2012 yard haunt video

Well, did not have all that much time this year, but I wanted to put something together to show our haunt this Halloween. Hope you enjoy it!

Happy Halloween from the Deadwood Cemetery

Wishing everybody a safe and fun Halloween!

Happy Halloween eve to all!

Thoughts and prayers go out to all our friends in the east, hope you made it through the storm and will be able to celebrate Halloween in some capacity.

Fog in the cemetery

Woke up this morning to a wonderful creepy fog outside. what an ambient treat.
Have about half the yard set up and hoping to get the rest done today or tomorrow. It's crunch time now.  Suppose to be near 80 degrees tomorrow, but only low 40's by the weekend. Always a roller coaster.....

Final Harvest!

Well, all the pumpkins are picked from the patch this year and all in all, I think we did pretty well.
Even the attack of the vine borers did not completely wipe us out..although I had to do some operating on the vines. Just seeing them lined up for carving gives me hope for next year.

Inside decorating complete and venting

Well, here we are with less than twenty days to go. I think we finally have the inside of the house ready to go, but the outside will not get started until next week. I am a bit behind and out of "sorts" this year.
I think the main reason for that is this will be the first time in in about 17 years that we will not be throwing our big Halloween bash. In the past I had spent the weeks..(sometimes months) leading up to Halloween in a frenzy trying to get all the props and effects working. With the theme changing every year- there were always new props and sets to worry about. But with the guest list growing to about 100, we were ready to take some time off and just enjoy the season. But something seems to be missing.... panic? anxiety?  I think thats it! It has been a while since I did not feel those emotions during the months of September and October, and in a weird way...I guess I miss it.   Put that together with the cold snap we are having and you there you go.."out of sorts" I love a brisk fall day..but 30's and 40's?
Come on, bring me that 50-60 degree autumn day without gale force winds.
The Deadwood Cemetery graveyard will be going up and I have added and changed a few things so we are exceited to get going on that and hopefully that will get me back to the Halloween bliss state of mind that seems to be just out of my grasp at the moment....not much, just a bit.

Artistic Anger giveaway

Just wanted to post that Ron at Artistic Anger blog is having a giveaway to celebrate his 125th post and would like to add to his social circle, so stop over and check out some of his work and thoughts.

http://artisticanger.blogspot.com/p/125-posts-giveaway.html

One of the rules of the giveaway is to post a picture from a Halloween past, so here is one from the Deadwood Cemetery!

New tombstones and other things..

Turned out a couple of new tombstones for the graveyard this year. Wanted to go old with a lot of weathering, kind of the crumbled look. Also made a new chained entrance gate for the center- bits and pieces of other props. Consolidation works best for storage. The Misses also got creative and while I was getting crows at the dollar tree, she picked up a couple of wine glasses and decided to make some flashy Halloween goblets.

Stocking up for Autumn

Started collecting here and there. Building a little stock pile of brews for October. Some I have had and some not yet, but my champion is still Buffalo Bills pumpkin ale. We will see if any of the others can unseat him this year! Angry orchard Cider did not make the group photo, but none the less is quite a good crisp cider and I would recommend it. The Hunt continues...........

Also had to harvest some of the pumpkins the vine borer let go. Can't complain about the outcome and still have 4 more on the vine to pick next month.

Cemetery prop build 2012

Thought I would post a couple of photos of the new props that I am working on for this years yard haunt. The first is a lamp post which I first saw on Pumpkinrot's site who featured some photos from
Screamin Scott- http://hauntspace.com/user/ScreaminScott/gallery. Something about the simplicity of it struck me and of course I had to have one. So, after taking a old coach lantern, getting some pvc pipe and black spray paint, I was in business. The sign I cut from a piece of pine and painted and air brushed
for a more old school feel.

This next prop I'm not even really sure what it is, but I like it. The pieces are from the old Deadwood sign from last year. After the wind blew the pillars and sign over and nearly hit a TOT...I decided to can that prop and salvage some of the pieces and this is what happened. I think it will look nice among the tombstones. 

Well, thats it for now. Still plenty of time left....just need to find more storage space.

