For what it's worth, as long as it's cheap........

This will be a complaining, wining and rotten entry so if you don't want to read my ranting skip to the next one.

 

Words can't describe the mixed feelings I had. I'm in the living room putting up the tree wile the soon to be ex is packing up more of her stuff in another room. And she's got a lot of stuff. Didn't come with it all. She can spend on herself like no one I've ever met. I went with her one day and she dropped $200+ on yard sales. We got a 10x20 storage unit for her 6 months ago. She's filled it 2/3'ds of the way. Mostly with stuff she's bought sense. Oh well, enough said about that. She'll get her place in the woods and she can surround herself with all the stuff she wants.

 

It's almost fitting. This has got to be the ugliest Christmas tree I've ever put up. I modified a fake tree a few years back. Took all the branches off and made my own trunk. With less branches and being more spread out this tree ROCKS when filled with all my shaped ornaments. A real old fashioned tree look with out the real tree sap and mess. Nothing wrong with the tree itself. It's what's on it. Those small colored lights. Drooping strands of silver tinsel garland. And 248 clear plastic icicles. That's it.. Not a single glass bobble, bell or Santa. Just 248 icicles hanging there. About as pretty as a wet dog. If you go and turn your kitchen faucet on, that's about as nice looking as our tree. Cold, ugly and damp looking. And because I'm the only one that decorates it's the only thing Chrismasy in the house.

 

My Christmas shopping is done. All $600+ of it. The most I've been able to spend in the last 5 years or more. Be the last time I'll be buying for my wife and inlaws so I splurged a bit. I know most of ya'll are having a better time of it. And I guess I should be too. Every once in a wile a man has to be selfish and feel sorry for himself. My turn.

It is been a little to long.    I have been swamped with Halloween stuff and came down with the flu in the middle of it.    Feeling much better now!

I recently did major script updates to this site and many others.  So make sure to check them out.

One good, one not so good and still in the air.

There wont be anymore Wednesday auctions till next spring. I'll miss them. Got a lot of really good stuff cheap. Still have the Friday night ones I'll go to. Also plan on hitting both FreeCycles I belong to hard this year. Just can't seem to get enough cheap and free. LOL Going to start looking for clothing I can use for the corpses. Plan on making lots of ground breakers over the summer. Putting them is shirts will keep the amount of detailing I have to do down. Less work, more bodies. I like the idea. Also what to add more tombstones. I've got a bunch I don't use because they're to small. Maybe I'll spend the time on Wednesdays making stuff.

Bought two items for Halloween last Friday night. One is a 1968 pressing of Disney's Halloween album. The other is a very large spool of what I thought was tope material. Deb informed me that it's actually a fibrous material used to back hand embroidery. This stuff dissolves. Oh well. now I have a few hundred yards of this stuff. Was going to use it like cheese cloth and make props to sell on Ebay. Now I don't know what I'll do with it. Might still try props but will have to see how well this stuff will hold up.Guess I should of looked at it before I bid. I'm sure I'll find some use for it that's worth the $3.00 I spent.

The soon to be ex wife and I are getting ready to decorate for Christmas. Probably go over board like we always do. LOL The hard part will be dividing the stuff up. I've collected ornaments for years before we got married. I keep telling myself it's only stuff. Stuff can be replaced. But that don't always work. There is stuff I wont part with, the rest is up to fate.

You are your past. To change now is to change your future......

Everyone has skeletons in their closets. But when you have skeletons in lots of other peoples closets it's easy for you past to catch up with you. Such is the case of our friend and fellow prop builder MadMax. It's unfortunate that the person we know isn't the person he was years ago. What he did for the forum and brought to the community is the MadMax I know. Extremely innovative, creative and always answering questions. A person who's posts added value to the forum. Impossible to replace.

I'd just like to say if you ever get a chance to read this, Thanks dude.

You don't learn much listening to yourself talk....George Cloonie.(sp?)

For a long time now I'd given thought to spreading my how-to site into a collection of smaller sites with a central hub. This would give a better chance that some of the site would still be on line by the end of October. But then it hit me. I get lots of hits Jan. through Aug. By September my site usually goes off line around the last week. Then in October by the middle of the second week. I don't need to put myself through all that extra work. I get serious prop builders all year long. By October I get 'Halloween Fans'. Kids looking for things to see. And the 'time to get started' folks that wait till October to make props. I'm not going to say I don't appreciate these folks. I do. But I like the folks that start in Jan. better. LOL

Bought another computer at an auction yesterday. Paid a whole .50 cents for a 13 inch monitor, keyboard, two unpowered speakers and the guts. Win. 95 with 25 megs of ram. Didn't get it for it's processing power. It's one more working power supply. Hopefully when everything settles down and I can get some normalcy to my life again I'll dig into animation for next year.

