for October 2004

This year the weather was good. I began setting up the weekend prior to Halloween by dragging a few items at a time under the house and changing my plans for the garage for the 3rd time. During the week I also spent time after work decorating the garage. Halloween weekend I worked with gusto on finishing the garage and starting the outside. Rain on Saturday forced me to concentrate on the indoor props while only rain tolerant props were placed outside. The work day began early Sunday to clear skies. I finished by 3pm having run out of electrical cords. This hault to decorating was good as now I had a couple hours to relax having placed plenty of lights & props around the property. Just a matter of with final adjustment of lights; icing the fog chiller; lighting candles; and activating all the props. Only 1 item failed to work due to a faulty light bulb.

As seen from the driveway the wooded area was filled with glow-in-the-dark features and illuminated with black lights. The usual fog machine automatically produced a low lying fog to this area. Now the direction of the wind influenced what other areas also were given a dose of fog. There were six lighted bat that each flashed randomly in the trees. Four skull "tiki" torches provided light around the dragon head. Pulsating "black light" led's illuminated the dragon's nostrils. Again Andrea, a dear friend, surprised me with 5 carved pumpkins shown on this page. Finally there was a remoted controlled bubble machine hung from this cornor of the house. The bubbles glowed blue under the influence of the black lights. The bubbles also contained a non-detectable fragence of buttered popcorn.

Across the driveway, the scene was lit by more conventional lighting. My showpiece for this year was the lighted spider web and 3 ropelight style spiders in the flower bed beneath the web. These four pieces were connected to a light controller via a DMX chase unit. Roughly 85 random fading steps in the programmable controller individually varied their off/on intensities. A witch, illuminated by a PAR with a yellow filter hung from the roof. Nearby was a bat of purple. The ghoulish figure was bathed in purple from another PAR. Lighted skulls surrounded a fountain in which was a fog device. A skeleton sits on the fountain. Not shown are some tombstones, an old pirate, a scarecrow with flashing eyes, and a couple trees with flicker flame bulbs.

The left & right sides of the garage were not really walk-thru's this year. As usual the left side utilized pin spots to shine on motion activated props. In this area people could move around. There was a sound activated ghost that moaned and seemed to float up & down

Walking into this room was just not allowed. Illumination again was provided by black lights. A haze machine provided the room with a blurred effect. To enhance all this I had people view this area from inside a tent through a mesh window. (Side note: for next year Linda will try to decorate the tent like something out of a medival joust and I'll try to incorporate more of a wizard/dragon theme.) Not seen on these photos are several large spiders on the floor and a web on the left wall. The witch sitting on the floor held a pot from which fog arose. The white blur at the top comes from a sound acitivated ghost that move across the room. Not a scarry feature but kind of cute. Also from this area came the voice of John Carridine reading works of Poe accompanlied by a pipe organ.

There are lighting effects I was not able to photograph. In the living room window was a flaming torch and a skull with different colors of light inside. A second floor room was dimmly lit with color along with a bright colorless light that flickered in various patterns and intensities. Another second story room was lit with an orange light along with a flame effect projected onto closed shades to simulate the room being ablaze. A 5 foot lighted ghost hung high in the trees last year. This year the chosen limbs did not fare well and the ghost fell. A home was found in a nesting of limbs only 3 feet off the ground.