It's Go Time!

The lights are on, the fogger is on, allthe candles ar flickering as should be.  We have a great Halloween mix playing on outdoor speakers as ell.  The kids really like my witches.  The witches just a bit taller than most of them  Perfect!  hey keep standing in front of them, some o them reach out to ouch a nose or some teeth.  I'll post some photos later in the night.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween

We took the first prize ribbon!

And we had a wonderful time at Vicki and Owen's.

More to come, Happy Halloween!

The Knife Thrower's Lovely Assistant- Gone Horribly Wrong

Here's part of this year's costume.  I've wanted to do this for three years now, and finally got it together.  There will also be a third knife in my chest with the help of some liquid latex.  More pis to come and maybe a photo shoot in the graveyard with fog.  Kyle will be dressed as the world's worst knife thrower.

Local Sightings

I took giant dog Sadie for a monster walk over to Harrison Blvd. where the street gets shut down to motorized traffic and TOT's get full sized candy bars.  The next set of photos are from that street.  The ones following are from random houses and the last ones are of the priceless find I made and actually got to talk to the haunter.  Lets start with the usual on Harrison Blvd:

The lions have capes, but their witch hats blew off. 

The inevitable inflatables.

This was one of the best on the Blvd.

Pretty cool, nice pumpkins.

Small fry.

I don't know how many locals have told me that Val Kilmer owns this place.  They put the same stuff up every year and I've been here for 10.  

I thought this was pretty cool, it is actually part of an inflatable display that was all deflated at the time.  I tried to take some inflatable homicide scene photos, but none of them turned out.  

That was all I saw on the Blvd.  Then I found this gem:

This was tucked away on a quieter street and I caught the haunter during setup.  I met Phil, a super cool dude wearing all black and sporting a sweet grey ponytail.  I think Phil was taken aback by the lady with the huge dog with the huge grin saying "the kids in this neighborhood are lucky to have you!".  I started asking questions about his haunt.  Apparently they've had one for several years and they have a 9' tall fire-breathing dragon!  It breathes real fire and is anamatronic, and best of all, is COMPLETELY. HOME. MADE.  I was so thrilled to find a kindred spirit.  I had to see more and boy am I glad I asked.  Phil let me into his home which is so amazing.  It's kinda like the Munsters house a bit on the inside I think half intentionally and half not.  He had boxes of stuff stacked several feet high labeled "dragon skin", "dragon body", "lights", oh so many I can't remember.  

At that point I said, "oh, I'm  used to being in stranger's houses, I work for the Coroner's office".  That seemed to put him at ease with my casual entering his very different domicile and then he offered to show me his basement.  Seriously, how many of you would say "O.K. stranger in all black with a 9' dragon that breaths real fire, I'll go into your basement".?  Well, you know I had to.  

Phil is apparently a model train efficianado and a master dragon maker.  I got to see the dragon's head without the skin, just the wiring and guts.  I wish I took video of the eyelids that open and shut and the eyes that went side to side.  The mouth opens and closes and has propane that gets light and alternating fog that comes out.  Whoa, and there is a compass in the stock that which tells time!

Remember, if you click on my photos, they enlarge for more detail.

The dragon head's guts.  

Phil modelling the new skin that will apparently be ready by the 31st.  

Needless to say, the walk was a ton of fun, we had beautiful sunshine, cool temps and great fall colors.  Here are the other random shots I took during the walk.  

Its almost time!

Pumpkin

Click photo to view video:

Evey year Kyle has a pumpkin carving contest at his work.  Needless to say, the past few years have seen an influence of mine.  I made him an LED light for his witch pumpkin.  At the time I took the video, the paint was still wet, so the extra hat I made isn't featured.  I used two green flashers and two white flashers and slaved up an ultrabright blue to each.  I'm going to visit his office on Thursday to photograph the competition and get better video with the mache hat in place.  

Funny

We had a pumpkin carving party last night and Sadie pigged out on pumpkin guts.  She loves the gross strings and seeds.

Crap!

I'm on Kyle's computer while he is loosing patience on mine.  My computer is really unwell, REALLY unwell.  Now I find that Google Chrome thinks Haunt Forum has some sort of third party malware.  Saddest part of the story is that I'm going to loose hundreds of pictures I've taken during the year.  I know backing up is necessity, I just forgot to replace my old external drive :(             Great timing, huh?

Witch Update

I also got three more par 38's.  When asked where did those come from?  I said "Oh those, we've had those for years".

