steps and any sloped concrete before the evening rush, and make sure the path from sidewalk to door is lit the whole way. A bag of salt and ten minutes is the difference between your house being the fun stop and the incident report.

3. No real flames in pumpkins by the door 🔥🚫
Put the three ingredients together: an open candle flame, piles of dry October leaves banked against the porch, and a parade of children in flowing polyester capes brushing past within inches. That is not ambience, that is a near-miss with a date on it. Battery tealights and LED pucks have gotten bright, cheap and honestly better looking than the real thing, with none of the fire risk and no relighting trips in the cold. Save the real candles for the dinner table indoors, where the only thing they can set alight is the mood.

4. Retire the jack to the compost, not the lawn ♻️
On November 1st the jack-o'-lantern's watch ends, and where it rots matters. Left sitting on the lawn, a collapsing pumpkin smothers the turf underneath into a yellow dead patch, feeds a mould colony, and draws every wasp and neighbourhood dog in a three-block radius. Left on the walkway or drive, its slime is a genuine slip hazard on a frosty morning. Chop it into the compost or dig it into a garden bed instead: pumpkin is fast, friendly organic matter, seeds and all, and the soil will take the whole thing apart before the snow settles in for real.

5. Photograph your yard at trick-or-treat hour 📸
Saturday evening is the one time all fall your yard gets audited by a hundred small inspectors in the dark, and their stumbles are free consulting. Once the rush is on, walk your own route with a phone camera: you will see the step edge that disappears in shadow, the paver that sits a centimetre proud, the downspout drip already glazing one corner of the walk, and the stretch of path your porch light never reaches. Fix list for November, written by Halloween itself. The best landscape lighting plan in Edmonton is the one drawn from the trick-or-treater's eye level, which is roughly knee height and moving fast.

🎶 Ron Hairemy's Songs That Guarantee LAWNgevity 🎵🌱🔥

Halloween week shelf: a shipwreck ballad, a graveyard smash, the godfathers of metal themselves, Houston paranoia, a vampire out of Lyttelton, and Opeth closing with ten minutes of beautiful dread. Chef's kiss, no notes.

🎸 Momentum
😂 Morale
🧠 Focus
⚔️ Endurance
🎤 Reflection
🌌 Creativity

All music. No filler.
(Except comedy… because everybody needs a laugh.)
No Nickelback.
No Slipknot.
No T-Swizzle.
As it should be.

Canadian Track'O'The Day: "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot (clean ✅). Gordon Lightfoot of Orillia, Ontario, and this is the finest ghost story Canada ever put on the radio 🇨🇦🎶. The Edmund Fitzgerald went down on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975, with all 29 men aboard, and a year later Lightfoot turned the wreck into a six minute ballad that has never left the airwaves since. The Mariners' Church in Detroit still tolls its bell 29 times for those men every year 🔔. For me, this is Halloween in its truest Canadian form: no costume, just the lake, the gale, and the names. Play it as the light fails and Wednesday's snow starts, and listen to the whole thing 🌊.

Today's Musical Funny-Bone: "Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett (clean ✅). 1962, and a young Bobby Pickett doing his Boris Karloff impression so well that it became the Halloween national anthem of two countries 🧟🎤. It hit number 1, came back and hit the charts again in 1973, and the BBC banned it in '62 for being too morbid, which remains the greatest review a Halloween song has ever received 📻. For me it is mandatory listening while the candy bowl gets filled, by law, section one, paragraph graveyard smash. Play it and do the voice. You know the voice 🎃.

Hair Whippin', Head Bangin', Finger Blazin' Therapy: "Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath (clean ✅). Birmingham, 1970, the very first track on the very first Black Sabbath album, and heavy metal being scary on purpose starts right here 🌧️🔔. Rain, a church bell, that tritone riff, and Ozzy asking what that figure standing in front of him is: fifty plus years later it still raises the hair on your arms. For me this is the heaviest song on today's list by weight of shadow alone. Play it after dark, moving the last boxes, and let the new place meet the neighbours properly 🦇.

Tongue Trippin', Bar Spittin', Beat Killin' Bars: "Mind Playing Tricks on Me" by Geto Boys (explicit 🔞, paranoia in its purest recorded form). Houston's Geto Boys, 1991, built on an Isaac Hayes sample, and Scarface delivering verses about a mind coming apart at the seams that still sound uncomfortably honest 🎤🌑. Bushwick Bill, Willie D and Face turned Halloween energy into a top 25 hit with no hook you would call friendly, and it remains the definitive rap record about being haunted by your own head. For me this is the slot used for the real darkness, the kind that does not need a costume. Play it once, properly, windows up 🚗.

Māori Track / Aotearoa Pick: "Vampire Again" by Marlon Williams (clean ✅). Marlon Williams of Lyttelton, Kai Tahu and Ngai Tai, the gothic crooner with the voice from another century 🇳🇿🧛. "Vampire Again", from 2018's Make Way for Love, is a hip-swivelling vampire love song delivered with a grin, proof that the spookiest thing in any room is usually charm. For me this one goes on while the candy gets handed out at the new place on Saturday: first Halloween, new porch, vampire on the speakers 🌙. Play it and practise your Transylvanian Christchurch accent. Nobody can stop you.

Ron Hairemy Spotlight: "Ghost of Perdition" by Opeth (clean ✅). Opeth of Stockholm, Sweden, Mikael Åkerfeldt at the helm, and this is the opening track of 2005's Ghost Reveries, ten and a half minutes that begin with one of the most famous riffs in modern metal and then wander from murder ballad quiet to full death metal storm 🌑🎸. It is a ghost story where the haunting is guilt itself: a man, a mother, and a voice that will not leave the house of his head. Sweden bookends today's whole list, Ghost B.C. at sunrise and Opeth at midnight 🇸🇪. For me this is THE Halloween closer, the one that plays after the last box is in and the porch light goes off. Play it loud enough that the new place learns your name properly 🏚️.

That's the goal. That's LAWNgevity. 🌱🔥

🌅 Conclusion

Esther Cox told the truth about a haunted house for fifteen months and the world made a spectacle of her, and nearly 150 years later her town throws her a festival, which tells you the truth does eventually get its porch light turned on 🕯️. The yard version this week is smaller and it rhymes: carve from the bottom, light with LEDs, salt the steps before the little inspectors arrive, and compost the jack when its watch ends 🎃. Shoutout to Kyle and Matt and the two trucks that made today a lift instead of a haunting, to everybody moving house in spooky season, and to every porch in Edmonton leaving the light on Saturday 📣. First Halloween in the new home, crew. If you liked today's blog, be sure to star, speak out, and stay a while for updates. Until next time, this has been Kaitiaki Hamon. Keep your stick on the ice. And may the Force be with you. Always! Ka kite, landscaping whānau!

Sincerely,
Kaitiaki Hamon (Ron Hairemy)

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