Gone Feral In Idaho

image source Things usually wind down for me blog wise this time of year. The coldest days are upon us and I have lots of planning to do. I don't do New Years resolutions because I try to live up to my expectations every day, even though I fail a lot. I have a lot of things in the hopper that will probably show up here at some time. I've been really inspired by a lot of the Krampus posts I saw this year and hope to make a Krampus style demon for the haunt. The first thing I told Kyle was that I wanted to make something with red glowing eyes, and I think that a demon with goat like legs and gnarly horns would be great for that application. I have lots of sewing plans that I've accumulated and am learning more and more every day about the great craft of making one's own clothing. It so so cool to add four inches of length to a shirt so I go from looking looking like an ill fitted giant to a tall, well dressed woman.  I will get to that body image post one of these days...

Image by   paleocave.sciencesortof.com Tonight is the longest night of the year. I meant to put out some luminaries, but I had to work tonight and frankly I am dead tired. I love the feeling of this night of nights. The outside is so cold, dark, and asleep while we crazy humans in this climate, somehow, survive. We decorate, drink, dine, and celebrate in the face of old man winter. We put out bright colored lights this time of year to provide some glow of light and color on these dark dark days. I love that my neighbors leave their holiday lights on 'till dawn so that when I wake up at 0600 Mountain time and leave for work at 0645, there is some sort of light in the dark frigid air.  I read a meteorologist's blog tonight about how tomorrow's light will be a bit longer than today's. It will happen in small increments until we reach the zenith at summer solstice with sunlight until practically 2200 hrs.  We have no snow here in Boise this so...

Happy Holidays Everyone!

This is Debbie5's work at a mall in NY. I LOVE this! She is a hauntforum member extraordinaire. 

I'm sure everyone has seen this, but I just wanted to comment on the beautiful work done on these costumes. I might have to start working on a Krampus-like demon for next year's haunt.

I couldn't resist.

A bit on the Clark County office in Vegas.

Click the photo to see the tree at Garden Therapy .

From the New York Times N.Y. / REGION A New Perspective on Crime Scenes null Published: November 18, 2011 Using a camera called the Panoscan, the New York City Police Department creates 360-degree panoramic images of crime scenes. Click: 360 Degree Crime Scene Photography

Happy Thanksgiving! <<"insert: turkey.jpg">> << >> ;) Have a great holiday and be safe!

This is my favorite Monty Python sketch. I've used that headline before. The post from a few days ago with the same headline turned into something very meaningful to me. This blog started with gardening, then I added haunt and some work anecdotes. The readership has grown, modestly, and probably mostly due to Pumpkinrot's links and my activity on haunt forum. But the reason I changed the name of the blog was to encompass me and my life more. Please don't be turned off if I one day soon put up a post about something most people deal with every day but gets little attention. I'm writing about body image. I know guys, cringe all you want, but it is something I think most of us  have issues with, be it overly zealous about a perfect figure to self hatred. I'd like to point out some realizations I've made recently about my own self image and I would like to share some of my findings on this blog.  I am not changing the theme of the blog because ...

Our rouge vif d'etampes cured and are going to be slow roasted in the oven to prep them for some Thanksgiving pies. I hope they taste O.K. We had a small yield with one that got run over and scarred by the dog and one that never grew very large. When cut, they smell almost melon like. I tasted a bit and it was very mild and sweet. This project is obviously a multi-day one, so I'll post more later.

Kyle helped me set up the guest room into a bit of a workspace for me. Tonight we will embark on making a DIY dress form out of water activated packaging tape and Moi! The machine on the left is the new one from Costco. I know its a beginner model, but for the price, I couldn't resist. The dress form will go on the old haunt monster support that is in the left corner. Its a tight space, but with my work hours we use the room at least once a week so I can get a good nights sleep before my 14 hour shift.  No, we aren't responsible for the paint job of the room. Believe it or not, that's the way it came when we moved in. Its a rental so I don't mind.