Here are some pics with the new lights.  Tomorrow will be the first run with the fogger.  I'll take some pics during Saturday's pumpkin carving party (although I don't know who is actually showing up).  If you are a Local haunter and want to join us send me a comment and we'll figure out how to get you the address.  On to the latest pics...

Exhausted

I am beat after a tough 3 day 40 hour work week.  New post coming soon!

Quick Update

We'll see if the local news puts our haunt on their display map.  Some might not like the idea of witches...  Anywhoo, I just got home from my second 13 hr shift in a row and have to somehow wind down to start a 14 hour shift in the AM.  I've been working on cases all day (and night) and I encountered a lot of poop (seriously).  In the meantime I thought I'd post a few more pics from the past weekend and then I'll be doing the final tweaks for the year on Thursday with newer photos to follow shortly.  We are having a pumpkin carving party on Saturday, so I still have those to add to the haunt as well.  Gosh, so many things to do.  If I'm lucky, no one will die tomorrow.  That reminds me of the novel I'm going to write, again, I digress, I'm just a little fried, please forgive me.  On to the photos!  Please click to enlarge for better detail.

Yes my cauldron sucks, I promise to improve for next year.

I call the one below witch booty.I should add a little padding so those tubing hoops do stand out so much.  I really need to take more photos of some of the little details like the back of the center witch's neck and back area.  Her clothing is really tattered and her skin shows through beneath.  

Photographing at night really helps remove odd elements like the sunny yellow vinyl sided house, but I did want to show some detail.  My goal was to make the haunt look good day or night.  I like this view despite the background because it looks like the standing witch is glaring into the camera lens.  

Remember the lewd gesturing gal on the left?  I used Kyle's suggestion and put the rat in her hands.

Kyle told me it should go the other way like she's stroking it's tail.  Is it her familiar, or will it get tossed into the cauldron?

Here is a shot of the cauldron on it's skull base with logs.  It isn't the best photo, but it shows some detail. 

Almost There

click image enlarge

Note: This is not the final set up (hint, hint Rot).  I have a few more lighting effects to set up this coming weekend and the fogger with chiller as well, but today was way more productive than I anticipated.  I'll make a big post of photos with all the effects going by next weekend (I hope).  I plan to make a video out of photos and video clips for my grand finale post of the season.  

After Kyle brought home the pumpkin spice creamer (yum) he was ready to help me set up the base for my standing witch.  I have two kneeling on one knee each, but I wanted the third to be leaning over the cauldron casting her spell.  We used one of last year's stands that was used for much heavier monster mud on chicken wire prop that worked really well for my PVC mache witch.  

Once I had the third "body" ready all I had to do was dress them.  Let me tell you, I never had that much fun with barbies ever.  I put their plastic table cloth bases on then added layers of dyed cheesecloth and creepy cloth.  I distressed the layers and used spray adhesive to put it all on.  I used spray adhesive to add their hair which is made up of hand made wool roving dreadlocks and synthetic yarn I basically un-spun by hand.  

Oh, I also spent some dough on 10 big pumpkins that will hopefully all get carved next weekend.

Get in the News

Southwest Idaho Haunters: email KTVB your address and they'll put your yard haunt on a map so we can all go see each other's work.  http://www.ktvb.com/home/We-want-to-see-your-spooky-displays-105069604.html

Suprise

I was just telling Kyle that the flavored coffee creamer companies should get on the wagon with pumpkin spice creamer.  Then he came home today with this:

It is very yummy, thanks for listening Nestle!

Another Original Inspiration

Thrtiller: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DngUU1MlLcQ

Pumpkin Dealin'

So, I had a nice hop to my step after making homemade breakfast burrito's with Kyle and then eating mine while sippin' some coffee and checking the 'tubes when Rot snuck up on me again with a post of my most recent photos.  Day made, right there.  We ran errands which included yet again MORE rebar for props and a stop at the local veggie stand for corn stalk bundles.  While paying for the corn stalks I got way ballsier than I anticipated and straight out asked the guy if he'd give me a discount on pumpkins in bulk.  He first offered me 10 for $40, but if I get 20 he'd really "make it worth my time".   I have no idea what that means, but he'll be there in the afternoon so we can make the deal.  I'll update with the results.  I hope I score big!

The Second Haunt is Showing Some Promise

Its tiny, but I thought a lot about detail.  My small graveyard is set up and the first witch has moved into the scene.  I have two more witches and a cauldron that will go up over the next two weeks.  Compared to my first haunt attempt, this is pretty impressive.

Here are the pics with the lights on:

These are long exposure shots that I really like.  I wish I could make the yard look like this to the naked human eye.  These were all 30 second exposures.