                                                                              

                                                                           

Nature wins again

This years pumpkin patch attempt started out pretty good and I was very optimistic about my chances. Then in early July the leaves started to yellow and some of them wilt. At first I thought it was a water and heat issue- it has been in the 100"s with no real rain since June. Then I started to notice the "frazz"
near the base on the stem of my vines and used the wonderous internet to investigate. I found out that my plants have been infested by the Vine Borer moth. Apparently the eggs hatch and the larvea make their way into the stems where they munch on my plants, cutting of the water and nutrients. From what the experts say, there's not a lot you can do at this point, it needs to be treated before the larvea make it into the stem. I did get a few pumpkins this year, 4 actually and they are still growing and will ripen. The ends of the plants are healthy, but for how long I'm not sure. I guess I should be happy with what I got, after all it is just for fun and the real farmers are the one's hurting out there this year.
Time to move on to some serious prop building now...

                                               
                              the dreaded squash vine borer

My stems as they look today

The patch is thinning, but won't those rotten vines look great on a BlairCrow?

Patch update

It seems as if the transplant went well enough. The plants seem to be growing great. as you can see, "Little Jack" the scarecrow is all but consumed. Still having trouble deciding if they should have more water or less. About two weeks ago I had about 12 female flowers with promising little pumpkins on them, but only one survived so far. most of them seemed to yellow and shrivel up before flowering. Not sure what is causing that,, again, it could be the water issue. It sure is not pollination since I have hundreds of bees on the plants every morning. All in all, these are the largest and heartiest plants I have ever grown, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed and there is still a lot of growing time left. Any advice is always welcome...my thumb is far from green.

On another note, now that the 4th of July is in the books, it's time to start prop building for this year. Trying to keep things more organized and plan things out better this year. All ideas are going down on paper first!

This years pumpkin patch attempt

After last year and the heartache caused by endless work and pampering, only to be rewarded with some odd looking gourds, I told myself to give it up.  I had that thought in mind all winter and into the first months of spring. But alas the warmer weather got me going and I guess taking care of the little buggers gives me something productive to do, so I threw some seeds I dried from last years Jacks and tossed them in a pot. What I got were some of the best pumpkin plant shoots I've ever had. So, that got me thinking...I should probably build a small bed for these with some good dirt and let them go to town. But after transplanting them, and watching them wilt to the ground within five minutes, I thought my original plan to give it up was back into play. But after much water and a couple of hours, they sprang back to life!
I even had to make a small scarecrow to hold vigil over them. Hopefully he will bring good luck to them this season.

Halloween Shelves in production for 2012

Hello all!
As for most of us out there, the last couple of years have been pretty difficult. The economy and employment issues have plagued many of us in a variety of ways, so to keep myself active during down times i have tried to stay busy. Mrs. October asked for a "halloween style shelf" to display our growing collection of decorations. Of course as long as I was making sawdust, I thought I would make a few different styles, and the reaction was good..everybody wants one. This prompted thoughts of building more and possibly posting on Esty. 
Now, I am quite the novice when it comes to this thing, so of course my head is spinning with all kinds of issues- mostly shipping. The shelves are different sizes (actually I could custom make them to any size) but some of them are pretty large, so shipping options have become a headache. I talked with the Undertaker over at www.hauntedhotsauce.com/ and he was kind enough to share his thoughts on marketing and the woes of shipping. I know and follow many of you out there, Shellhawk at shellhawksnest.blogspot.com, Pam at http://labyrinthcreations.blogspot.com/ and of course Pumpkinrots Pumpkin Hollow pumpkinrot.com/pages/Page28.htm. There are so many talented people in the haunt community, obviously I cannot list them all, so my apologies for that, but I would welcome any suggestions, reviews or input of my work.
I am capable of building full size furniture like hutches and bookcases as well as custom kitchens. (Wouldn't it be cool to build a whole kitchen in this style!) That would be a dream, but location and of course shipping again tends to kill the dream. A nice thought though...
So here are my shelves. They are all solid wood, hand distressed, aged and painted. I used a orange under coat and a black top coat with a rub effect which I felt turned out rather well. I also played with the idea of finishing them in the traditional "barn grey" as well. Wow, I think that is the "wordiest" post I have ever made, so I will stop, hang up and listen for my answer. Thanks everyone, and I look forward to you comments and input.
The October Boy.

Another artist hard at work

Arcane over at http://thescarecrowspost.blogspot.com  has decided to put his talent to work for the rest of us opening his online prop shop. Check out his site: www.behindtherowsstudio.com to view his work. A great name for a studio, and awesome props!