There is an execution scheduled in my state that will have happened before I get up in the morning. The crimes took place years before I set foot in Idaho. I will have no participation in the event. Here are some news stories about it. http://www.ktvb.com/news/crime/Execution-of-Paul-Rhoades-set-for-Friday-morning-134078818.html http://www.ktvb.com/news/Brother-of-victim-dealing-with-pain-again-on-eve-of-execution-134095798.html http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/11/18/1883435/rhoades-last-hours.html This movie made me not like the death sentence, you'd have to watch the entire thing to get it. I'm just commenting on the idea of a death sentence, it just happens to be one of two carried out during my lifetime. Here is the other one I am aware of:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne_Gacy .

Photo by Pumpkinrot Don’t you ever laugh as the hearse goes by, For you may be the next to die. They wrap you up in a big white sheet From your head down to your feet. They put you in a big black box And cover you with dirt and rocks. All goes well for about a week, Until your coffin begins to leak. The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, The worms play pinochle on your snout. They eat your eyes, they eat your nose, The eat the jelly between your toes. A big green worm with rolling eyes Crawls in your stomach and out your eyes. Your stomach turns a slimy green, And pus pours out like whipping cream. You spread it on a piece of bread And that’s what you eat when you are dead. Poem shared by a coworker

Even though I didn't go as far as Kim K and her recent mockery of the "institution" of marriage, some might find that I went a bit Griswald with the light show thing. Ms. K recently claimed that she got caught up in the magic of her wedding, enough so, that she lost sight of what was happening. I sorta did the same thing and realized that I was going for more of an ambient effect with the 2011 haunt, that I never made a good ambient sequence in the first place. We ended up on the big night playing the only 4 song sequences that I did "complete" so it would be more fun for the TOTs. Next year, I don't plan on making many changes with the props, but I do want to flesh out some good ambient spooky "soundtrack" and some effective slowly changing lighting effects to reflect the mood of the soundscape. I'm thinking green for creepy sinister, blues for ghostly sounds, reds for the basso nefarious sounds, etc...  So if you don't find any rock show...

I tried YouTube's video editor and used the "I'm feeling lucky" tool. It brightened it up a bit more even though the thumbnail looks worse than the original. For a free quick fix, it was well worth the time and price. Now, if they could only edit out the cars in the background.

Family Portrait I just packed up the haunt and we got everything up in the rafters and all the storage places we could find. I took down the Halloween wreath and put up the Thanksgiving one. I even changed the porch light from black light to warm white. We saved two of the corn stalk bundles and put them up on either side of the porch. All signs of yard haunt 2011 are gone.  We didn't get as many TOTs this year as last, but we aren't in a very enthusiastic neighborhood either. We did have a lot of people stop by during the weekend and got lots of great compliments. I got to take some photos and really tried hard at video, but I don't have the right equipment for that. Maybe next year. I met almost all of my deadlines, but there are always a few that time won't allow for. I now have 364 days to get more lighting sequences done, an next year will have a proper Halloween tree. I almost did too much this year and got pretty stressed with the pressure to finish. B...

Here's a rough video from last night. I'll try to get better video tonight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ao1C36DnBw HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Here is a still from last night. It isn't the best shot but I'd spent about 20 hours just doing the set up. There are almost 600 feet of wire hidden under those leaves. We had a lot of cars stop by last night and the light show ran perfectly. I'll try to get some video of the light show up tonight or tomorrow. I got so many thank yous yesterday, it really made all the back straining work worth it. Oh and for all those who have used a fog machine and chiller- last night was the best night for fog that ever was. It was a beautiful thing. Happy Haunting! click the photo for a large version

Click the pic below for a full sized photo. After 8 hours of painting and pounding a million rebars into the lawn (you're welcome Kyle for me free lawn aeration) I have everything in place. Tomorrow I will finish the fence, dress the skeleghosts, and add the finishing touches that no one will notice but me, and other home haunters. Time for a tasty beverage. 

Here is a link to Craigslight for a free haunt in Kuna. I might just have to check this one out.

This is the large Catalpa tree in front of the house. Since I made new LED spotlights we set up the old par 38 cans to illuminate this wonderful tree. I hope to hang some Jack O Lanterns from the limbs on the big night. Here is a quick shot of some gravestones with the new lights. The lights were on a random changing routine with warm white, green, blue and reds. I can't wait to see how it all looks with the fogger going and the corn stalks up. We are about at 1/2 of the way set up.These are all props from last year, this year's will be added this coming weekend.  Here they are with the blue and greens on. I love my little camera. Here are the three lovely witches doing their thing. Here they are in dazzling technicolor. I don't know how well the video will work with the song routines, I'll try to take some at dusk. These were taken with a slow shutter speed, and a tripod, of course. 

