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?