HALOWEEN 2024 - Home Depot Madness, Hurricanes, Broken Wrists and wind, wind, and more wind!!!

Wow! What a screwy year ‘24 has been...and follow suit with an *really* difficult/challenging Haunt Season…

...oh, don’t misunderstand, it *definitely* had it’s enjoyable moments, but, good grief, maintaining our display was an uphill battle from Square One...but I’m getting ahead of myself...

It started off calmly enough in the first few months with basic repairs and building a few extra pieces for our Great Pumpkin/Peanuts section...and suddenly, we built around six or seven new segments, while repairing the rest.

In terms of the animatronics, Home Depot certainly knocked it out of the park this season, that’s for sure! 

We were initially only interested in their Frankenstein figure, but, as more and more of their inventory was revealed, we were FLABBERGASTED at what was coming and grabbed no less than five pieces, included an amazing Headless Horseman, Haunted Tree and a nifty Nosferatu figure...we spent more money than is legal, trust me!

Add to that, Haunted Hill Farm’s Dracula figure...and, well...what can ya’ say, really? 😎

...add to that, I ran across a series of Classic Monsters 3' stickers and managed to put together a series of character stones that came off pretty well, but were a genuine pain to make stay upright....

2024 marked the 45th Anniversary of Rich Koz's Svengoolie, and we dedicated a special section to him....we've built quite a few Sven based props as it is, so it was just a matter of concocting an anniversary piece that included new recruits to the show Nostalgiaferatu, Gwengoolie and The Imp.

We were fortunate to have a HUGE amount of help setting everything up this year - our display has become SO big that we cannot get it situated without a good amount of help - add to that, it's *still* just plain old ridiculously HOT and HUMID at that point - the September 20th weekend - to try anything as it is, and we're always grateful to all those who supported us.

Hurricane Helene blew through our area and just wrecked EVERYTHING in one fell swoop - we were fortunate to only have one of our characters break significantly (but repairs were easy) - it was SO disheartening to have all our work ruined inside of one afternoon...we were literally running around trying to save everything from getting blown away, and both the wife and I got clobbered in the head a few times by airborne props, trying to salvage as much as possible.

We almost threw in the towel, but, thanks to our neighbors encouragement, we managed to get our repairs done inside of three days, but, unfortunately, that wasn't the end of it.... 

One of the biggest problems after the hurricane was just an inordinate amount of wind we had to contend with on almost a bi-daily basis! 

It was like guerilla warfare, coordinating one area anew, only to have certain sections fall right over AGAIN and AGAIN! Argh!!!!

The nicest surprise happened shortly thereafter when one of the owners/upper management of our apartment complex drove buy to take a look at our work and met Lisa in the front yard - this young lady was AMAZED and was thanking us for doing this for so long for the community...in a truly unexpected and generous movie, she gifted us with a $200 Amazon Gift Card, and encouraged us to keep going as long and as far as we want to....which was both genuinely humbling and inspiring.

We began the season with hitting a few commercial haunts, but, after being seriously disappointed on two occasions back-to-back, began working with our FrightMaps app and drove around checking out all what other people were doing in the vicinity, and we were just AMAZED at the talent out there!

In that regard, this was one of the best seasons we had - far more economical, too! - and we've included a section here on all the fantastic work done in the Miami Valley.

The toughest thing to contend with occurred on the night before Halloween, when my wife and I were out and about looking at home haunts, and she took a spill and broke her wrist in two places....talk about horrible timing and unnecessary suffering! 

Thankfully, they were only hairline fractures and healed quickly, but still, it was just another unwanted piece of medial drama we could have done quite well without...

Trick or Treat was nice, if somewhat waterlogged - it rained all evening - but it was a satisfying - if somewhat difficult - conclusion to the proceedings with Lisa's fractures and all...but we got to see old friends and neighbors...nothing stops us on Halloween Night, sorry! 

We've reached a point in terms of storage where we are CHOCK FULL - and, depending on what we do next season, we do see the need for a Lock and Store - bottom line? We got too much stuff anymore to keep it here! 😨😨😨😨

What's up for 2025? WHO KNOWS! 

We have so much stuff to play with we can do variations on a theme for many seasons, and I don't think anyone would notice any repetition 😂😂😂😂....still, that's not us...we've got a couple ideas up our sleeve, and we're very curious to as what Home Depot releases next year - some of our schemes will hinge on their output, but that's kind of  a "wait and see" situation at this point...

For now, enjoy the photos, Faithful Reader, and we'll see you on the spooky side of things next time around...

...as I mentioned earlier, we MUST give due credit to some of our local neighborhood rivals as well....there was a TREMENDOUS amount of Home Haunts this season, with some fantastic imagination behind them...we were duly impressed...

...and I would be horribly remiss if I didn't include a few videos...

...until 2025...adieu, dear fiends...