Kendra worked on building some of the fireworks to go in the booth and in the crates. They are, of course, painted for black light. We’ll also have an awesome firework scare for this area. Seven fireworks down…23 more to go.

Craig and Joe build the dividing walls.

Can you see me? The divisions will separate the freaks from each other, and also hide one of our actors.

An old prop gets a new outfit and paint job. (Makeover by Patty.)

This poor soul is caught between this life and the afterlife. (Of course, created by Patty.)

This guy will stand in for our live actor tall man (Jay) when his feet get too tired from the stilts. Another prop from the Patty factory.

Close up of the tall man’s creepy face.

This coming weekend, we hope to retrieve some stuff from our storage unit and begin assembly of some of the larger structures and repair of some of last year’s props that fell apart as the night went on. There is still a lot to do, and extra time to work on anything is hard to come by.

Although we’ve been mostly silent on this blog all summer, we have been working on our haunt. Slowly. Stressful jobs and traveling have interrupted our builds, but progress has been made. Patty has established a veritable creature factory in her house, and she’s been churning out freaks at an impressive rate. We’ve been building the stage for the freaks and have come up with some ideas for the UV area that we hope will be a big improvement over last year’s last-minute, balloon-filled scene.

With only 53 days left until Halloween (52 if we open on Sunday night!), it’s time to really get serious about building and creating. We’ll try to update this site more often so you can follow our progress.

The early framework of what will be the freak show stage.

The freak show stage completed. Next to build are the walls to separate the four freaks.

The early stage of fishman, one of the freaks.

Fishman: completed! He is also painted for black light.

Isn’t he pretty? His scales are made of lentils and peas.

Mr. Electro gets some mache. Nothing like sweaty latex gloves on a hot summer day.

Mr. Electro’s head started out as a wig form purchased from a beauty supply store.

Every carnival needs some pennants. We’re giving them the black light treatment.

Meanwhile, Cauldron Creep gets a second life. This time, he’ll be strong enough to stir cotton candy all night.

After a delayed start to the haunt season we find ourselves in the second week (last year it was build week 4 by now). The second week being a 3 day weekend would usually see a lot stuff getting started and progress made even if nothing gets finished. It was hot as heckity-heck this weekend. Patty made progress on her fishman, Kendra started to bulk out Mr. Electro, and I got started on Cauldron Creep 2.0 (a completely rebuilt and updated cauldron creep with better wiring, better mechanics, and better take down/break down characteristics).

We spent half of Sunday deciding what we can do with only three people this year. We cut 16 projects. 16 props, scares, and signs won’t get made. Halloween as it has come to be known has to be re-evaluated. Do we just build less? Do put off a lot projects and hope people show up later to help? Do we put on the same show as last year?

We have decided to see if we can recruit more help.

If you or anyone you know would like to build build some props, sets, or just scare people in the craziest yard haunt ever please get in touch with us. You can contact us through our secure contact form here. Contact us via our page on Facebook. If you are a neighbor or live nearby come on over any Saturday or Sunday and say Hi.

First is Dandy Dumplin. Yesiree, just 80 years ago someone this fat would be in a freak show. Now they are just in line at Wal-Mart.

Patty made this as a successor to Mr. Chuckles. Except this guy is freakin scary! Bad, Bad monkey. Kinda looks like one of the Gremlins.

Kendra and I worked setting up a template for the new display that will be on the porch area. This year it will have a hall of freaks and a corpse processing area.

The four people standing in a row on the platform will be where each freak has a booth decorated to match where they came from. As of now we will have A Fishman, The Rabbit Boy, Mr.Electro, and head hunter (who is a placeholder if someone else decides to make a freak).

Kendra and I built a PVC template for each booth so we could build the props before we built the wooden booths. Here is me posing in one of the possible poses for Mr. Electro.

Here is the armature I made based on the above photo used as reference.

