Haunting Your Yard!

Finally!

We needed a bit of recovery time after Halloween before getting back to it.  Our house is back to “normal”, Halloween is put away for another year.

But….how did Halloween night go?

This year we had 175 trick or treaters.  Add in the parents and we are guessing just over 300.  We weren’t sure how the Friday night was going to effect us.  It was either going to be bigger than usual because there was no school the next day, or smaller because of a Friday night high school football game and parents going to parties.

It seems as if the football game effected us (not as many older teens) and in general, not as many kids.  But it was a wonderful night.  Perfect weather, and everyone really seemed to enjoy the walk through.

As usual, we get so busy with the kids and parents that we don’t take as many pictures as we’d like.  But we did get a few with the fog.  The weather was ideal earlier in the evening to get a very nice fog rolling on the ground after running it through the fog chiller.

Hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween.  We’ve already got some ideas going for next year!

I don’t know if last night was truly a full moon – but it was close enough.  And it was clear enough for Dylan to get some pictures.  He had to be out there at just the right time for the moon to be in a position to be photographed with the graveyard.

In this first picture of the graveyard and the mausoleum you can see the moon peaking out of the tree.

This next picture was kind of odd – which is why I’m posting it.  He used the flash and it almost looks like it was taken during the day and that the moon is the sun.

The lighting was just so….strange.  You can see the flood lights so you know it’s night, but it doesn’t look like night.

Next was this close up of the witch on the roof.

This one came out pretty well considering he had to zoom in.

The last pictures I wanted to post were of the flying crank ghost.  We hadn’t had a chance to take any pictures after setting her up because the weather had gotten so bad.  This is the first year we’ve actually put her outside.

First off, all credit on these pictures goes to our son Dylan.

So far the witch is surviving any wind.  Yesterday we had some nice breezes.  Here she is during the day.  She is quite the sight on the peak of the roof.  The night picture didn’t turn out too bad, all things considered.  We did adjust the lighting and it is now reaching her face.

Now the ultimate picture would be a full moon behind her.  We’ll have to keep watch for when that might happen.

Her presence on the roof is bothering the dog next door!  Hopefully Ginger will get used to her.

Next we have the ghost in the mausoleum during the day and the night, after they used the Webcaster Gun to add the webbing.  Now this is a device we have tried to make ourselves, but were never able to get it to really work.  This year, I decided to just buy one and I bought the least expensive one – so I wasn’t too sure how the results would be.   Well, as you can see, the results turned out great.  It took a little experimenting – and if they had read the “tips” sheet that came with it they would have figured some things out sooner.  But they were so excited to try it out…. they had a lot of fun with it.

Basically it’s a modified glue gun hooked up to an air compressor.  It shoots the warmed glue sticks and creates the web effect.  Very cool and worth the price.  You can get them at BuyCostumes.com

Finally, we have some general pictures of the graveyard at night with the lighting.  We still haven’t gotten the flying crank ghost set up on the front porch.  But everything else is pretty much done.

So we started the outside setup this past weekend.  Most, but not quite all is done.  From here on out, much of the work will be focused on getting the walk through ready.

So I am posting pictures of the graveyard, mausoleum, etc. during the day.  Once we get the fcg up I’ll post some more.  We have some lighting touches to do regarding the witch – so night photos will be posted later.  These photos were taken during the setup process.  So not all elements are in the photos.

One thing that Shane and Dylan really had fun playing with was the web shooter that we bought.  They webbed up the mausoleum and it looks really cool at night.  I’ll post pictures tomorrow.

Halloween 2007 almost didn’t happen. We were so busy dealing with our little side business that it seemed like the last thing we needed to be doing. What ended up happening was that it turned into a nice distraction from everything else going on.

We had big hopes that another new, large “something” would be added. That didn’t happen. What did happen was new tombstones were made and other things, such as the pillars, were redone. Dylan made his first crypt – the above ground sort of burial plot. It was really the first time he’s done a project completely on his own. He’s old enough now to be trusted with the various tools it takes to cut and carve the foam.

He did a pretty good job and his final product turned out nicely.

The garage scene almost didn’t happen.  But we decided to go ahead and do something – but just use props we already had.  So we went with the mad scientist theme again, but went a bit more gory than we have before.  We had bodies in body bags hanging from the ceiling (interesting story regarding where we got the bodies, but I’ll save that for another post), beakers and body parts, etc.

Once again we had a party.  This year I went all out in the voodoo bathroom down in the basement.  Surprisingly, no one wanted to actually use the bathroom.   They all seemed a bit freaked out.  This was really one of the best areas and I have to figure out this year how to incorporate it into the outdoor thing – maybe the garage will become a voodoo room.  I think the thought of the unknown is really creepier than blood and gore.

This is an example where attention to detail makes all the difference.  I will write more detail about this in another post to give ideas on how to go about doing your own voodoo bathroom.

Halloween night last year was one of the few times where the weather was perfect and everything came together.  For our fog chillers to work (a contraption we make to cool down the fog after it is released from the machine) we need to get the fog colder than the outside air.  When this happens, the fog does not just disperse, but it rolls along the ground.  If there is no wind, it is one of the coolest effects you can have in your graveyard.

Last year all those pieces came together – no wind, perfect temp – I wish we could have captured it better on camera.  This year our goal is to do a better job of that.  I have a friend who is a professional photographer and I hope she can give us some good advice and tips this year on how to accomplish that.

