2007 Haunt Theme

This year's yard haunt theme will be "The Return of the Pumpkin King".

Have you ever heard of the Pumpkin King?

He’s definitely not Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King from The Nightmare Before Christmas.  The legend of the Pumpkin King is much older that the cartoon and the truth is much darker.

The pumpkin king was once a man named Jonas Quash who owned these woods and beyond, but his prize possession was a huge field of pumpkins that grew right here.  Jonas was a quiet man, living in a small shack in the woods, but he held a dark secret.  When the townspeople began disappearing one by one, the finger eventually pointed to Jonas.  They stormed his shack but he had disappeared into the woods, never to be seen again.  However when they searched his pumpkin field, they found the headless bodies of those who had gone missing with fresh pumpkins where their heads should be.  Those victims are now buried here in this graveyard but their heads were never found.  The legend says that Jonas, the Pumpkin King, returns from the woods each Halloween to roam his former pumpkin field looking for more victims.  If you are brave enough you can exit the safety of the cemetery and enter the Pumpkin King’s realm where you may make it out okay… if you don’t lose your head!

We plan to haunt the back yard with several pumpkin headed scarecrows and lots of pumpkins.   Our Scare-actors will be dressed in black robes with pumpkin masks.  It's kinda hard to top the pirate ship so we'll see how it all comes together this year. 

Happy Haunting!

12:28 PM - 9/7/2007

2006 Haunt is Over!

I know I really neglected writing for a while, but things got rather hectic quickly.  We had a great haunt this year even though turnout was down slightly.  We had 117 kids and adults plus 4 dogs.  Thank you to Pete, Amy, Marie, Scott and Christa that helped out!

We had an extremely large pirate ship, 2 wooden bridges over 'creeks', a cave, a cove and scares galore.  TOTs got to pick from 2 different paths either the cave or dead man's walk.  We used walkie talkies to alert our pirate ghosts when they should and shouldn't jump out.  The young kids liked the 'ghost-free' tours we offered this year and NO ONE CRIED!  Lots of screams, but no tears which was a step forward!

Happy Halloween everyone!

3:14 PM - 11/15/2006

BEWARE... Hidden dangers underground!

Well, the Halloween Goblins have struck!  During set-up of our fence on Friday night we managed to 'come into contact' with the underground cable lines knocking out our cable service and severely inconveniencing our neighbors with a large temporary line now running through their yard. 

Who would have guessed that a cable line could be less than a foot underground with no conduit protecting it?  Beware if you're putting rebar into the ground...

On the positive side, our On Demand now works for the first time in 1 1/2 years!

Thanks to Frances and Dan for their understanding in the great cable incident of 2006.  Now we are looking forward to possibly having to tear down the graveyard so the cable company can reinstall the lines.  Let's just hope they don't pick Halloween week or else there will be a lot of disappointed people!

11:59 AM - 10/9/2006

Progress is slow and steady

We just got back from vacation on the 2nd and with the jet lag it's been tough getting the yard in shape.  Over the past few evenings we've hauled 3 full-size pick up loads of yard decor from our storage barn (thanks Bob & Marie!) and to our back yard so we can begin set-up.  I also filled my poor little Mini Cooper to overload with tombstones!

We set up the entry gate on the 4th and last night set up the section of fence from the gate to the front door.  We decided to switch it up a little this year and changed how we arranged the fence.  We needed to do something to keep the display changing from year to year.  Tonight if the weather cooperates we'll try to finish the fence and then possibly the tombstones.  The graveyard lighting will have to wait for Saturday.

Once the front yard is up, we'll worry about inside and the new construction for the back yard.  I also have 5 costumes on order to make so I better get moving!

12:35 PM - 10/6/2006

Halloweening has begun!

9:33 AM - 9/11/2006

The Margaritaville Party is over!

12:41 PM - 9/6/2006

September Nears... Timing Fears

I'd like to be a lot further on our decorations for the year at this point and by looking at some of the other bloggers, I see I'm far behind.  We've been tied up with party decorations for a Margaritaville party next week so Halloween has taken a back seat.  Luckily we'll be able to use some of the props for our pirate back yard... palm trees, treasure chest, signs with a little repainting... but we haven't progressed on the haunt's new projects.

We're thinking of doing some new marketing this year.  Rather than just hoping TOTs will show up, we're going to post a sign on the road inviting all to join us on Halloween.  Hopefully some of our neighbors without kids will take the opportunity to check out 'the crazy neighbors with the graveyard in their front yard'.

1:16 PM - 8/25/2006

Haunting Season has arrived!

August is here and that means it's officially haunting season for me!  I was thrilled to have a new Michael's craft store open in the town where I work because in July they had 2 aisles of really cool Halloween stuff.  Nothing I may buy as it's mainly interior decor which I'm maxed out of, but it gets me excited just to look at it all!  It's haunting time!!!!

I took that as a cue that it was time to update my website... www.geocities.com/costumes5by5 with some up to date info.  Check it out if you have a chance.  There are some more detailed plans for our 2006 haunt and pictures coming soon of the projects.

