# This is my typical day of haunting



## Ryan Wern (Dec 3, 2009)

This is my basic routine when building my props/haunt. I think I'm crazy and so does everyone else. 

I started my day by pounding 2 16 oz. diet Rockstars. A must for haunting! Fired up the stereo in the garage and put in a mixed CD I made (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Social Distortion, Sublime, Offspring) and let the Rockstar do it's job. Originally, I was going to just wrap a PVC frame in foam and build a static body for my coffin. Maybe it was the caffiene, but I started looking around my garage and found a huge roll of drip line that I had, so I said screw it and built me a ribcage. I began to put this thing together and started slapping on the liquid latex. I just snowballed. Then I was rocking out to the Chili Peppers and started to think how crazy-weird it would be to have a checkerboard room with a blacklight and a strobe (the song "Give it Away" was on, followed by Rollercoaster of Love). I think that thought came from the weirdness of those two songs, which, of course, you would play in your bad-acid-trip checkerboard room. The whole time I'm singing along with the lyrics and my 2 year old comes out and starts dancing around in the garage. She is always interested in what I'm doing, and she came over and said "Whatcha doin' dad?" I told her I was building a monster and she said "OOOOOHHH!" and laughed. This is the same kid that laughed the whole way through Pirates of the Carribean and thought it was the best thing ever. Mid-chorus through "Story of My Life" by Social Distortion, which of course I was singing along to, my wife came home from the store and looked at me like I was a complete nut job. The look had some merit to it, because she told me "you are a weirdo". I can't see why. It was 105 degrees in my garage and I'm blasting punk rock and building a zombie in mid July, with a full-size coffin laying at my feet, which my daughter is now playing with her dolls in. What's weird about that? I now have a rotting torso attached to my workbench. Another day of haunting in the books!

I don't know why I decided to share this story, but it's basically my routine when I get buisy on Halloween stuff. I just let my brain run wild. Things just evolve. I start with a plan and end so far away from that original plan that I can't remember how I got there. Even though my neighbors say I'm nuts for spending the summer in my garage sweating by butt off for something that happens in October, they count on me to bring the fun on Halloween night. My kids think all the stuff I make is the coolest stuff they have ever seen and they get involved with my building. Do any of you have funny routines like this? I guess the "routine" here for me is the massive dose of go-juice, loud music, and my wife calling the people in the white coats to come get me! How 'bout you?

PS-

The day ended when I wasn't paying attention and ran a drywall screw into my left index finger. Unfortunately, I run a screw into that same finger every year. Must be the caffiene.


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## PeeWeePinson (Feb 23, 2006)

Sounds like a normal day around my house...everyone that's not a haunter thinks you are crazy, everyone that is a haunter thinks this sounds perfectly sane and a fun time!! Post pics of the props if you can!


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## Ryan Wern (Dec 3, 2009)

PeeWeePinson said:


> Sounds like a normal day around my house...everyone that's not a haunter thinks you are crazy, everyone that is a haunter thinks this sounds perfectly sane and a fun time!! Post pics of the props if you can!


I did. Look in General Prop Discussion for "Semi-finished corpse" or something like that. Keep in mind it's in-progress. I'll post pics as I go.


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## scareme (Aug 29, 2006)

Sounds like a good day to me. Except there should be some AC in the picture.


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## Just Whisper (Jan 19, 2009)

Yep, I've been sitting out in my 100 degree garage all week working on giant spiders, corpsing bodies, and painting tombs. My neighbors? Every one that walked their dogs, or knew me at all, stopped to see what I was doing. I got ooohs and ahhhhs and excited questions from all, eager to get a glimpse of what holy terror would roll out of my garage this fall. The kids are starting to ride their bikes past my house hoping for a peek in advance. My husband and the kids just shake their heads at me sitting in the heat as they walk past me on their way into the air conditioned refuge, taking only a moment to look at my latest creation and give a grimaced look of approval. "That's really gross Mom, looks great". I love these days.


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## GothicCandle (Mar 26, 2007)

ypu, sounds like a good, progressive day. Though I do agree, some air conditioning should be included. Some haunters might want to be un-dead, but not dead. Heat stroke isn't any fun. 

It's awesome your kids are excited about it too. Some parents I know have told me that some kids find halloween scary and they roll their eyes when I tell them my future kids wouldn't be, how could they? lol. Is there a haunter parent whos kids are truly terrified of halloween props?? seems like such an odd idea to me. People are scared of things they don't understand, once a kid came to haunt and was scared of a prop so I quickly took it apart and put it back together to show her it was fake. She thought it was really cool after that. 

