10/18/2006 - Breath of life

Well, things a little bit better than before.  I moved into a house in St. Charles, Illinios and the landlord was kind enough to let me bring some groundbreakers and put them in his yard.  So Halloween won't be the same but at least it isn't a lost cause.  I have few picutres below.  So I am still fighting to stay alive.  I know I said in the last blog that it was my last but hopfully I can continue.

I had a gentleman from the local paper contact me about my haunt.  Of course this year is shot to hell, but maybe next year.  The wife had told me that she is hopfully that I will be coming home by next Halloween.  It all depends on us and if we can work things out.  I hope so.  So I guess I will cross my fingers for next Halloween then.

9/13/2006 - Last blog entry

9/12/2006 - TV Show confirmed

9/8/2006 - DT on TV

I have bit of some news today.  I don’t know how legit this is, but I got an email from a lady representing HGTV that wanted to come to my home and film my haunt this year.  Like I said, I am not sure if this isn’t just spam but I thought I would reply.  You just never know now a days if people are pulling pranks.  She goes on saying that HGTV is producing a new show this year called "What's With That Really Haunted Halloween House?" with host George Grey.  It is a spin off “What’s With That House?”  So, I thought I would contact her and see what is up.  I will keep you informed if anything plausible happens.  It might be kind of cool if it is.

George Grey

9/6/2006 - Witch is getting there

Since I had time this weekend to work on the witch, I drape the cloth on her, just to see what it might look like.  Also messed with the motors to see if there would be any problems.  Of course the hood doesn't want to stay on.  I might have to do something different like attach it to the head in some way or form.  The face is still under work.  My wife still has to fix the face and then she will apply latex.  I need to do something different to her cloths, but what?  Maybe muck it up a bit.  So, here is a picture of the witch as of last weekend.  I can't wait to put this out.  I have already had people driving by with big smiles on their faces.  So, I think the witch is starting to shape up a bit.  As you can see, I took this picture after a rain storm, so the witch looks like a wet puppy.  I had her hair dropped over her face.  Now it is just stuck to her face. LOL.

9/1/2006 - Moe, Larry, and Curly

I just about got my groundbreakers done.  I only made three this year.  Still have the 5 from last, so that makes 8.  The witch is almost done, just need a few finishing touches.  Maybe if you are good I will provide pictures.  LOL.  Here is a picture of my groundbreakers.  The guy on the right still needs some work, but almost there.

8/28/2006 - Panic sticken days

This weekend wasn't as prosperous as I had hoped.  It rained all weekend and we had family issues that needed fixing, so that kind of killed the weekend work.  I did find some cloths for the witch and I worked on some more radio voiceovers for my Halloween radio, and I have another ground breaker that I am working on.  Here is the latest picture of him. I call him Herb.  My wife is going to kill me for getting glue on the table, but I bought another one so it should be good. LOL.

8/22/2006 - Trouble with light controller

Well, I had a little trouble with the light controller.  I found out just a little too late that when you are writing macro and don't include delays then the controller will continue to run the program but won't allow you to update the program.  Which really sucks.  So I had to break out another controller that I had, and download the program to it.  This time I put delays in it.  It worked ok.  Needs a little work on some of the fade ins but I think I will get it work.  The other control will have to be sent back to be reprogrammed there.  Here is a short video on my progress on the lights for the witch.

8/21/2006 - Another busy weekend

It was another busy weekend.  While I was waiting for my power cord for my transmitter, I was messing around with some audio tracks that I was going to use to broadcast as a station id.  I am getting help from a professional who does this for Christmas broadcasts, so yes it will cost me a little bit of cast.  But not much.  This is his first attempt at Halloween, but he is doing a fine job.  I got the first one this past week and was adding different effects on it, just to see what it would sound like.  Here is a same of a station ID that I was messing with.  The music is from Virgil’s CD.

www.deathtouchhorrors.com/Welcome2.mp3

As you can see by the picture below, it was a really busy week.  I started working on my Pumpkinrot scarecrow, I got the witch’s hands done; along with part of the body, the motor was modified a little due to mechanical problems, testing my light controller with the cauldron’s lights, making sure the ladle doesn’t hit the witch in the head, and I got done with a corpse seen in the picture below

8/14/2006 - And then there was more work.

So today I got an email that the Transmitter has been shipped.  I am trying to add a few plug-INS to Winamp so it will act like a DJ.  Then I can throw a whole bunch of songs in Winamp and let it be my Halloween Disc Jockey.  It should be cool if I can get it to work.  If not, back to my wireless speaker, which I normally sit out in the yard.

I also started construction of my Pumpkinrot scarecrow.  I bought some wood and I built the stem on the head yesterday.  Still needs painting.  But I am hoping to get this project done soon.

Starting on Friday I started construction of my witch for the cauldron.   Also bought some amber lights from Romans; they now have their Halloween and Christmas stuff up.  So far, I have the main frame up and the motor is part-way working.  It still needs a little more.  My wife even pitched in and helped with the Witch’s face.  She found my stash of clay and went to work on her.  She really looks cool the way she has the face.  Sorry, no pictures.   I was so busy this weekend I didn’t have time to take any.