I started this years planning wanting to do a freak show carnival inspired by a fellow Halloween forum member. DR Slicsill ( remember your name but not how to spell it. sorry dude.) Thought it would be a great way to tie in with the dead clowns I made last year. Then I wanted to do a reanimated clown laboratory and circus. Kinda like Frankenstien does clowns. That didn't happen either. Got a few machines glued together and even one cool old scope from a forum member. That's as far as I got with that. Then I bought a bag of really big stuffed animals real cheap at an auction and thought,

"Dead clowns and Evil toys"

No better combination on earth to give nightmares. I cut the head off of one stuffed dog. And that's as far as I got. Fun, but not very productive. LOL

Not going to make plans this early for next year. I think I'll make it up as I go. Do I have an ultimate haunt? Sure, I'd need 7 more folks to help man the thing. And at the rate I'm going 40 more years to build it. LOL The real thing to remember is everyone had a blast with the new and old stuff this year. despite all the personal set backs Halloween turned out really good. Looking forward to next year. Like you, I have no idea what it's going to look like.

 

220+ SPAM ON ONE BLOG ENTRY ALONE??????

It's a shame because I liked being able to talk to folks who have things to say. But after getting 2121 coments, 99% of are SPAM, I turned off this blog option.

Life is what happens when you plan on doing something ells.

Had a blast this Halloween. A good turnout and lots of compliments. Did something new this year. Added light and lots of it. Folks saw things I've had for years for the first time. I honestly think I could have had nothing new to show and folks wouldn't of known it. Some of the new stuff I had was made last year. The corpsed clowns, circus themed tombstones and all the ground breaker coffins. Rained last year so I wasn't able to set up the out door walk through. This year I added a section of graveyard fence, 9 black crosses, 60+ feet of rusty chain and two five light 5 1/2 ft. tall candelabras. I also put a makeshift dress on one of the stand up corpses and made me a woman. LOL  Thanks to a friend of mine with a nice digital camera I was able to put pics on the web site. I have film getting developed but it would be a wile before I could get them posted.

Best laid plans of mice and men. The things I didn't get done. I have lab equipment in my basement. Unfinished and getting dusty. The plan was to have a clown reanimation lab in the middle of the graveyard. Then make my first animated props, reanimated clowns, for the clown graveyard. I also wanted to have an evil toy display. I got as far as cutting the head off of one stuffed dog. Planned on this display leading into the dead clown graveyard.

Life in space..... It's surprising how having the bottom drop out of your personal life effects everything you do. I can't tell if I'm free falling or floating. But I'm damn sure I haven't hit the ground yet. First off my brother gets sick and disowns my mom and me. Haven't seen or heard anything form the guy. I do know he's hitting the bottle again. Hard. None of his friends are talking. I've stood outside his home knocking on the door knowing his there. Stopped doing that. Then my wife decides she wants a divorce. Been helping her pack things up for a few months now. Ya, I know that sounds weird. We've already decided  who gets what. Will get one lawyer for the both of us. Nothings getting contested. My father-in-law, who's been more of a dad to me than the drunk I grew up with, had back surgery. He's doing fine now. Still wearing a harness. He'll be in that for three more months. Then, three weeks before Halloween my mom has a stroke. The good news is she's fully recovered. I spent the good part of 4 weeks living at her condo. About a 45 minuet drive from here. Still got the Halloween display up. My mom was totally supportive of it. The one bright spot through all of this? I was contacted by someone who's putting together a book on home haunts. Told me it would be a few years in the making and wanted to know if I'd be interested in participating. Hay, at first I thought this was a joke. Even told him so.  I've seen pictures of displays done by folks on the Halloween forum that blow mine away. Turns out it's not a joke. I'm not going to get excited about it. I'm being concidered. It's not a done deal. I'll know some time next year if my haunt gets pictured. Told the guy about the Halloween forum and even turned him on to a few haunts.

Haven't been to the blog site for a wile now. Noticed that I have 2121 comments left by folks. So I went to check it out. Didn't find them. What I did find is a few spam. So just how gullible do these folks think everyone is? Trash is trash. Fortunatelly there's more good folks on line then trash.