11:19 AM - 8/1/2006

2006 Theme: SKULL WOODS

After some fine-tuning our theme for 2006 will be SKULL WOODS... haunted by Captain Cutthroat and his ghostly pirate crew.

Here's the story we'll be telling TOTs when they come to the door for candy.

Happy Halloween and welcome to Skull Cemetery.  There’s a dried up creek bed running through these woods that used to be a branch of the great Susquehanna River.  Hundreds of years ago when pirates roamed the oceans and rivers, it’s said that the evil pirate, Captain Cutthroat, brought his crew up this river to Skull Woods to hide his treasure.  But to keep it a secret, he lived up to his name by cutting the throat of each member of his crew.  But just as he slit the throat of the last crewman, the pirate stabbed him leaving him mortally wounded.  The treasure has remained hidden in these haunted woods ever since.  The locals call this area Skull Woods because the first settlers to the area found the pirate crew’s bones covering the clearing where this cemetery was built and it’s rumored that the ghosts of the crew and Captain Cutthroat still roam these grounds protecting the treasure.  If you are brave enough to encounter Captain Cutthroat, you can continue out that gate and see if you can find the treasure hidden in Skull Woods.

11:15 AM - 8/1/2006

2006 Theme

11:21 AM - 6/29/2006

When does the haunting start?

2:14 PM - 6/5/2006

Trick or Treat

We had over 130 kids and adults plus 5 dogs for trick or treat last night...  an overwhelming success!

Snow White greeted them by the driveway and sent the bigger kids to the graveyard and gave out stickers to the wee ones.  I greeted the kids at the front door with candy and a blast of fog before telling them this year's haunt story.  The brave ones traveled down the path to meet up with the Countess and her Executioner along with the evil spirit lurking in the graveyard and the poor bunny girl trapped in the dungeon.  Even though we had a couple criers, the night went well with most kids and adults having a good time.  (Sorry new neighbors... we didn't mean to make your kids cry.  Really.  We're nice people.)

Thanks to Marie (Snow White), Blair (Evil Spirit), Meghan (Bunny) & Anita (Countess) for helping out last night. 

Tonight tear down begins... hopefully we can get everything down and stored tonight.  That'll be quite the feat but we'll se what we can do.

Thank you to all who followed this year's haunt progress and I bid you farewell for now!

8:50 AM - 11/1/2005

2005 Haunt Pics

8:49 AM - 11/1/2005

Happy Halloween!

Today is Halloween and tonight is Trick or Treat... our debut of the big walkthrough.  We have at least 6 volunteers who will help out this year which should make it even spookier.  We've been lucky that so far we've had no vandalism and only a few electrical issues. 

Tonight we have quite a few things to get set up before Trick or Treat starts at 6 including the music and some last minute lighting.  We'll also need to drag the big Monster Mud guy out of the garage to guard the gate. 

Nearly everything in our display is handmade by us.  We've been accumulating over the years, but we've built the entire cemetery fence, tombstones, coffin, hanging lady, monster mud guard, guillotine, scarecrow, etc. on our own using ideas we found on the internet or came up with on our own.  We haven't been brave enough to work in animatronics yet... except for one truly evil clown built with an oscillating fan, but he's an inside kinda clown.

Thank you to those of you that have followed this year's haunt.

I will be posting some last pictures from trick or treat and then tear down begins.  What takes so long to create and put up comes down November 1st.

Happy Halloween!

9:13 AM - 10/31/2005

Party Pictures... Cool Costumes!

9:11 AM - 10/31/2005

Nearing the End...

The light problem turned out to be a broken bulb and not a short... thankfully.  Just another spotlight purchase and we'll be set.  I do need to work on my music plan for the evening.  Looks like I'll be running speakers out the windows.  Not perfect, but it will keep the outside circuits from overloading.

11:34 AM - 10/27/2005

Party Time... Excellent!

Only 3 more days until the big bash and everything is coming together.  We'll have all day Sunday to prepare for Trick or Treat night on Monday. 

8:54 AM - 10/26/2005

Rain hasn't dampened our spirits...

Just our lights.  Another 4 inches of rain has caused another spot light to short out, but the constant rain hasn't allowed us to investigate further.  Today is sunny so maybe this evening we can try to fix it.  I guess that's why 3 extension cords aren't the recommended way to run a light from your house to a tree.

8:52 AM - 10/26/2005

Cemetery at Dusk...

11:15 AM - 10/25/2005

2005 Haunt Theme

This year's Haunt Story...  As all the great home haunters say... "You gotta have a story."  Here it is...

You may be wondering why there is a cemetery in the front yard of a house.  There is good reason… this home is old, built over 150 years ago by the Countess Tortura, also known as the Countess of Pain.  She was a witch who used the blood of her victims in spells to remain young for hundreds of years.  To keep her prisoners nearby, she constructed a dungeon behind her home and most of her victims were buried here in the front yard. 

It is rumored that the Countess remains here and is looking for more victims.  If you dare, you may continue down the path to the dungeon where you might encounter the Countess, her Executioner or even the spirits of those buried here who can’t rest in peace.

10:18 AM - 10/21/2005