# How did everyones Halloween turn out?



## Night Watchman (Aug 15, 2009)

How did everyones Halloween turn out? Mine turned out pretty good. I had to take everything down Monday night, and I thought that I would have nothing up for Halloween because of the weather. We kinda lucked out yesterday, and when I checked the weather is seemed okay. So I threw caution to the wind and set my entire yard up last night. It took me 4 and a half hours, in the rain, to do so and I finished after 11:30.It turned out okay and the weather could have been worse. It rained a bit, but it really didn't dampen the fun. I got alot of compliments on the yard, even though I forgot to set up my haunt music. Can't remember everything I guess. I will say this I am glad I did it because I would be regreting right now.

Hope everyone had fun, and hopefully we don't see Sandy any more!


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## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

Ours went well! In spite of a steady and often heavy rain, along with cold temps, we had close to 325 TOTs! Lots of little ones in costumes and some very appreciative parents. Everyone was polite and all of my actors put on a great show. We got in some good scares too! Glad it's over. Definitely one of the more stressful years due to the weather, having to adjust the plans, take stuff down, etc,, but it came off without a hitch. Now to spend the next week packing it all away.


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## heresjohnny (Feb 15, 2006)

Put out a small display, first time in a new neighborhood with about 30 TOTs (typical for central Florida). Everyone loved the display, now I have a benchmark to work against.


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## Kraken (Sep 7, 2012)

Things went well for us, perfect weather last night and today/tonight. Was able to finish most of my new additions for they year last night and then set them all up today. Not sure how many TOTs we had, but my wife and I did think there was alot less (forgot to count). Hope everyone stayed safe.


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## goneferal (Sep 8, 2010)

10 TOTs here, crappy year for all the effort.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

With haunt/display= 200 kids.
Without haunt/display = 35 kids.

Sad. But a few people did thank me for still interacting with their kids & making the night fun.
But I live for the interaction with the kids, and missed it. It was less stressful without the hullabaloo of the haunt, though.


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## hedg12 (Jul 6, 2008)

The weather here was picture perfect - mild temperatures, no wind at all, and I didn't have a display! (figures...) I sat this one out. Still, 9 tots - about on par with what we usually have.


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## Intrepid (Nov 24, 2011)

This was year two for us and we got 11 kids. That's actually up a tad from last year. Not a lot of kids left in the neighborhood. Plus a couple of adults stopped by to check us out. Will be interesting to see how that number changes as we add on each year.


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## pagan (Sep 9, 2009)

Kind of an off year. Upside: new 300 watt amp and towers, the Firefly lightning box was a huge hit, weather was perfect (72 degrees today). Downside: No new props, no time to set up buckies, weather was warm so fog= haze. Only had 25 or so ToT, a little off. Hope for better next year.


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## zombastic (Aug 27, 2012)

I'm not sure how many we had. A few hundred for sure. The haunted garage was better than ever. 
People were taking pics inside and outside they were taking pics with the giant spider and in the torture stock. 
It is sooooo fun scaring the tots! 
The Haunted House Posse, 2012. Usually we have three people working it but this year we had five. I'm the clown.


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## Troll Wizard (May 3, 2012)

We decided to pass on this years Halloween, mostly because of it being a church night for a lot of people going to their harvest festivals. Also the fact that the high schools and malls are now competing with many of us who usually do haunts. Neighbor across from us did a small graveyard out front but only had about 30 kids total. 

I did drive through the neighborhood and didn't see as many kids out as there has been in the past years. But we will gear up for next year.


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## KevinS (Sep 30, 2007)

Had a fantastic night. The rain was heavy at times, and I was resigned to a possible bad evening - but plently of folks grabbed an umbrella and brought their kids around (about 160 tot's). It helps that I'm "The House" in our area.
My thoughts really go out to the folk on the east coast - stay safe and keep the faith.


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## CreepyCanmore (Mar 27, 2007)

Not bad up here. Snowed off and on all week but only just below freezing tonight. About 250-300 tots plus lots of parents checking out the yard. 

A couple of new yard haunts have popped up in the neighborhood. I think it's great. I used to be the only yard haunt/haunted house but the new ones just add to the feel. Mostly store bought typical stuff in their yards, but that's better than no stuff. Good year I think.