I'm moving into my own apartment soon, is it weird that I have a list of props I plan on putting up all year long??? lol


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## Just Whisper (Jan 19, 2009)

A/C is highly overrated. I have a fan. LOL Working on getting a portable AC for our garage this year, tired of having to stop every couple hours to go jump in the pool to cool off. I don't mind the heat until it goes over 90 with 80+% humidity. Then I want some AC.


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## Ryan Wern (Dec 3, 2009)

My neighbors are getting curious too. Not as much as in years past, but they still try to peek in the garage if I'm in there working. I try to keep the garage door at least half way shut if it's not too hot so the snoopers can't see in (mainly the neighborhood kids, whom I plan to make soil their pants on the big night!). Sometimes I can't avoid people seeing what I'm doing, like when I'm building wall panels. My garage is such a mess this time of year with the projects I have going, so I have to do them outside. For instance, I was building a new drop panel today and my aunt drove by and asked what I was doing. All I had to say was "Guess" and she knew I was making Halloween stuff. The neighbor saw me out there and I just got a simple "Hi". His friend gave me some weird looks because not only was a building a drop panel outside in the heat, but I had my garage door up and had rotting corpses, a coffin, and skulls everywhere. The thing is, even though people who don't know any better think I'm weird for doing what I do nearly year-round, I do it for them to enjoy, not for me. I'm actually pretty normal. I work at a prison, I'm a former fireman and EMT, I have three kids and a wife and live in a nice neighborhood. I just have an imagination, and that must be why the kids relate to me so well, I get just as exited about a trip to Disneyland as they do. After dealing with the crap I deal with all week at my job, this is my outlet.
As far as the A/C goes, I agree. I gets hot in there, that's for sure. If I stay out in the garage all day, I put away like 8-12 bottles of water. I don't notice the heat until I go into the air conditioned house, then it's all over. 
I'm sure just about all of you can relate to me in some way. People think we are ALL a bunch of freaks, but at the end of the day, it's for other people to enjoy and we work damn hard to give them a good showing come Halloween night. Hope you all are having a great year so far and best wishes to you and your families.


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## GothicCandle (Mar 26, 2007)

oh, yeah, for sure. People think we are weird for building in july but they ooo and aww in october. Most people don't know just how much work we have to put in, for some odd reason they think it all just appers over night. Well, if it did, perhaps the religious nay sayers might have something to complain about. lol. No matter what it seems like, those corpses, skellys, monsters and such don't just materilize in october. We gotta work all year long to get everything perfect. All for the perfect mix of screams and "oh wow!" from the people who come check it out on halloween night.


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## LairMistress (Sep 22, 2009)

GothicCandle said:


> Some parents I know have told me that some kids find halloween scary and they roll their eyes when I tell them my future kids wouldn't be, how could they? lol. Is there a haunter parent whos kids are truly terrified of halloween props?? seems like such an odd idea to me. People are scared of things they don't understand, once a kid came to haunt and was scared of a prop so I quickly took it apart and put it back together to show her it was fake. She thought it was really cool after that.


When my oldest was 3, he was afraid of one of my props, but none of the rest. The one he was afraid of was a faux FCG from LTD catalog shown here: Revenants Lair 2005 :: the cheapo faux FCG picture by ahreinya - Photobucket

It only bothered him a little--he'd whimper a little and hide, but not cry; and his younger brother loved it. Shortly after I got it, I found a 7 foot tall "hall tree" that someone had thrown out in the trash, and I got the idea to make my 7 ft tall Skeletal Executioner with it (it now has a PVC base). http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v...20Lair%202005/?action=view&current=009_9.jpg&

He watched me put it together, and wasn't afraid of it at all...so I reasoned with him, that the little faux FCG was much smaller and less scary, and he agreed. He's liked them both ever since.  He is 10 now, and still prefers the less scary stuff, but his younger brother LOVES scary stuff. (they're a year apart in age)

When we went to Disney World when they were 5 & 6, my oldest was a little afraid of the Haunted Mansion, but his brother laughed the whole way through. All three times!


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## LairMistress (Sep 22, 2009)

The 1st pic didn't come out, sorry...I pasted it just like I did with the 2nd URL. It's picture #13 of the same album as the 2nd pic.


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