The Vysther's Halloween Haunt Journal: HALLOWEEN 2023 - Huge Green Dragons, Massive Winged Vampires, and pushing ahead in the face of adversity

I think 2023 is going to go down as the year of Medical Headaches - complete with tooth issues, sinus issues, a run in with COVID in March and my wife’s knee replacement surgery in early August? Our joy knew no bounds.

Needless to say, we stayed home a lot....

With all of that in mind, while we did a few projects - I finally managed to fashion a signed for McDougall’s House of Horrors from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, plus a few other bits and pieces - and purchased a couple new items - Home Depot scored for us twice in a genuinely boring year for props, with an amazingly HUGE Green Dragon and a terrific 9’ Winged Vampire a la The Last Voyage of the Demeter - great, overlooked monster movie, btw - overall, after the Major Shopping Spree we did last year plus the aforementioned medical headaches, we made the most of what we had, and tweaked, torqued and came up with something we thought was pretty darn cool if you ask me...

I have to give HUGE kudos and thanks to our daughter Hunter Howard and good friend Justin Higgins for their help in getting the yard set up. Could not have done it without them.

Funnily enough, with all the downtime due to my wife’s recovery, we spent a lot of time planning for the 2024 season - add to that driving around and checking out other folks’ haunts, we found quite a few ideas to steal for next year....

I suspect next year will see a BIG resurgence in hitting the road and possibly even haunt acting again - limited - sometimes, minimizing activity can inspire you.

I must say, however, October 30th and Halloween Night were MAJOR bummers!

The weather was SO stinking cold, it was unreal - took all the joy out of Trick or Treat and looking at other people’s displays - we cut it REAL short this year, an inch or two above freezing - with snow flurries, no less...still, the last four or five years, the weather has been magnificent, so, “...sometimes ya lose, cuz there ain’t no cure for the Trick or Treat Blues....” *ahem!*

So, what does that leave for 2024?

It truly depends on if we stay in our residence or not - we’ve been eyeing the idea of renting a house for a number of years, and we’re going to give it the old college try, pardon the expression, and see if we can find something we like that won’t put us into bankruptcy...

But that is for another day, for now, let the tour begin...

Of course, what would our Halloween be without freshly carved Jack O'Lanterns...?

Of course, the season would mean nothing without exploring what other haunters have done, and we were quite fortunate to make some new friends this year through their STUNNING home haunt out in Beavercreek, OH...wow...just wow!