So that brings us up to date!  From here on out we’ll write about how we are preparing for 2008, and also some information on how we built and put together some of our props and scenes.

I’m going to attempt to give a basic “how to” of the process of building our pillars for our graveyard fence. There are a lot of great ideas out there on the web – different ways to build pillars. Some which are made of foam and very lightweight. We would eventually like to redo ours.

First off, one of the biggest issues we have here in Colorado is the wind. We can get hurricane force gusts coming off of the mountains. This makes prop building more difficult as we always have to think in terms of worst case winds and build things and set up things in the graveyard with that always in mind. We don’t want our props to end up in Kansas!

The year we built them we were also on a tight budget. Well, we are always on a tight budget. If we didn’t watch ourselves we could easily spend hundreds of dollars each year on Halloween. That year a lot of new houses were going up close by – and dumpster diving was how we got much of our materials. If you shouldhappen to use that method of acquiring materials be careful to ONLY get materials that are IN a dumpster. Otherwise it is not free game – even if it’s sitting next to the dumpster.

So we worked with what we had – which was a lot of framing material. Some of which was perfect for building our pillars.

We built 2 tall, main entrance pillars and 4 shorter pillars. What helps the pillars stay upright being that they are so tall, is a couple of things. First, since they are attached to other pillars via the fencing, they are not stand alone. We also stake them with metal stakes to give them a little extra stability.

As far as fencing goes – we did not make it. There are some techniques out there that use pvc pipe to make some pretty realistic fencing. We decided to go with real rod iron. We were able to get pieces similar enough from a local recycling place. So storage and hauling them around can be quite difficult, but they are sturdy. One of the problems we have had is that up until this year, the elementary bus stop was in front of our house. The kids loved looking at our setup while waiting for the bus, but they had a tendency to “hang” on the fencing. Which is why we chose something more stable, and the pieces of fencing are screwed into the sides of the pillars.

To finish the pillars we did some basic painting. One great way to get large amounts of paint is to see what colors they have at the local home improvement store in the “oops paint” section. You’ll save a lot of money. We did not learn that until after using spray paint on these which is very expensive. We did gray first, then did touches of black and a greenish paint to give them a different look.

Since then, this past year, I redid the pillars. I did a different paint job in which I put black paint in a line, spray it with water, then do a drag with a paint brush. It gives things an older look (I use the same technique on our tombstones and on the mausoleum). This is an example of how they looked this year. They are not quite as dark overall but look so much better at night. I also added moss.

Now back to the original year we first built them. I have mentioned that we build most of what you see. There are some exceptions. We do buy inexpensive Halloween decor at local stores and usually modify them. So these skulls in a cage we got at Big Lots one year. I have since added moss to these as well. These hang from the two tall entrance pillars. It is the small details that make the prop in my opinion. The crosses you see on the front of the pillars were also purchased at Big Lots and have also had moss added to them to give an old feeling.

No matter how well you construct your props they will need touching up and repair just about every year. Moss is a great way to hide flaws and things that happen in general while being moved around and stored. Keep bags of it on hand – it comes in very handy.

So that’s pretty much how we built our graveyard fence. I will say, the rod iron does add an extremely realistic touch. If you have a way to get a hold of some and a way to store it, I would really consider it. Each year we seem to do a little something more to add to them, which is always part of the prop process!

I thought it would be fun to go back and show the progress our Halloween yard and set up in general has made throughout the years.

We started decorating for Halloween before 2004, but this is the first year we really started taking pictures – and admittedly, none are really great. Before that it was just a couple of handmade tombstones, made out of wood, that we stuck in the yard. 2004 was the year the graveyard fence was made.

This is the first year things got big – and it made a big deal in the neighborhood with the kids and adults. It was then we realized we might have gotten ourselves into a bit of trouble – we would have to get bigger and better every year…..

This was also the first year we started hand making our tombstones out of sheets of foam. Shane and a couple of friends were turning 40, so we made some tombstones specifically for those people.

One thing we did have fun with that year, but haven’t done it since because it was so difficult to keep up due to the horrible winds here in Colorado, is have a gravedigger in the yard. Shane had gotten a new toy that year – a welder – so he had welded a frame together that we then “dressed”.

He was a challenge though because we were constantly having to set him back up. Later we had even put a pile of dirt with him and a shovel and he held a lantern. The grass beneath where that pile of dirt sat for a month (we set up at the beginning of October) didn’t like that too much and we are even now dealing with dead spots in the lawn due to Halloween props sitting for a month.

One thing that adds a lot to the over atmosphere on Halloween night besides the lighting, music/sounds and fog, it some torches. We learned the hard way one year that the bamboo torches are not a good idea – one caught on fire and then caught one of our juniper bushes on fire. We were able to get it out quickly, thankfully, but after that we started using metal torches! It is something that is always brought up every year and joked about.

People might consider us a little twisted, but with our son’s birthday 2 days before Halloween, and Shane’s birthday on Halloween, well, it has become a big deal. We love Halloween.

The first year all we did was carve pumpkins. From there, it’s gone a little crazy. Our hope with this website is to chronicle our Halloween activities.

When we can we will give some tutorials on how we made some of our props and the technique we happened to use. If we can help give people some great ideas and help spark a little Halloween excitement that’s all the better.

Halloween gives us a chance to go completely overboard and be creative. Leave us a comment – we’d love to hear from you!