ANOTHER PROP PROJECT COMPLETED

I'm happy to have another project completed for my cemetery, I spent the weekend upgrading my old store bought tombstones.

I've never really been happy with my old tombstones because I've always had a hard time keeping them standing up straight when they are placed in the ground.

In the past I've used either wooden or rebar stakes, but they look like crap from behind or snap if there's a big gust of wind.

This year I purchased 2"x 6" wood lumber, I cut the wood to match each tombstone to size, drilled holes into both the wood and tombstone, placed 8" spiked nails filled with construction adhesive foam board into the tombstones. I then drilled two additional holes on each side of the wood to pound nails threw into the ground and painted the wood grey to match the tombstones.

Next year I plan on making many of my own custom tombstones.

MY NIECE MEGAN IS A VAMPIRE

I just found out that my niece Megan is a Vampire and I think it's great.

This would explain why I've never see her around during the day, I just thought she was like most teenagers that like to sleep all day.

Megan will be handing out candy on Halloween night to all the kiddies, I hope she doesn't get thirsty!

TRICK R' TREAT SAM PROP

I'm very excited about the new addition to the Thornhill Woods Haunted House family for Halloween 2009.

My friend Brian Lashchuk from Beyond the Grave Productions created a new custom prop for me from the soon to be released horror movie "Trick r' Treat" (Out on DVD October 6th, 2009).

HALLOWEEN CANDY

Last year we had approximately 2,300 kids visit the Thornhill Woods Haunted House on Halloween night and another 400 kids from the local public school Carville Mills a few day before Halloween.

We know this because we counted the candy that was donated and what we had purchased. Believe it or not, we ran out candy around 9:00 pm and still had many kids coming to our door.

This year I'm happy to say that we were able to get two major sponsors to help us out with the overwhelming amount of trick 'r treaters, which will also help us increase the donations that we give to Sick Kids Hospital every year.

Old Dutch Foods for the second year in a row has graciously donated potato chips.

Cadbury is a confectionery company that manufactures chocolate, gum and candy. This year they have also agreed to help us out by donating various products from their Maynards line.

Most off all, thank you to all of you for your generous donations to Sick Kids Hospital.

PROJECTOR TOMBSTONE

I can't believe it's only 40 days until Halloween!

What ever free time I have in the evenings and weekends, I spend on getting all my props and decor ready for another spooky Halloween season.

I attended the Transworld Haunt show earlier this year in St. Louis and picked up some new props for my haunt. One of them is a custom banner from Illusionator who specializes in full-color, photo quality, custom banners and signs for haunted attractions.

I wanted to in close my porch area and create a haunted hallway for the kids to walk through to get to the garage area where my laboratory is. So, I had a custom banner made up 21' x 10' and had it match the brick and stone work on the outside of my house. I also had two of my windows copied onto the banner, one window will have a five foot terrifying skull face coming out of it with moving eyes. The other window will be plain, but will have projected movies played continuously throughout the night with creepy ambient music.

Once I hang the banner up later in October I'll take some photos, in the mean time I've been busy creating a tombstone to hide the projector and DVD player that will be playing my movies on the banner. Most tombstones are made out of Styrofoam, but I wanted mine to be extra sturdy because of what it's holding, so I made it out of 3/4 plywood. I purchased a Styrofoam tombstone from from a local Halloween store and glued it onto the wood, picked up some crows, foam letters, and a leaf vine from Michael's and painted everything with three different colours of paint.

Be sure to check back more frequently now that Halloween is getting closer because I have more exciting news to share about the Thornhill Woods Haunted House this year.

Scooby Doo

Another childhood series that inspired my love for Halloween.

SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU! (1969)

THE PERFECT SUMMER DAY

One of the most disappointing things as a home haunter is not being able to get out to visit other home haunts as Halloween approaches.

I've always been intrigued by other home haunts and try to make it a point to visit as many as I can before Halloween night and meet up with the creators , but most home haunts are only open on Halloween night.

This makes it impossible for most home haunters to visit each others displays because were too busy working on our own events, so we have to resort to seeing photos and videos on the Internet of each others creative displays.

Paul & Kim from The Boneyard Bargains have found a way to recreate this excitement during the warm summer months. Every June for the past five years they have hosted an event called SCAREFEST that brings all home haunters together.

Scarefest allows you to:

• Meet other home haunters (Ontario Haunter's Club).
• Learn new ideas & trade secrets from the haunt industry.
• Purchase Halloween props or swap.
• Participate in a contest for best homemade prop-static and best homemade prop animated.
• Walk through haunt with props for sale.
• Purchase raffle tickets for amazing Halloween prizes.
• Enjoy a great BBQ and refreshments
• See attached photos.

I was so happy to be around people who are as obsessed about Halloween & home haunting as I am.

Thanks again to Paul & Kim for "The Perfect Summer Day".