"Over, Done With, Gone."

(Can you identify that quote?)


Where do I start????

Since I have lost 4 family members and a good friend all in 10 months' time, I just didn't get into the Hallowe'en frame of mind as early this year. If you've followed my blog, you know that I start dreaming of props and spooks and things that go bump in the night 'long about May or June, and usually have a theme by July.  DD came up with a theme for me, and I really like it, but never got around to putting it together, so I've decided to use her idea next year, and no, I am NOT sharing that right now, thankyouverymuch.

So I'd just decided to put most all my stuff out there, sort of in stations, for people to walk around and view. Aliens over here, mad scientist's paraphernalia over there, and a cemetery in the upper 40. Okay, yard.

I pulled out my 2 life-sized skeletons and Short Stuff (the little skeleton) and placed them in lawn chairs. Then I pulled out my casket from under the back deck where it had been tarped all year, and stacked it on 4 pallets I'd picked up from the loading dock at the hospital.

Hmmm, what if it rained? I guess I could still use the tarp, but wait: I have the canopy tent I bought last year for my Gypsy Curse theme.  I could place that over the casket. Then, bingo, ladies and gentlemen, we have a theme: The Funeral.

What can I say? It's certainly been on my mind this year.

So for the last 2 weeks, I've been in a frenzy, trying to put everything together. I bought the 12 pumpkins, but when it came time to carve them, only 4 were soft enough to carve. The other 8 were hard as gourds, necessitating a large knife and a mallet to pierce them!  All I could do with those were geometric faces--the usual triangles, etc. It took way longer than usual, and put me even farther behind. The good thing is, I got to watch some of my favorite Hallowe'en movies while brutalizing pumpkins!

Bless her heart, one of my neighbors came over about 3:30, walking her dog, and decided to help me get the last minute stuff done. It was probably the first year I've not regretted them changing Daylight Savings Time to the first Sun. of November instead of the last Sun. in October. We only got one Trick-or-Treater before 6:15.

Here are some stills from the evening. I was so busy, I didn't get out there to take pictures at twilight, which is the best time for Hallowe'en pics, so I'm debating lighting all the candles and battery-powered flicker candles tomorrow evening just so I can get good photos.

The zombie body in the casket. He sits bolt upright and moans "Welcome to our graveyard."

One of the tombstones. It reads "Ye who walk o'er me will wish you'd died 'fore me."

Entrance through the cobwebbed cemetery gate .

The front porch.  I had orange light bulbs in the porch and garage lights--that's why everything looks so red here.

 Rats gnawing on bones.

The Mourners.

If you're watching "The Walking Dead" on AMC, you'll get the significance of the next two pictures.

Tricycle Zombie Girl

Some of these required a flash and thereby decreased the creepiness, so I probably will go out at twilight and take more pictures. At any rate, Zombie Girl crawls out of the garage, but needs a flat surface, so I had to place a sheet of insulation foam there to bridge the narrow step. It was covered with leaves at the end, but she managed to push most of them off. 

This is the one prop that scared some children and brought one pre-teen to tears. Most of my gruesome and scary stuff was at the back of the graveyard so that parents could bring their little ones to the front door, but there was just nowhere else to put her. She was sound or motion activated, so sometimes she didn't go off, but unfortunately with excited little ToTs yelling and running around, she was set in motion at a couple of inopportune times.

We had lots of Trick-or-Treaters come around, but there was no way to count them all. Some came while I was trying to turn on lights and light candles, and then some came back later when it was dark just to walk around and look at the props. I dressed in old scrubs and zombied up my face, slung a stethoscope around my neck and became Zombie Nurse. Even the kids got what I was. I was having such a good time, I just sat out on the porch steps awhile and watched.

I have a rule that most of the neighborhood knows now. All ToTs are welcome, no matter the age, but you must be dressed up in some way, even if it's only a mask. Costumers get a handful of candy, no matter how big or little you are. But if you come to my house, enjoy my efforts, but don't make any effort of your own, you get only ONE piece of candy. That's begging; expecting something for nothing, in my book.

What can I say? I'm a Conservative. (And that is most likely the only political statement you'll ever see on this blog. I don't beat people over the head with my views.)

Most of the visitors were done by 8:30 pm. It was a school night, after all. I still had the porch light on and the front door open, and was sitting down at the computer, when I heard a noise on the porch. I turned around, and their, staring at me through the storm door, was Michael Meyers! He was tall, dressed in the correct mask and dark clothing, was all alone, and never spoke a word. I swear, he 'bout scared the snot out of me! 

Serves me right, huh?

I shut everything down after that.