Happy halloween to all!


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## nixie (Sep 17, 2008)

A pretty great night. We had some really high winds Tuesday, to the point that we nearly took everything down. We took down a couple of the more vulnerable props just for that day, and kept our fingers crossed for the rest. Everything we left out held up, not even a single foam tombstone took off. The forecast called for freezing temps, high winds, and sleet for Halloween night. We had a light rain all day, which stopped just in time for the TOTs. It was cold, but not really all that bad. I'm not sure how many TOTs we had, as this was my year to take the kids out, and hubby's to hand out candy. He never keeps track. The streets did seem much emptier than usual while we were out, at one point we were the only people we could see, which is really unusual for our neighborhood. I noticed, however, that the houses with haunts/displays had quite a concentration of people. It seemed like a lot of them came by car. There was quite a crowd in our yard when the kids and I left, and an even bigger one when we returned. I would guess that we probably had roughly 400-500 TOTs based on how much candy was left. We usually have between 700-1,000. I think the horrible weather forecast was a factor. We all had fun, people seemed to like our yard, and my kids made out like bandits. Can't complain


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## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

The weather here was perfect, the props all worked well, despite a more than average amount of needed maintenance, and My wife really stepped up this year. All that being said, we had about 250 TOT's this year witch is far less than we expected. We had candy for about 400. I reckin' that a Wednesday Halloween is just not a good way to draw a crowd.


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## Headless (Sep 4, 2011)

We had a great party and although we were down on our guests by a few from last year, everyone is still talking about it so I guess that's a good thing. We had slightly better weather than last year although it was still on the cool side but we had a gas heater so that helped. No TOTs being this far out of town.


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## HalloweenRick (Nov 25, 2005)

Only 90 TOT's in Maryland, about 1/3 of what I normally get. Took the entire display in before Sandy, and kept watching the weather as we were supposed to get strong gusts after the hurricane. I took off work early and threw out some lights, tombstones and fog machines- but just couldn't get my FCG and air props out in time. We called it "Haunt Lite". People totally understood- but I did feel a little disappointed in myself.


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## scarrycher (May 30, 2012)

doubled my tot count from last year, had 9. I could hear kids out before dark but they must have went to town for candy. next year I won't be out in the sticks so looking forward to having a display that can be seen from street, hopefully that will help


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## Anda (Jun 20, 2012)

I ended up working till 10pm and DH decided to be a scrooge and turn the porch light off. But I heard from others that few houses prepared for ToTs and even fewer kids showed up. It was cold but I didn't think it would be that bad. :frownkin: We usually have kids come in to the store and have candy ready, but there were practically no takers so by the end of the night they were handing out candy to the employees.


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## jaege (Aug 23, 2009)

Mine was good. Even though most of my display had been taken down (due to Sandy) the kids and parents were very understanding. Still had a pretty good turn out too.


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## Rahnefan (May 1, 2009)

About 30 TOTs which is typical. Just not many kids nearby and I don't advertise. So sore and tired today though, I just don't know if I'll bother next year.


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## Rocky (May 4, 2004)

It was amazing, around 100 TOTs, great weather - no wind, no rain, cloudy but you could seen the full moon at some point, and I had enough candy. lol Only 1 small problem in the beginning as my fog machine refused to work but all of sudden the fog came out and it worked the rest of the evening.

I was very happy considering I had to take everything down Sunday evening because of the weather. I put everything back up yesterday and it looked as though it was going to rain all day but we only got some showers in the afternoon. Looking forward to Halloween 2013!


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

We had a great time - set up nearly the entire display yesterday and took nearly all of it back down last night (which is how we do things every year). Got about 70 ToTs, some friends stopped by to look at the display and visit for a while, a guy with a bulldog came by twice to take pictures, the next door neighbor's youngest son kept running over to set off one of the motion-sensored props, we got a few screams without trying, it was cold but rain did not fall. All in all, a pretty good night


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## Hawks Hill Haunter (Apr 1, 2007)

It was my first year in a new neighborhood and first time back after a 3 year hiatus. I had an ok turn out, maybe 30 kids. Mild temps (for northern MN) and wind wasn't too bad. A Photographer stopped and took pics, that's never happened before! And we made kids scream and run down the street...to me, that's a successful Halloween night!


