Got mostly everything set up on Sat and Sunday. The arch above is the entry to the side of my house where most of the props will be. Had the arch in the front yard last year and had the FCG in it

Realy like that one - used the scan mode on the camera. I'm going to try more in that mode tonight

Veronica looking good

This is the back side of the arch

My buckies and bluckies need some corpsing work this winter

I'll post some pitures of the front yard later today or early tomorrow

Good luck to all tomorrow

Got the valves hooked up and tested this weekend. Bought 4 - 4 way valves from IOGeek.com- the price was competitive with what I've seen. Fast delivery and good customer service. I called them because I was a little confused on how to set them up. They walked me through it and by the end of that day they had pictures up on their user forum. I might look into their controllers for next year.

I have two more valves from the pop ups I bought from lawn scare last year --need to figure out what to do with them.

Making progress - here are some new pictures

need to finish the hands

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working with the pneumatic hook ups - don't think my compressor tank is going to be big enough.....

well I've been busy last weekend and today. Finished with the new wall unit, still needs some trim, but here is what it looks like

it's 16 feet long and will house three pnematic props. There will be one in each side nitch and one in the middle. The two in the side nitches were going to be static props but when one fell forward during a test fit I thought it was a sign to automate. The two on the sides will be female statues that will lunge forward a bit. here are some pictures of the work in process

here they are with thier clothes on

I soaked the dresses in plater o paris and will paint one a high gloss white and the other black. I will propably move the cylander down a little to get more of a lunge.

lots of work to do and the clock is ticking.

Went to Wallyworld today. I couldn't help myself - I bought the Edwardian buttler for just under $100 - have it in the trunk -will sneak it in when the wife goes to sleep

 This year we are expanding down the drive way. Here is the start of a wall that will run along the side of the house

its resting here against the front of my car port. - so now I know how that will look next year

Started to do some work on two statues. I am using plastic molded body forms like I used last year for the body on a crypt. I have added foam wig heads, les and arms. I am making joints from a method I saw on Death Lords site. Here are some pitures

Now it's off to the local thrift store to find her something to wear.

Wow - it's been 9 months since my last entry. Been real busy at work. Too busy. The building bug has bit me, so I need to start doing something. Hope the weather is a little cool this weekend - I need to start. I have some plans for the drive way that I'm working on. Will share shorly

busy busy busy, just like the rest of you. Finished my wife’s tomb. Go the FGC hung and put Mr. Bones in his mausoleum. Need to place the pop up and tweak the lighting and then just try to make it home before sunset. Here are some pictures; (had to use flash)

Well the Arch blew over in a heavy wind Saturday afternoon. Took some damage but not as much as I feared. It did take out two old tombstones – utterly smashed em.

Put some stakes in the ground and now have the arch tied down like a tent.

Did some work on the lighting. My street does not have any street lights so it is nice and dark. Sometimes too dark. I have four 100 watt green flood lights. Now you can actual see the stuff I’ve been working so hard on.

I also hung Mr. Bones in the mausoleum – he looks great. I will bring him in each night so as not to tempt fate.

Before you as Deathtouch, there are no pictures yet. Before I could get any it started to rain. I had to scramble to turn off the flood light  before any of them popped from the cool rain hitting the hot bulb. It is still raining – but I promise to get some soon weather promitting.

Spent Saturday and Sunday evenings working on air cylinders for some pop ups. I’ll need to do some work during the week if I am going to have this stuff done on time

Built an arch this weekend. Started Sat at 7:00 - went to home depot. Finshed Sum at 4:00.

This is where I will have my FGC. Here's what it look like finished in place - just neet to add the FGC, will do that on the 29th.

Here are some work in process pictures

standard framing

Two oldest daugters help dear old dad

Just a little paint and it was done. It's Miller time.

Well it’s the first weekend in October so that means its time to start setting up. I don’t know why but it seems like as soon as I try to do some Halloween work the temperature soars – it was in the mid 90’s yesterday and today. It sure makes it hard. It will be this way until 3 days before the 31^st then it will drop to the 60’s – happens every year.

Anyway, here’s my house:

and here's my house on crack.... I mean Halloween,

I'm going to have to redo the tombstones next year

I'm going to have a mister bones in the mausoleum. Sinc it's not a FCG, I plan to let tots pose in front of it for pitures.

