October is for most a mellow month. School is back to a routine and the Christmas rat race is still out of minds reach. For the Johnson household there is much scurrying about. Weekends are taken up with construction, sewing, carving and decorating. Kind of what a normal family might do for Christmas. But no, the Johnson family is not quite normal. Kids stop by and ask with anticipation whether we are haunting again this year. That is why we agree that "maybe we'll just do it big for one more year!"
Willi Wonka
A Pirates Life for Me
Pumpkins on the Wall
Eye of the Beholder
This year we created eight carved pumpkins. Yikes that gets spendy when you buy them from the wrong place. I carved 6 of them. For some reason we don't have pictures of my Tigger one. BJ's girlfriend tackled the Willi Wonka masterpiece and well , eight year old Paige's free style creation didn't even get to the lit stage before the mold and fruit flies had their way with it. We ended up carving ahead of time. The best way to preserve some of the moisture is to lube up the carved edges with vasoline ( forgot Paiges) . This seals it all in. A shriveled pumpkin can be saved by soaking it in a bath tub for an hour. We took a lot of pictures with Don's digital and they are quite fuzzy. I apparently had my finger over top of some sensor so the fuzzies are my fault.
BJ had the bright idea (Thanks B!) of using the garage as part of this years haunt. This entailed getting rid of the clutter , incorporating the pool table and sectioning off the front half. We decided upon a haunted dining dungeon theme. I took some pictures by day and night. The sun was blasting in but you get the jist of it right down to the red spaghetti and eyeballs on the plates.
On the left of the picture above is a coffin that opens and closes with a ghoul standing beside it. If you look really carefully I am seated behind these props at the head of the table in a skeletal costume with a candy bowl in my lap. BJ and Paige are directing kids up the driveway into the dungon to "help themselves to the candy". As they are unabashidly grabbing handfuls I would "Come to life" grabbing wrists and warning "just two!". Gosh did that ever make everyone from the small to the tall parents jump. I was careful with the really impressionable knee high candy hunters . Only one left wailing. The skeptics ( and there were many) were poking me and yet still I managed to fool them. Great to see the adults jumping higher than the kids!
Screamer Zombie
does just that.
Pulls off his head and screams
Cemetary by day
The contraption that the biker is hanging on is a triagular pulley system that Don rigged being powered by a ceiling fan hidden in a tree. There are two oversized creatures flying around the span of the front yard. The big ghoul we had purchased
(pic on right) to do this was too weighty for the fan. God knows what he will be flying next year and what size of motor he will revamp with!
Night and Day
Giant Fuzzy Spidey
Weighs more than Paige!
Window watcher
is silhoutted with a
flickering light
Bones-effective under blacklight.
Caged with a rat at
his feet and a raven
stealing his blinking eye
The animated
opening coffin
With fog effect going
Screamer,
talking crystal ball
and blood fountain.
The Coven
with bubbling cauldren
Guardian Ghoul
BJ and
Jenn the Mad Hatter at the end of a successful haunt
Despite the sub zero tempetures this year we still had a ball. There were lots of people taking pictures and the comments were all so positive. We lost the exact count after a hundred and thirty trick or treaters but guestimate the total to be a hundred and fifty or so.
We have already started thinking about tweaking this and that next year. This before we have all the props back down and packed into the attic.