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## Wispurs (Oct 9, 2012)

First year at new location. Our house is set rather far back. We got less than 10. The few that came loved the display. It seems two blocks over they got a lot more. That gives me hope. I think next year I need to get creative and find a way to draw them over....hmmm


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## Spooklights (Jul 4, 2006)

We had about 150 kids, which is only about half our usual amount. I'm supposing it was because of (first of all,) Sandy and also because yesterday was cold, damp, and looked like it was going to rain any moment. We had most of the yard stuff put away because of Sandy, but we did have a couple of things put up; mostly lights and jack-o-lanterns. Fortunately we do have electric, and so our crank ghost was working. The kids always like that. All in all, it was certainly a quieter year, but we still had a good time.


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## craigfly06 (May 11, 2012)

We had about 20-25 TOT last night. I spent most of yesterday puttting back up my dispalys, didnt put it all up. Funny thing though, I heard a gental knock at door, (TOT ring the bell) as i grab my candy I see flashing lights outside of house. I thought someone called the cops on my dispaly. Its a fire truck and they are parked outside my house handing out candy. I have never had that happen before, very strange! I guess they thought the kids would come to my house because it was decorated.


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## Pumpkin5 (Aug 8, 2010)

:jol:I had the BEST Halloween! We had over 400 TOT's and they started a little early at 5:30 and then my last few came around 9:15. Everyone just raved about the decorations and said how great everything was. (See there? Can you see my head inflating as I type?) All my TOT's were polite and gracious and even though I had some older teens, everyone was very curteous and well mannered. It was a great night, one of my sisters dressed as Bellatrix, the other was a skeleton and the other was Sally from NBC. They looked fantastic and were the biggest help to me. My husband was his usual Werewolf self (full moon and all) and my brother in law wore a mask....The weather was cool in the 50's and the moon was full, my Cauldron Creep and FCG ran like champs....it was a wonderful night. We had a stream of neighbors and friends stopping by to chat, drink a beer, and even a couple of policemen that just breezed by to look at all the props. It was a night of fun and Halloween happiness! All the time and work and money? I'd do it again in a heartbeat.....Now my living room looks like a prop party....


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## Bone To Pick (Oct 23, 2007)

I set up a very small last-minute display this year, and it was quiet - only about 6 TOTs. We're about 6 blocks away from the popular TOT streets, and even my daughter ditched us to hang out at a friend's house in that zone. But my wife and I had fun sitting outside and joking about chasing everyone away. :googly:


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## Dr. Maniaco (Sep 7, 2012)

Well, where to begin? It all went very well. The graveyard looked good, and I pulled off the bayou effect I was after. (I hope the pictures show it well)

We had about 50 tots, not counting the parent escorts. But the parents made an effort to really look at, and compliment the decorations. I appreciate that. I have a lot of pix to go through ...


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## jackg (Aug 18, 2012)

My "Haunt" was a great hit in my neighborhood!!!!


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## Regions Beyond (Sep 14, 2010)

For actual Halloween trick or treaters (can't invite them randomly to back yard, but had cornstalks, pumpkins, and lighting out front around and on the porch), had about 35, went good.

For the party parents threw I help set up display for each year, extraordinarily disappointing. Maybe 15 - 18 people came, and pretty much 2/3rds went one time around the yard then went inside and watched baseball on TV, and the others just came and left within 10 minutes. I know the work dad and I did was higher quality than last year and more to see, but frankly, made me think it wouldn't even have been worth half the work. Very disappointed in it and kind of killed my Halloween spirit overall for now, since people didn't seem to give two craps (besides my sister and her husband, to be fair). 

Thinking maybe next year won't bother helping, they can use my props and such if want to naturally, but I am not interested given the results/interest level from whom all they invite and not feasible to do more in front (just a driveway) on Halloween night.


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## Plastic Ninja (Sep 30, 2010)

I had a great night. Tons of good scares, and no jerk teens either. Not as many TOTs as I thought there would be, but we got candy left over, so I can't complain.


