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!

I am finally posting our video from 2010′s Rasputin’s Carnival of Risk haunt. You can see this and many other great haunts on the Home Haunter’s DVD collection. If you like haunting or want to get into home haunting, it a great source for inspiration and just plain fun to watch. Check it out.

Here is a short clip of our first “built in” scare, the classic Drop Panel. Everyone had a great time scaring our guests, and our guests loved it too. Well… some of them.

I stayed up until 4 am photographing the haunt. That’s 5 hours out in the cold with a camera. There is something I love about it though. It’s just me and the haunt. It’s so quiet, just the wind and the distant motorcycle or siren. There is this breeze that kicks up this early in the morning that whispers in your ear. The rustling of black plastic in the wind says Halloween. You can smell it too. The humidity at this time of night brings out the smells of the haunt. As the dew forms you can smell the spray paint, the black plastic, and the fog juice. It’s Halloween magic and it’s all mine.

I slept 5 hours then I went back to break down the haunt. I hurt all over. I haven’t been this tired, well ever. Everything went wrong too ( I’ll tell you later) but I love it still.

I am going to go to bed and sleep as long as I can before I get up again to go finish cleaning up the haunt. Until I return to blog the stories of this year’s Halloween I want  you to see the great crew of family and friends that made this year the best ever despite all the things that went wrong.

(from Left to Right) Godzick Krokadyll, Karenova, Vysoki? Muzhchina, Stolli The Clown, Devushka Chelovek, Madame Gadalka, Vestigia Tripleova, Dr. Drakkos.

(from Left to Right)  Craig, Jay, Karen, Courtney, Tricia, Kendra, Patty, and Russel.

Not Pictured: Yacnheck Yerkoff, AKA Zac. Truly a Hard Working Halloween Maniac!