Still alot to do, pray for moderate temperatures

Finished the columns yesterday, here are some pictures;

next in line is the crypt, here is a work in process picture.

I got the idea for this from Halloweenie web site. The forms above will be coverd with a dress and wig all soaked in plaster of paris and then painted grey. Hopefully it will look like a carved statue on the lid of the crypt.

It’s been about a week since I’ve had a chance to do anything Halloween related. I’m starting to go through withdrawals. Last weekend was my parent’s 50^th wedding anniversary so we drove up to the SF bay area and had a nice party for them. Then I had to travel on business – just got back last night so I’m hoping for a good weekend with cool weather so I can get a lot done.

The mausoleum got rain tested on Tuesday night. We had a rain/thunder/lightening storm here in So Cal. No damage – it held up real good.

I had my Halloween nightmare again last night. It’s very similar to the classic one most students have some time during their school years – you know the one where you show up for class to find there’s a test you didn’t know about or you find out late in the semester that you forgot you singed up for a class and you now have to complete the entire semesters worth of work in one week.

The nightmare was a little different this time, for some dream reason instead of not having anything set up in front of my current home – I was setting up my stuff at the home I grew up in, one I haven’t lived in for 30 years and one I haven’t seen even seen in 15 years. But it was basically the same, it’s twilight on the 31^st and I realize I have not set up anything yet. (I usually start setting things up the first weekend in Oct). So in the dream I’m running from thing to thing, first the tombstones then the pop ups then the fence then other props and of course nothing gets setup correctly, everything is falling over and here come the first TOTers and now its dark. Thankfully here is where I wake up to find it’s 3:30 in the morning but still September.

I’ll post some pictures of what I get done this weekend Sunday night.

Well it was a nice and cool weekend in LA. Only in the high 70s, so cold my wife bought some wood for the fire place. With the cool temps I was able to get quite a bit of work done. Still a long way to go. Worked mostly on the columns and bases. Here are a few pictures;

I still need to finish the tops of the columns. I have an idea and it involves these:

Just got back from the movies - saw the Brothers Grimm, not too bad, a little slow in some parts, but plenty of things I'd like to have in my front yard come the 31st.

Thanks to Deathtouch for the blog lessons. I'll go back to the last entry and change the links to posted pictures now that I know how.

The bases for the pillars turned out a little wider than I like but I'll work with it. Next week end will be painting and detailing - I have an idea for the columns I want to try out.

Once again - thanks Deathtouch

links to some new pictures

Here's my little leaguer Sharky

Columns and framed bases. The box frame in the background will be a crypt -see below

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a396/unka/DSC02278.jpg

need to reduce neck length a little then a trip to the thrift store for a dress. There were some great crypts in the Bothers Grimm - might try some more depending on time.

Question:

I have used up most of my 1mb of disk space. I would like to include more pictures of my projects, how can I do this? If I delete some of the files in the file upload area they disappear from my blogs. I notice some of you fellow blogger have many more pictures than I do. How do you do it?

Please explain as if you are talking to a slow 8^th grader, no wait a slow 8^th grader probably know how to do this…. Explain as if your talking to a slow 46 year old who can do macros and pivot tables in excel, but is new to blogs.

PS I am working on the columns for my porch façade and would like to post some pictures

Didn’t do a thing for Halloween this weekend. My son got asked to play in a baseball tournament (the team was short some players) so we did that instead. He got one hit, three walks and struck out 3 times. It was hot – over 100 the whole time (I wouldn’t have worked on anything in that heat regardless).

Since I have no Halloween related updates let me rant a little about baseball.

My son (we call him Sharky) is eight years old. Now there is only so much you can teach and expect 8 year olds to do. I live in the LA area so one might assume that I’m a Dodger fan – you would be wrong. I will route for the Dodgers when Tommy Lasorta is rotting in hell. One of the things I always disliked about Lasorta was his tactics – get a man on first, bunt him to second, bunt him to third. (now usually you have two outs at this point) so you have the next guy up fly or ground out tiring to nock the man on third home. Seemed pointless to me. This was the same tactics the coach of the team Sharky was playing for kept trying. They lost all three games.  With kids this young the only real strategies is to tell them all to swing away.

Next week back to Halloween

Added he skulls - I'll do some touch up painting later today.