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## beelce (Jul 21, 2007)

We had a GREAT night......
This is my off year for the haunt (I only set up the trail and party every other year) so we had another couple over for dinner and sat out by a nice big fire for a few hours. Weather was perfect and we had our usual 2 TOTs who got half a bag of candy each.
It's so comforting to take a year off between parties. Lets me relax and enjoy Halloween, and gives all our haunt guest a chance to do something different for a year and be that much more excited about our haunt the next year.


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## Sananeko (Oct 17, 2009)

I worked this year at a scream park. I scared alot of kids and adults while giving out candy. I didn't work halloween cause its my anniversary but we went to my workplace and had a blast cause they didn't have to worry about the touching rules with me lol.


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## HalloweenZombie (Jul 22, 2007)

I ran a pro haunt this year called Ghoulie Manor. We were not open for Halloween and I did not do the home haunt this year. I took my girls trick or treating and had a blast. Stopped by Pyro's home haunt and thoroughly enjoyed myself! It was a very different Halloween for me, but still fun!


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## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

Pumpkin5 said:


> :jol:I had the BEST Halloween! We had over 400 TOT's and they started a little early at 5:30 and then my last few came around 9:15. Everyone just raved about the decorations and said how great everything was. (See there? Can you see my head inflating as I type?) All my TOT's were polite and gracious and even though I had some older teens, everyone was very curteous and well mannered. It was a great night, one of my sisters dressed as Bellatrix, the other was a skeleton and the other was Sally from NBC. They looked fantastic and were the biggest help to me. My husband was his usual Werewolf self (full moon and all) and my brother in law wore a mask....The weather was cool in the 50's and the moon was full, my Cauldron Creep and FCG ran like champs....it was a wonderful night. We had a stream of neighbors and friends stopping by to chat, drink a beer, and even a couple of policemen that just breezed by to look at all the props. It was a night of fun and Halloween happiness! All the time and work and money? I'd do it again in a heartbeat.....Now my living room looks like a prop party....


Reading this brought a smile to my face! We should all be so blessed as to have this type of night! So glad it went well!


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## MurrayTX (Nov 4, 2011)

Likely more than 800 ToTs!!!! Was stoopid crazy. Even before sunset, my street looked like the filming of a movie, with kids and parents everywhere in costume. My yard (alley view) haunt was initially a did, with people not grasping walking into the dark alley to look over my rock wall to see props. Then a few asked me if they could go in my yard (long and narrow down the side of the house). After a but, I have in and allowing a fee small groups to see the haunt sans actors. Things progressed...friends starting acting, and I had an impromptu yard haunt with the entrance being the exit. Far from classy or safe....but the crowds loved it!!!! Many compliments. And yes, the better props were ignored while the mask on the stick with draped jacket had people screaming. Damn $8 mask with decent lighting. Funny how that works.  Likely 100 went through the yard haunt.


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## scareme (Aug 29, 2006)

It was a fantastic night. I couldn't have asked for better weather. Half of my helpers, (all six of them) wore shorts. And no wind, a first for Oklahoma. Early in the evening I noticed a woman in sugar skull makeup, and it turned out to be skwirl, from here on Haunt Forum. I had a great time showing her around, and talked her ear off. Surprise, hungh? We had a great turnout. Last year we had 700 tots, and ran out of candy at about 600, so my daughter had to run to the store. Hubby said we were not going to run out this year, so he bought candy for 1,000. I'm really glad he did cause we ended up passing out 850 pieces. I'm knocking off about 20 I figured my crew ate, so we had about 830 toters. The Elmos were a big hit, as was Jigsaw, a '6 Jason, and a breathing grave. My daughter complaines about kids not saying Trick or Treat and Thank You, so she made a sign tell them if they wanted candy, to say TOT and TY. lol And even worse, my husband helped pass out the treats this year. We gave out fun size candy bar, a skittle packet, and a little stopwatch/light. He told me the kids were greedy little *)&$& without manners. He said one boy reached in the cauldron and grabed out a candy bar after my hubby had already given him one. Hubby grabed his hand and took it back and tok him not to try it again. lol I guess the kid did not realize there was a drill sargent manning the cauldron last night. I'm a pushover when I'm passing things out. Had a lot of people thanking us for making a Halloween house so special that it would give their kids great Halloween memories. That's the kind of stuff I do this for. And when I was out this morning taking down the last things, and picking up the candy wrappers off the lawn, cars kept stopping, saying how much they enjoyed last night. I can hardly wait until next year.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

I love reading about everyone's night and seeing your pics!!


