Greetings everyone! I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated, I’ve been quite busy this year with all the little fun things life likes to throw our way from time to time. I come bearing both good news and bad news. I always like to start with the bad news first (sue me, I’m an optimist).
THE BAD NEWS
Some time in the first or second quarter of 2010 we will be moving to a new location. It will most likely be outside of the Windsor area. We haven’t even started looking yet so keep an eye out here for details on where to find us next year. The fact is though that we really need our own place. More room, more control, etc.
Since we will be moving next year, in addition to several other unfortunate and unforeseen expenses over the course of the year, several decisions about this year’s haunt have been made. The most important has been the dropping of our much toted and talked about Pirate theme.
Thankfully, because of taking the time to deal with all those little life issues that cropped up, we were only just wrapping up the planning stages so nothing has even been built yet.
We had a good bit of things planned out such as dividing the yard into a bog on one side and restricting the graveyard to the other side. The bog was to include a six foot section of the forecastle and bowsprit of a pirate ship as though it were rising up from the bog; the top of the foremast of said vessel; some aquadic zombie pirates rising from the bog groundbreaker style; and a large serpent like creature conceived by my daughter and known only as the Roarast. The bog was to seague into a coastline meeting the cemetery which was to be the opposite lawn. Additionally I was planning to build my rendition of the ever popular Monster in a Box (MiB) dubbed “Cephalopod in Box”. Was also gonna do a small light show which at one point was to feature a cannon battle set to the tune of Crossfire by Nox Arcana.
Not only would we have had to retrofit a lot of our existing props to fit the theme but we would have had to build a LOT of new stuff, purchase new lighting equipment, etc. Things just had to be scaled differently.
THE GOOD NEWS
We’re still gonna do up the yard this year. And since this is pretty much our last year at this location we’ve decided to stick to the primary theme we’ve been sailing under in the past. This also allows us to to instead focus on a theme that better utilizes the props we have accumalated over the last three years. That theme of course is the classic gothic cemetery.
We are still planning on adding some enhancements to the yard and I have a handful of mache groundbreakers lined up to be built still. I have to admit that I’ve always been greatly inspired over the years by one of California’s most well known yard haunts, “The Hallowed Haunting Grounds“. So this year you will probably notice a lot of resemblence to their work.
One of the major things we’re doing different this year (which was part of the Pirates theme and is being carried over) is the utilization of the driveway as our main fairway. The primary reasons being the lack of room we had in our front walkway last year. The ToTs would occasionally get so bunched up in the narrow walkway that they’d sometimes end up in the yard itself. Not only does this present tripping and electrical hazards to the kids, it also presented destruction of display elements due to accidental trampling (yes, I lost a couple tombstones and even had someone trip over the wiring taking out two flood lights in the process).
COMING SOON
Short of any new life events I’m gonna get in the basement and get it cleaned out. After which I plan on setting the labs down there. One of the major things I plan on is getting an old PC I have setup with a web cam and start broadcasting the lab live while I work. I’ll try and capture any of the large scale stuff in pictures since those will be done outdoors.
The Mrs. will be in charge of the video camera this year so we should have a ton of footage to put online after the big night. And YES this year I will take a LOT more pictures, I promise.
If you would like to help support us we would be greatful if you picked up a shirt, hoodie, or mousepad from our online store.
http://www.cafepress.com/necropolismanor
This is our last year here so, while the funds are tighter than we would like, we’re gonna do the best to make it go out with a bang for the Windsor neighborhood.