 

Brewster yard collects food - and attention - for Halloween
By MARCELA ROJAS
THE JOURNAL NEWS
If you go
What: Brewster Yard Haunt
Where: 2 Wells Woods Lane
When: opens at 4 p.m. on Halloween.
Information: www.brewsteryardhaunt.com.

(Original publication: October 19, 2006)

BREWSTER -A human rotisserie, a toxic swamp and skeletons coming out of the earth are just some of the elements that grace Dennis and Debra Saraceno's front lawn.

The couple, along with neighbors Laurie Manning and Kevin Kennedy, have put together the Brewster Yard Haunt, an elaborate homegrown display of spooky attractions on Wells Woods Lane that not only brings in hundreds of trick-or-treaters on Halloween but serves a local charity with its "Cans for Candy" food drive.

"We thought if we could have fun and help somebody at the same time, then all the better," said Manning, a property manager with Harvest Property Group. "This is a real positive for the village of Brewster."

What started out as a neighborhood haunted house some 20 years ago has grown into a spine-chilling array of sinister scenes complete with animatronic figures, eerie lighting effects and a ghoulish cast of characters. There's Dr. Demento who performs an autopsy in his laboratory, and monsters that may jump out at any turn.

"We started this for our son. Halloween was a great memory for me, and I wanted to pass that nostalgia on to him," said Debra Saraceno. "But now, thanks to Laurie and Kevin's contributions and enthusiasm, this has gone beyond our wildest dreams - or nightmares."

Indeed, the community project has caught the attention of producers on the Home and Garden Television show, "What's With That House?" Brewster Yard Haunt was selected as the featured home for an upcoming episode, "What's With That Haunted House?"

Crews were busy Tuesday filming the creepy spread. Producer/director Brian Ochrym said they found the Brewster residence on the Internet where it has been listed as one of the top haunted displays for homes.

"I think it's fabulous," said Ochrym. "The attention to detail is incredible."

Several local children in costume also took part in the filming.

"I like being on TV," said Hannah Fohr, 7, dressed as "The Corpse Bride." "I come here every day. The scariest part is when the garbage man pops out."

Preparations for the yard of terror take place all year, said Manning. Props, including tombstones and torture chambers, are all handmade, and it takes about two weeks to install the scary exhibit.

"I've never seen anything like it. It's so dramatic," said neighbor Tom Humstone. "I just like hanging out here."

This Halloween, the group is looking to outdo its charitable contributions that last year brought in 730 pounds of nonperishable foods and more than $200 in donations for the Putnam County Community Action Program's food pantry. This is the third year the display has benefited CAP.

The free event is open to all, but there is one catch.

"If you can make it to the door, then you get candy," Manning said.

But terrifying guests is not the group's only objective.

"It's about the response we get. We just keep growing every year and they really seem to enjoy it," said Kennedy, a graphics designer. "Our hard work makes it all worth it."

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.

 

 

I got an email back from the rep from HGTV and it looks legit.  I also contacted WormyT, who has done this sort of thing before and showed her the letter.  She tells me this is the same way she was contacted and that it is legit.  So in the next email that the rep from HGTV sent me, she needed some information about my house, me, and my haunt.  I wasn't to sure about the sq. feet of the house, so I put on N/A on that.  My wife who has lived in this house all her life even doesn't know the sq feet.  So I sent her a recent picture of me,which was taken by WormyT by the way.  Also a picture of the witch that I am making for this year.  There is a chance that I might not get on the program, but also a chance that I might.  Gotta cross those fingers.  I took the day off to clean up the house a little.  Just in case I get picked.  If I don't get picked, there is always next year or the Christmas program.  LOL.  I have a lot of people cheering me on at hauntforum.com so I hope I don't let them down.

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

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.

 

 

 

Whoohoo.  Download.com accepted our Halloween Toolbar for download. 

Check it out:
http://www.download.com/Halloween-Toolbar/3000-2379_4-10572668.html

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Hey All,

I've been working steadily on my scarecrow, a few new tombstones and the W.o.T.

Here are some progress shots!

 

 

I have a ball that screams when you throw it coming soon from ebay (hopefully) and I'm going to try to put it inside my victim's head for some real torture sound!
The body is made from chicken wire, burlap, asst. pvc pipe, wire & tape hands and foam skull/chain... muy cheapo. I'm also thinking of adding some spray foam entrails.
The Wheel itself is pretty heavy and you have to put a fair amount of force into making it go all the way 'round... Its almost too heavy to move by myself, hehe.

Its going to compliment my Screaming Rack rather well!

 

 

No Guts, No Gory...

-=k

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.

 

 

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