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## kprimm (Mar 14, 2009)

It was a challenging year but pulled it all off again. My back is still feeling my efforts. Had a rough set up this year. Had to keep repairing stuff last minute while laying in the mud, but the show WILL go on. Wasn't picture perfect, but considering the weather on the two days before, I can't complain too much. That is the problem with Halloween, you are at the mercy of the weather, sometimes you get real lucky and some years you just have to deal with it. But either way, weather or no, It is Halloween and the magic is always there, and if I am breathing, so will I be. We had hundreds of kids and gave out a ton of candy. Had a few people stop and really thank me for the display. It is really amazing how those two little words can affect you when it sincerely comes from somebody's heart. Now to start building next years stuff.


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## Hallow's Eve (Oct 26, 2012)

Ours went quite well. Had a ton of people over to walk around the neighborhood with the kids and some to help hand out candy. Neighbor counted 210 TOT's, we had about 20 more after he closed up shop...My sister blogged about my decorating. Yes, my head is inflated. http://3monkeysthrowingaroundsomepaper.blogspot.com/2012/11/halloween-decorating.html?spref=fb

You can see some pics here...


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## Lord Homicide (May 11, 2012)

Holy crap you *DO* have props and not just lurk around here on the forum... a bunch of dead guys in the _living_ room.... ironic 



Pumpkin5 said:


> :jol:I had the BEST Halloween! We had over 400 TOT's and they started a little early at 5:30 and then my last few came around 9:15. Everyone just raved about the decorations and said how great everything was. (See there? Can you see my head inflating as I type?) All my TOT's were polite and gracious and even though I had some older teens, everyone was very curteous and well mannered. It was a great night, one of my sisters dressed as Bellatrix, the other was a skeleton and the other was Sally from NBC. They looked fantastic and were the biggest help to me. My husband was his usual Werewolf self (full moon and all) and my brother in law wore a mask....The weather was cool in the 50's and the moon was full, my Cauldron Creep and FCG ran like champs....it was a wonderful night. We had a stream of neighbors and friends stopping by to chat, drink a beer, and even a couple of policemen that just breezed by to look at all the props. It was a night of fun and Halloween happiness! All the time and work and money? I'd do it again in a heartbeat.....Now my living room looks like a prop party....


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## Buzz (Aug 26, 2011)

All in all, it was a good year. Like others, Sandy made me put almost everything away Sunday afternoon. Forced leave due to federal government closure kept me at home but with the wind and rain there was little I could do. I took Wednesday off work and set the whole thing back up but didn't have enough time to set up the video cameras.

At some point during all of this the power supply for my monster box died... my hovering ghost stopped hovering... and the mister for my witches cauldron failed.

I was bummed, but the kids made up for it. We had around 100 or so TOTs. Mostly really young, so its OK that the Monster Box failed since its been known to make them cry. Even still there were a few kids that wouldn't approach the house.

Lots of people were taking pictures and one fellow even shot some video. I'll be scouring YouTube for it later. :winkin:


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## Spooky1 (Aug 25, 2008)

The Halloween gods gave me a birthday present of fair weather, after drenching us with Sandy. We set up the bulk of the haunt on Wednesday and took most of it back down after the last of the ToTs were gone. We had 70 or so ToTs (less than the 100 or so we've been getting recently), and a number of adults stopped by to look at the graveyard and visit for a while. One of our neighbors sons had fun repeatedly triggering one of the animated props. It stayed dry and we had a good time, but Roxy and I were exhausted by the end of the night.