I think getting the armature looking natural is the only way the props will come out looking realistic. Stiff armatures make stiff looking zombies.

Here are some quick sketches for freaks we scribbled on Sunday. You’ll see the man with no legs and the boy with flippers for arms! You’ll see Mr. Electro, the human battery!

and You’ll see more next week. 3 days of building over the holiday weekend!

Ok this live blogging sounded cool, but We have so much to do it’s making me insane. Really! I am mad all the time. The prop nazi is going blitzkrieg!

Again no pics today, but I’ll put some up tomorrow. Promise.

My laptop threw a fit on the day I was going to set up the 3 axis skull. It’s fine now, it’s a dumb glitch, but it set me off. I was a mad man.

So I got some 2×2′s at the Do-It Center, threw em at Joe and told him to frame out some walls for me! Then I set to weathering the booths. I was a flurry and fury of paint. Thanks to today’s extreme lack of humidity and face cracking dryness, My washes dried in minutes instead of hours. I got all the booths done. I also got covered in paint, since I used a roller to apply a wash. Think of a wet dog shaking it out.

I made a to-do list for everyone but me, and everyone got it almost all done (except technical stuff I would have to show them).

All in all Tuesday and Wednesday were good. Thursday, we’ll see.

On Monday I worked non stop. I did not eat lunch. I did not take pictures. 9 hours of straight work.

I built the cabinet for the museum of oddities. I also re-did the FCG ribs so that they can be mounted under the eaves of the house so that they will be out of the rain. I also painted some zombies. Joe painted the scare Booth and helped me here and there.

Now some pics!

It was a lot of wait and go work. We got the stencils painted onto the Scarousel, but not as much work as we wanted to due to time. If there is time at the end of the week, I’ll add more flourishes. Now look in the background, up on the Hedge. While we were working on building stuff, Tricia started to wrap up her conjoined twins. She skipped a step or two in normal construction, but it looks so freaky you’ll cry a little when you see it finished.

Due to bad weather, both today and forecasted for the week, we didn’t put up the full scarousel. Rain and highwinds are doom for any prop, so we leveled and put up the sturdiest parts.

Here is where we were busy running errands and working like mad so no one thought to take pictures.

Here is what we got finished:

• We put up the walkthrough head.
• We built the drop panel wall of the “scare booth” that goes behind Rasputin’s mouth.
• I cut out the decorative facade for the Museum of Oddities with a scrollsaw
• Kendra turned an old groundbreaker into a puppet

Then it started raining around 4pm. So we put away most of the stuff, and I finished installing the wall with the drop panel while Kendra went to the store and bought some plastic sheeting.

Then we covered everything in sheeting. We had a sheet of 1/2 plywood that got wet this week. It is so warped, that no of it is usable. So we paid the money to protect all of our work so far. Wednesday is when everyone is coming back to finish setitng up. So I bet by wednesday night you will see the Scarousel totally done, weather permitting.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are props all over the house and in the backyard too. And then more. At my house. Oh joy!

From here on out I’ll live blog anything that gets finished and looks cool. As in finished like it will look in the haunt.

Otherwise I will do a daily post each evening.

Today was a productive day!

Zac and I got the frame up for the black light area with out falling off the ladder. However I almost destroyed the fountain. Almost. Good thing I shot a video of how it went together last year before we took it apart.

Bill came over today to help (Kendra, Zac, Courtney, and Colleana’s dad). He kicked ass! Usually he’s a real talker so I put a brush in his hand and said talk to these booths! He painted almost all three by himself. Yay Bill!

Patty, Courtney, Tricia, and Kendra attended to blinging the f**k out of the Scarousel today. Tomorrow it gets put together. The bedazzlement is beyond belief!

Joe and I wrapped the five  light poles with electricians tape to make them a little more burton/carnivalesque.

Zac made two more meat hooks for our goriest display yet. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile Jay patiently laid down some fine lines of black to finish off the painting of the Scarousel.