# Haunt on Windy Hill 2007



## NickG (Sep 12, 2006)

this year the haunt was brought to a whole new level yet again! I started working on ideas and new props early in August. New props for the year include a monster in a box, thunder and lightning, a witch to brew potion in our 1/2 55gal drum cauldron, a partial toe-pincher coffin, new boarded up windows, and a couple of other small additions including a new haunt sign, 8 more tikis for the other side of the yard, a new, reusable giant spiderweb tied from cotton clothesline, and some bones to adorn a freshly dug grave. In addition to that, some major additions were made ot the witch shop, 2 new shelves with about 30 new witch potion / ingredient bottles and all new labels, 3 styles of brooms, new wands, lanterns, and a couple of other small items were added.

I began to setup the haunt on Oct 20th. With the help of my friend's stepson Bruce and his friend Josh I was able to get the garage cleared out and we had the "walls" put up and some lumber cleared from the driveway. On the 27th my Niece Jessica and her boyfriend Mike came by and were a lot of help. We got the fencing, tombstones, and spider web put out. On the 28th Bruce and Josh joined me again and the PVC guys were put out and the witch shop was 80% finished. On the 30th I was up late setting up the blue flood lights and lightning spot lamps using the darkness of the night prior to take the time to adjust them so they would be ready to go. I used 3 across the main part of the yard and 1 for the other side, which differed from last year in that last year I had 4 for the main side and none on the other. It seems that the yard was much more balanced this way, especially with the additional tikis. On the 31st I spent all morning rigging the electrical items, put out the tiki torches and did a little more work in the witch shop, then in the afternoon I made an ice run for the chillers, picked up our former foster son and his mom and little brother who were coming to tot' in our neighborhood and finished up the witch shop and setup the foggers. Also that afternoon my neighbor had called the editor of the local town newspaper (well, next town over) and he showed up with a photographer to ask a couple of questions and take some pictures. I've yet to see an article but it's a good start to getting some attention next year and it was nice to have them come out.

After things were situated I got into my jumpsuit as the "grounds keeper" and before I knew it there were tons of people streaming into the witch shop and I was handing out candy like a madman as the boys were out lighting candles - Mike even stopped by to help out for a little but though he couldn't stay due to prior commitments. After a while I was able to pass on the candy duty and mingled with some folks as I tried to capture some good video, keep candles lit, fog machines fed and the thunder and lightning booming. That was probably the most impressive part of the haunt, it worked perfectly! The two 150w flood lights filled the yard with light as the thunder crashed. I did have to reset the CD player a couple of times due to vibration induced errors (it was supported on some open-cell foam too) but other than that it was great, especially when there would be a lengthly pause and new arrivals were suddenly startled by a loud crash and flash. The MIB was also a pretty big hit, the sign placed out next to it as bait worked like I had planned - as interested folks would walk up to it to read what it said the lid would leap into action and smoke poured out.

The wind was great this year and I had good fog cover with a slight breeze to carry it across the yard. I had placed the 1000w continuous fogger in the old trunk I picked up along with the chiller with the outlet on the bottom of the box (it had 3" wooden "legs") and it worked great for almost all night but towards the end it was smelling funny and hardly any fog was coming out at all, a quick inspection showed the whole inside of the box covered in condensed fog fluid - I'm not sure what happened but I think the chiller's piping got some water in it from ice melt thereby restricting it's flow and causing the fog to back up into the box, overheating the fogger. I haven't been able to take it apart yet to see what's going on, the pump runs but fog just barely comes out. (which is why my pics are devoid of fog. maybe the video caught some...) The only other hiccup was when I was setting up I found out I was unable to play Krough's '06 graveyard ambient sounds on the CD player I had to use for and had to scratch it and go with just the thunder and lightning.