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## Dead Things (Apr 4, 2009)

A bit of a challenging lead up to Halloween night. I couldn't get the audio drivers to work with the sound track for Aggie and Gertie, my witches ( I had backups but they wouldn't cooperate either) so while I had audio, there was no jaw movement. This ticked me off to no end as all had worked in earlier tests and the whole shebang was packed up and put away until the Big Day, at which point it decided not to work. The light organ for the thunder and lightning never worked. My gravegrabber motor gave up the ghost, switched it out with another motor, but it somehow sheared off the shaft bolt, so it was no go. And it was fricking cold, hovering around 25F. 
That being said, it was a great night. We had 180 TOTs, down from last year's 250, (I didn't contact the media as I wanted to see how many we would pull in without it). Two buddies, my son, his girlfriend and my daughters' boyfriends all helped with the scares. 
Other than a couple of mp3 track glitches in the software, and the lightning effect a no go, the coven scene worked amazingly well, with Brunny flying up and around right on cue. Everyone had a great time, the kids and adults where really appreciative of the effort and only one kid was an a**. All in all a great night.


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## VillaHaunter (Jul 13, 2011)

Great weather here, just enough clouds to make the sky look spooky. Had 81 TOTs bout normal for a school night. Several TOTs stopped halfway up and driveway would not come to the door, so I took candy out to them. Some said it was the Gargoyle on the porch roof, others said it was the witch looking out of the upstairs window, I had a Gargoyle on the porch, I didn't do the witch.


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## PrettyGhoul (Oct 7, 2005)

I only got about 15 -20 tots but good night. The wind stopped, fair weather and the kids had a blast. I was worried at first....the first tot didn't show until 7:15 and was only a baby in her stroller; I wondered "did I do all this for the proud parents of their first baby?" lol

More tots arrived until about 945 pm, more babies then older and older and finally the teens. Really great costumes this year. I was amazed at how much though all the kids put in to it. I made them all take triple bags of candy (not the babies). One new Dad of one of the babies was just in awe of my yard, he noticed every detail and asked all sorts of questions. I have a feeling he's going to be a haunter. He was checking out how I set up the FX, fog machine, music, lights everything. He was pretty young, early 20s I think. He was also the only one who noticed my favorite pumpkin....my cannible pumpkin. He was so delighted with that and all my bluckies. I was wearing one of my HF t shirts and he asked me about that too so he may be joining up soon.

I also had two kids thank me for doing this, which kind of blew me away.

I took all my stuff in at about 11pm, except for a dozen bluckies or so, and am glad I did. It started pouring again, a little after midnight.

Fun night!


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## Haunted Bayou (Feb 16, 2007)

It was warm during the day so I was sweating a good bit but the temps were comfy in time for ToT. I had a good, enthusiastic crowd this year with a little over 300 ToTs. The guests really liked the haunt, which was a relief since I was kinda worried it would come off as lame. I had a blast and the guests did too. It means a lot to me that everybody is appreciative, especially the teens who gave great compliments about the set this year.


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## dynoflyer (Oct 8, 2006)

Had everything but the pneumatics up on Friday and Saturday night. Stopped a lot of passing cars, a few even stopped to say "your house is awesome!" 

After watching the hurricane report I took down everything outside and packed it away. It started blowing and raining about noon on Sunday. My son's car took a direct hit from a big maple tree on Monday, it's totaled. 

:jol: Halloween night I put out the Pumpkin Sentinels and Scarecrow, stuck a fog machine in the bushes and let it go at that. We had a little more than 100 TOTs (I gave away exactly 100 LED fingerlights). Surprisingly it was mostly little kids this year and all over by 7:30 pm. Weather was warm (for us) in the high 50's with the moon between the clouds. All in all, it was a good night. . . .for a Wednesday. Already looking forward to next year.


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## Dr. Maniaco (Sep 7, 2012)

But I didn't study for a test!!! Welcome anyway!


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## Greg G (Nov 4, 2012)

*Some new stuff*

Weather was pretty good for Iowa (around 50 degrees, no wind, or rain). This was the first time I had thunder and lightning effects and I was really pleased with how it turned out. Had lots of compliments on that. Had about 50 or so TOTs which is a little less than normal.

Greg


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## Greg G (Nov 4, 2012)

*thunder and lightning video*

Here is a video of my thunder and lightning. Used 2 channels of a 5 channel color organ to have 2 different lightning flash sources.

https://picasaweb.google.com/ghgemmer/Halloween2012#5807030801428531250


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## Dr. Maniaco (Sep 7, 2012)

Awesome effects! Well done. I REALLY like that lady's head. So realistic!


