Ravencrest Cemetery

Its almost time for the 'Ween, and we're busting our humps to get things set up! Given our general lack of preparedness this year, and even greater lack of time, its a bit frightening (it IS Halloween, afterall). But after an entire Sunday of setup we are getting closer. The wind is fierce, but we've put a lot of effort into "Kansas-proofing" our props this year. By Saturday evening we should be all set up! Behold, our new cemetery columns!

Those puppies stand 6 and a half feet tall...with another 6-8 inches hidden below the surface of the ground. That's right, the welded frame of 1-inch tubular steel is actually over 7 feet tall, and driven into the ground for anchoring. Then 1/2-inch plywood with a faux-stone finish was attached and I'm sure those things weight close to 100 lbs each now...we'll pretty them up more next year, but for now, we're very happy with them.

-EEric

Well, I guess winter is almost here...it went from being 60 at night last weekend to being 30 degrees last night...and tonight, and the next night... Keeps the fog low, but makes it tough to work on stuff at night after work. But we're slooooooowly chugging forward. Our new "Kansas-Proof" cemetery columns look great so far, and should withstand many a windy day and night. Even Leland is getting into the spirit, but isn't quite so helpful yet...he's just good at being cute.

Hopefully we'll have a lot more progress to post this weekend.

Hauntingly yours,

-EEric

The short answer?...not much. Between having a 1-year old and waiting on repairs to be done on the house for the hail damage back in April, there has not bee much time to devote to building props. A few things to expect this year, though, will be the retirement of a big prop or two, the introduction of things in their place, new cemetery entrance columns (bigger, better and more resilient against these accursed Kanas winds and spineless vandals) aaaaaaand...anyting else we have time for.

On another note, we have been thinking a lot, lately, about taking this to the proverbial "next level" and starting a "professional" haunted house, run mostly for charity. If you, or anyone you know, would be interested in helping, be it with the donation of building materials, help, or even a location for us to host this, please drop me a line at ravencrestcemetery@gmail.com. I think its about time Johnson County got a proper haunted house. The attraction should be scary enough, without the frightening drive downtown to get to it.

Hauntingly yours,

-EEric

Things are going slowly, but some things are getting done. Got a HUGE new fog machine today, along with a web shooter and a bunch of LED spotlights. I got the ringing tombstone to actually ring...consistently...and not break. And we tried a new fog chiller. Enjoy:

More in the photo albums.

Hauntingly yours,

-EEric

Labor day weekend is almost over and we've put the fence up and made the first minor adjustment of the season...Alice, our crank ghost, now has a more prominent place up in our foyer window, above the front door instead of in a small side window in the dining room. I'll post a behind-the-scenes photo tomorrow, perhaps, but for now all I'm telling you is it took about 30 trips up and down a 30-foot extension ladder, 3 or 4 redesigns of a pulley system for the FCG platform, two 52" black lights, a redesign of the eyes, 20 or so misused zip ties, 200' of rope...and this is what we ended up with:

Nice, huh? Like I said, we may not make too much new this year, but we'll be improving what we have, and finding more uses for things that didn't make it into the display in years past.

Hauntingly yours,

 -EEric

Given that we just had a kid, the additions will be scaled back quite a bit this year. Last year we added a good bit to the haunt, and we're at a point that the yard is pretty full. So what you'll see this year will mostly be improvements on some props that maybe didn't work exactly as planned last year, or maybe a little detail added to enhance realism...we did obtain a lot of cool lighting in the off season, so the mood may be enhanced, and we are planning on resurrecting a prop from many years ago that we have been too scared to bring out in Kansas thus far due to the winds...but we're going for it this time!

So expect more fog, more lights, more details (you better be looking for them!) and a couple surprises...we'll hold off any huge expansion until 2011.

Hauntingly yours,

- EEric

On July 22, 2010 at 7:23PM Missy delivered our little minion. Little Leland "Danger" James Anderson was 6lbs, 13.9oz and 19.5 inches long. Mom and Baby are doing well and we bring him home to the haunt tomorrow.

So...we're expecting our first child in July. The offspring we loving refer to as, "The Minion" will get to experience Halloween the Anderson way when he is only a few months old. In light of this impending life-change I have made a list of promises i will try my best to keep:

• I promise to no go too overboard with the new props this year and really pay more attention to the baby (and my lovely wife).
• I promise not to insist on holding the baby while walking on stilts.
• I promise to ease my son into hanging out with corpses and ghosts and try to not give him nightmares before he even knows what nightmares are.
• I promise to not use him as a prop.

Hauntingly yours,

  -EEric

Hath but a mere half of a fortnight passed, since the glorious All Hallow's Eve... But why, prithee, dost thou tarry here still? Geteth, thou, thy ass to Ye Olde Gallerie of Still-Pictures, which doth bear witness to the marvelous festivities had, on this All Hallow's Eve most recently passed.

-Hauntingly yours,

    Lord Edgar P. Ravencrest (A.K.A. EEric)

So here we are...10 days from the party, 11 days from Halloween, and our yard is finally starting to look like something. Our temperatures have been 25 degrees below average for this time of year (in the 30's!!) and we had rain for 11 of the first 13 days of October (and more last night and this morning, and more later today, etc...).

But we've really pulled it together the last few weekends, you know...commiting to not being hung-over on Saturday and Sunday mornings so we can actually get up before noon and get work done...:roll:

And we got key contributions from a neighbor and new friend, Larry! He basically decked out our catacombs all by himself, freeing Missy and I to get other stuff done. Then another new friend, Paul, came over last weekend and helped with the beginnings of the witch's hut and finishing the roof of the mausoleum.

And this past weekend Missy and I had the opportunity to go to Worlds of Fun, the local amusement park, and drive our hearse in their Hallwoeen Haunt parade! They did makeup for us and we got to run around and scare people after the parade just like we worked there! It was a lot of fun, but holy geez was it freakin' COLD!!

We're doing it again Friday, I think. This time we know what to expect and we'll be better dressed...oh, and we'll have fangs this time...