the turnout was pretty good - to keep track of tot's this year we bought a bag of 400 tootsie rolls and handed one out along with the other candy to every kid, and by that count we got about 240 tot's and we guess around 350-400 total visitors (including tot's, friends, teens, and parents) People seemed to be most impressed with the witch cauldron, many kids tried leaning into the pot to see what she was making. Sevreal times little ones commented on how "she's cookin' something" which was funny... and a couple of kids thought it was a real person at first. It's interesting how people's impressions changed from last year, we got very few comments about the FCG who worked flawlessly all evening (due to 4 hours of rigging and adjusting new rope types and pulley suspension) and we only got a few comments about the pumpkins (folks raved about them last year) We also had some later than usual tot's - had quite a few show up between 8:30 and 9:00 and one neighbor came by to check it out a little after that which was great. (I think 8 is too early to end tot myself too)

I was also fortunate enough to have a former coworker make an hour long drive out with his wife to see the haunt and our daughter Lizzie, as well as another current coworker who brought over his girlfriend and her children who hadn't been tot'ing in 2 years! They were pretty excited and I was told they enjoyed themselves thoroughly. Our other friends from about an hour away (Jeremy and Sarah) came to visit with Charlee, our daughter's "best friend" (she's a month younger) and they had a good time as well. On a disappointing note, at the end of the evening we had no donations for the food drive, not one. I didn't advertise it but the box and sign was out for 2 weeks prior... one of our friends was there when we were discussing it after the haunt and magically a grocery bag full of items showed up by our mailbox the next morning. Maybe it will go better next year. It was also a bit of a bummer that my sister (and photographer) couldn't make it, as this would have been her 3rd year helping out... but hopefully she can join us in 2008. Overall, it was a great event and we're already planning a couple of additions for next year...

Also definitely need some adult help for next year. luckily Jeremy and Sarah were a big help with Lizzie and handing out candy, but for a while I was by myself while they were out tot'ing w/ the Mrs and the kids.

more and larger pics on my website. (text is the same) - these are what I'd call overexposed pics... taken w/ the camera set to "night scenery" so it's not quit the same as how it looked... I like how they caught the witch stirring as a blur, and also the lightning lighting as well.

(edit)
- oh yeah, and I actually managed to make a scrim into the side of the garage by using some dark green mesh type material (like athletic jersey stuff w/ the oval shaped holes in it) that I picked up at wally world.. it looked great, in the lighting conditions it looked like a black wall (though slightly different than the plastic tarp stuff) and when standing behind it I was completely invisible unless I clicked on my flashlight. I only got to try it out once though before the tot's came... after that I was busy running around and forgot all about it...


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## Ghoul Friday (Oct 6, 2007)

Your witch looks great in there. Hehehe because of the low lighting/slow exposure in the picture, it looks like she's stirring at supersonic speed


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## BudMan (Mar 6, 2007)

Very nice, like the witch, maybe I'll make one for next year.


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## pyro (Oct 7, 2006)

nice job nick


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## heresjohnny (Feb 15, 2006)

Nice!!


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## JohnnyL (Aug 17, 2006)

Very cool! Really nice job! Love that spiderweb!


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## NickG (Sep 12, 2006)

thanks for the complements - I realized I didn't have any pics of the broomsticks or birdcages in the witch shop so I grabbed some before I took them down... added to pics on the website.


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## dave the dead (Jan 31, 2007)

very cool display.


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## edwood saucer (Aug 21, 2006)

Great job - beautiful windows!

Dig the tombstones on the right.


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## Koumajutsu (Aug 9, 2006)

Wow! Your yard is beautiful. And your lighting is just perfect. I am in awe my friend. Excelent job! SUperb! Stupendous! Three Thumbs Up!


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## widowsbluff (May 24, 2006)

Nice job, the lighting looks super.


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## skeletonowl (Aug 8, 2006)

if you took everything away except the lighting I would still go lol


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## ScareFX (Aug 18, 2004)

Terrific display NickG. Your witch scene looked great.


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## Haunted Bayou (Feb 16, 2007)

Very nice display. Did you make the spider web?


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## slightlymad (May 25, 2006)

Great work


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## NickG (Sep 12, 2006)

Haunted Bayou said:


> Did you make the spider web?


yeah, it's about 600' of cotton clothesline that I soaked in rit whitener after having tied it. the area it covers is 21' across and 18' high. It took about 8 hours to tie and another 2 to hang up... on the plus side it's all ready to hang up again next year. (previous 3 years I tied the web in place w/ kite string and cut it down afterwards)


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