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## Greg G (Nov 4, 2012)

Thanks Dr. Maniaco

I've purchased the heads over the years. Yeah, the first time I saw that female head I couldn't believe how realistic it looked. To bad the place I got it from didn't make a version where the eye lids would open on command. That would've been unbelievably scary.

Greg


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## Haunted Bayou (Feb 16, 2007)

I like the strobe effect of the lightning because it looks like a bad storm.

I use 1 work light synched via a cheap unit that I got on sale for less than $20. It works but doesn't have that type of effect.

Love the severed heads. Creepy.


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## Haunted Spider (Sep 6, 2010)

we ended up with 43 tots yesterday, passed out 50 hot dogs, 2 gallons of hot chocolate, and a gallon of hot cider. It was 37 degrees but no wind or rain. Couldn't ask for a better evening.


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## I.Heart.Halloween (Nov 5, 2012)

Mine went well. Cranked the scary music, ran the fog machine, scared a few tweeners. And all was right with the world :funny:


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## FredKrueger (Apr 12, 2012)

Sandy put a huge dent in the Halloween festivities around here, took in everything Monday night and set it back up Wednesday morning. Had no electricity until Thursday either. It was a real bad year for Trick or Treaters, I have lived at my current home for 14 years and have never had less that 60 TOT's but this year only got 25, average is about 80. But still got compliments and scared a few people, but just wasnt in the mood much this year. Hopefully next year will be better.


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## Great Pumpkin (Feb 21, 2011)

We got hit with hurricane sandy! But the weekend before we had our Annual Halloween Party! Sucked tho because half our guests cancelled last minute! We were pissed!I just don't know what happened this year???? It was freaky!!


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## Great Pumpkin (Feb 21, 2011)

Greg G said:


> Weather was pretty good for Iowa (around 50 degrees, no wind, or rain). This was the first time I had thunder and lightning effects and I was really pleased with how it turned out. Had lots of compliments on that. Had about 50 or so TOTs which is a little less than normal.
> 
> Greg


Greg nice job! Where dod you get your storm machine from??


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## Greg G (Nov 4, 2012)

Great Pumpkin

I got a lot of my information for the thunder and lightning simulator from posters on hauntforum. I then found the following website 
http://wolfstone.halloweenhost.com/ThunderAndLightning/clsint_LightningSimulation.html
and after deciding on the color organ approach (since I could use it for Christmas too, and other occasions), I got a prebuilt 5 channel color organ and control panel from Xkitz.com and put it in a plastic enclosure. I modified a power strip to replace all the receptacles in it with individual receptacles that the color organ would drive (1 for each channel) and attached it to the enclosure. Using 5 power cord ends would have worked as just as well although not as clean looking.

I used fast reacting 250 watt blue photo flood lamp bulbs for the light source (as mentioned by posters here on other threads) with spring clamp aluminum work reflectors. I only used 2 channels of the color organ which were the lowest frequency channels and that seemed to work pretty good for two different lightning flash sources. The bulbs have a short guaranteed life time of 3 continuous hours but because the on duty cycle is so low (just during the lightning flashes) they should last several Halloweens and they were only $3 a piece.

I found a few free thunder and lightning sound tracks on the web that sounded pretty good and used those. I then used my laptop audio line output to drive the lightning simulator and the amplified tweeters and woofer that I normally have hooked to my desktop computer which I put outside for this (the woofer was a 25 watt speaker)


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## lisa48317 (Aug 18, 2010)

It was windy here over the weekend, but Monday our weather radio went off at 5:30 am with wind advisories (thanks, Sandy!) so I went out and herded all my skeletons, ghosts & life-sized figures into the garage. Tuesday morning I took most of my blowmolds in, just in case. The winds calmed a bit Tuesday night, so I took and half day off work Wednesday and set it all back up.

We got about 50 kids, even tho the wind came back and brought rain with it. I think I'm getting the reputation of being the Halloween House, judging by the comments I heard (and gave extra candy for those comments, too!) 

"Wow, this is the coolest house!" - 2 little girls
"Dude! This is the house I was telling you about!!" - one teenage boy to another
"I love your ghosts and skeletons and ......." - random princess as she was walking away
"Wow! This is great!" - a mom

So overall, it was a good year!


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