Before I got home from a long, fairly stressful 14 hour work day Kyle overheard a group of boys walking through the neighborhood when one exclaimed "That's the house with the witches!". His rendition of that story made my entire day.  Thank goodness I have a new cauldron this year.

Ohio sheriff says it appears owner of exotic animal farm let animals loose, killed self Holy sh*%, I'm glad I don't work in Ohio.

This is just a local news link for haunted houses and displays. If you visit it at the link, it will keep it at the top of the page. Yes I am asking you to click the link to keep my "ad" near the top. That is all for my cheaply asking you to promote my little haunt. This isn't for a contest, money, or any gain, I just want people to be able to see my ad so more TOTs get to see it this year. We don't live in a very active TOT area in town, but the small coverage I got last year was impressive. I'd love to get more. Click the photo to go to the link. Yes I am aware there is a typo and I've already written them about it.

I grew up with this guy and Chicago's version of the late night B movie horror show after my mom would call us in from a good game of ghost in the graveyard.  His show once had my wonderful crayon drawing of him featured for 0.5 a second. I can't find the proof.

I had fun watching a little girl ride her bike around the block over and over again to sneak peeks at the porch and Sadie who shamelessly cried for her attention.

Click on the image for a great tutorial on an easy web casting hot glue gun. I'm going to get a new glue gun tomorrow and plan to use the technique from this entertaining video to make my own web casting gun. Some great photos to show this effect can be found here at the Frog Queen's Blog . I love the look of the Davis Graveyard and hope to add some webs to our little graveyard.  Follow Up 10/14/2011: I made a web caster gun with my hairdryer and a 40 watt glue gun I got with a coupon from Michael's. I simply electric taped the two together using the same idea from the video above and it works really well. I'll just plug the two into an extension cord and shoot the graveyard when I get it set up. The nice thing is that when I'm done, I simply remove the tape and both parts have no damage or sticky residue. This was the easiest project I've ever done. You'll have to wait for photos when I get everything set up. 

I've been invited to the Willow Manor Ball. I had no idea what Tess's post was about at 0600 hrs this morning, but I have figured it out and I love the concept. This is the most wonderful ball in the universe as we know it. Luckily for me it happens to work with my schedule and I love to arrive fashionably late.  Since this is a fantasy, I will let the love of my life pick his own fantasy date (with my approval). Who will escort me to the ball? I thought it had to be a charming male character from one of my favorite movies. So even though this guy is a fave of mine, I knew he was right out. Sorry Ricky. This was my idea of the ideal bad boy when I was a girl in the 80's, he was so charming and had such an amazing, um... pirate shirt? But the glorious hair, how could you pass that up. Gosh, now that I think of it I'll bet that was the end of an era where chest hair was sexy on film, although I don't really remember if he had any.   Looks like yes, or at least they p...

Here is the whole gang set up on the guestroom bed for a quick indoor test.

After you read, click the skeleton photo below for a link to the new video. The guest bedroom is the testing site for the new LED light show. These are just the 5 skele's with light up eyes doing Thriller by MJ. There will also be 5 singing pumpkins, and 70 different LED spotlights that will also be synchronized with the music.  The hours of bad soldering have been climbing daily. I am getting better. All this stuff will get put into a nice re-purposed project enclosure made out of an old toolbox.  

This is from the Bogus Basin website . It snowed last night. My house is at about 2,732' and the summit at Bogus is at 7,582'. The clouds were so low I didn't see the snow in the foothills when I was out and about today. I spent about 3 hours in the garage soldering LED spotlights this evening before my hands got too cold to handle the iron. It has been raining a lot in town, so I hope it passes before the Big Night. 

Source This will be the last song of 10/31/11 at my haunt . I saw Type O Negative once back in the day. I loved their sense of humor, so twisted. Mr. Steele had an amazing presence, and I still can't get over his voice. This song embodies so much of the teen sense of drama I once had and it still takes me back. even though I work for the dead, some of them really touch my "soul" to me Mr. Steele's story is very tragic. I like to think he'd like what I've done with their song.