The Dimmick Family's Halloween Haunt
Posts tagged Graveyard
Halloween 2010
Nov 2nd
This year’s Halloween was very trying and frustrating. After last week’s storm that damaged the fence and tombstones and having to repair them, then a hail and wind storm hit shortly before the ToTs were to start that broke one more tombstone and removed paint from the fence columns again, I was ready to throw in the towel and call it quits for the year. Luckily, the wind settled down enough to allow me to set the tombstones back up and put out most of the props. Gourdon Rotsworth made his debut appearance and the two ghosts were set up inside the house to greet the trick-or-treaters. It ended up being fun and I was relieved that it was finally done at the end of the night. 
I have big plans for next year already. Enjoy this years haunt pictures.
Graveyard Fence with Stone Columns and Wrought Iron Panels
Nov 2nd
Last year I made a quick and simple graveyard fence out of free, used pallets and promised that I had big plans for this years fence. Well, here it is.
This beautiful fence is made from plywood, 2x2s, 1″ and 2″ foam, 2x3s, 1/2″ PVC pipe and decorative finials. Instructions on building the columns can be downloaded here. They are the Vile Things columns with a modified wrought iron style fence, rather than the wood fence they make.
Repairing and Strengthening Tombstones
Oct 17th
I’ve been collecting various tombstones over the years and every year I get frustrated when the wind blows them away or the screws or stakes holding them in the ground rip out or break them. The little plastic “T” stakes they come with DO NOT work to keep them from blowing away. This year I dedicated some time and budget to repairing and strengthening all of my tombstones. Here is what I did and it seems to be working so far:
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- 1″x1.5″ around the base glued with Liquid Nails and nailed to 1″x6″ board
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- Sealed and textured with joint compound
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- Painted with exterior latex paint to seal and waterproof joint compound
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- The whole gang.
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- They stand on their own now too. Useful for storage and using on hard surfaces.
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- Spray painted with gray and black to try to match original colors. Holes are for staking to ground.
Halloween 2009
Nov 2nd
This year’s haunt was a real success. I focused a lot of my time and budget into the lighting and ambiance of the haunt this year. Black lights, fog and chiller, lightning, thunder, candles flickering all added to the creepy, haunted vibe. My “Scaretaker” was a real hit with the kids and adults alike. We had a steady stream of ToTs all evening and at one point there was a huge crowd of parents and kids standing in front of my house admiring all our hard work. I wish I had taken a picture of that, it was quite a sight to behold. Here are some miscellaneous pictures from Halloween night.
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- Drawing faces for our jack-o-lanterns.
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- Carving our jack-o-lanterns.
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- Annie loved hers until she touched it, then not so much.
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- Ben making a face like his jack-o-lantern.
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- Tyler didn’t want to have anything to do with his jack-o-lantern.
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- The finished jack-o-lanterns.
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- With the lights down and “candles” inside.
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- On the front porch.
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- They looked spooky.
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- Not sure what happened here, but I like the effect somewhat.
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- The Never Moor
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- The Never Moor
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- The Never Moor
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- The Never Moor
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- The Never Moor
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- The Never Moor
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- The Never Moor
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- The Never Moor
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- The ghost video projected in our upstairs window.
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- One of the cooler shots of the night.
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- Fog machine and chiller worked okay. Hopefully I’ll figure it out better for next year.
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- The Scaretaker
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- Lighting was awesome this year.
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- Creepy walk up to the door.
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- Last pic of the jack-o-lanterns.
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- The Scaretaker
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- The Never Moor
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- The Never Moor
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- The Scaretaker
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- Just before taking everything down.
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- Just before taking everything down.
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- The kids hanging out in the graveyard.
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- Princess Leia (Annie), Jedi (me), Yoda (Tyler) and Darth Vader (Ben)
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- Annie’s first Halloween.
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- Ben smiling underneath his mask.
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- Tyler cheesing it as Yoda.
Graveyard Candles
Oct 27th
One of the candle clusters out in the yard without the flash. Awesome!
To add to the creepiness factor of the ambience of our haunt I wanted to have a lot of candles sitting around lighting the headstones and walkway. I bought a couple dozen battery-powered tealights that flicker like real flames off of Ebay from Zest Candles. I bought a 10′ piece of 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe and was able to cut about 22 4″, 6″ and 8″ pieces. I sanded all of the black writing off of the pipe, then filled them with expandable foam. When the foam was thoroughly dry I cut the excess off, then pushed the foam down to allow the tealights to sit inside the pipe with the “flame” exposed. I then used hot glue to make the “wax” drips down the sides. I was going to paint the pipes with UV reactive paint, but I was pleasantly surprised that the hot glue was already reactive and we think it looks cooler to have just the drips glowing and not the “candle” part.
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- 1 1/2″ PVC pipe cut and sanded.
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- Filled with expandable foam.
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- The foam cut and pushed down into the pipe.
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- Applying the hot glue.
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- Applying the hot glue.
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- Looking good.
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- They turned out better than I had hoped.
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- One of the candle clusters out in the yard.
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- One of the candle clusters out in the yard without the flash. Awesome!
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- Notice the spots of orange from the candles throughout the graveyard.
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- With the flash.
