Thursday, November 24, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving from Meade Manor!

We are traveling today to be with M's Family and eat WAY too much food. Here are a few pictures of what is going on in Meade Manor this time of year! Hope your Thanksgiving day is amazing!






















Sunday, November 6, 2016

The Wicked Woods Cemetery invades local Elementary School



I had been asked by one of our good friends to help put in a "Haunted House" at the elementary school's Fall Festival November 5th. Of course I could not say no to a friend so I made plans to do this in a terribly tiny window of time. When we broke down our yard haunt, I set aside several of our better props for transport. It delayed us putting everything up, but it was worth it. It tooks me and M about 2 hours to load everything we needed to take with us Friday night. We drove about 15 miles down the road  on a 4 lane highway with a truck load of coffins and skeletons, but we made it safe and sound. We started actually putting things out at 8:30 that night and we ended up working until 1:30 in the morning. I headed back at 1pm Saturday morning which gave me a solid 4 hours to do last minute adjustments.





Luckily the black plastic had been hung up 75% by the time we got there. All in all we worked 8 hours setting it up and we supplied all the props, decorations and costumes. It was officially on from 5pm till 8pm. We were working with a 50 foot hall which we broke down into 4 rooms.  A witch's shack was room one, manned by my lovely wife, a cornfield, a haunted funeral parlor, and a cemetery to lead them out. Unfortunately nobody got a picture of me in my grim reaper duds but I was the last guy to "run them out" and they were falling over each other trying to get out! We had a lot of crying kids...even had a few screaming adults! There were several repeat customers as well. It was a lot of fun and we broke everything down in under 2 hours and got it back home.....now to put it all up!



The skeleton hiding in the leaves of the grave yard!

The Grave Yard

Our chained werewolf running loose in the corn field!

Our ghost lurking in the haunted funeral parlor 

M manning the witch room!

The corn field

 



Friday, November 4, 2016

Halloween Challenge or Extra Innings of Halloween!





You know those challenge shows all over tv that give the contestants 8 hours to complete what seems to be an impossible task? The task could be anything from baking a theme cake, forging a weapon, building a car or doing a home makeover. I feel like I am going to be doing just that.







A very close friend of mine asked if I would consider putting on a Haunted Attraction this Saturday at the local school’s fall festival. They would be giving me a 50 foot hallway hung with black plastic and divided up into roughly five, 10’ foot rooms. I would have 8 hours to put in props, animatronics, lighting, sound systems , costumes masks and makeup for actors, and come up with a decent story line in less than 8 hours… challenge accepted…although I do not know to what extent of success I will hit.







I have some great people helping. My friend Coach Toney lent me his new truck to haul most of Wicked Woods Cemetery back and forth to the school (15 minute drive down the 4 lane highway from our house). I have M with her ideas and costume/makeup skills. Plus I have several people from the school that will volunteer to scare kids as they go through.



Will it be good? Maybe…



Will it be scary? Most likely…



Will it be exhausting? Absolutely!



Will it be fun? Always! It’s like extra innings for Halloween for me!

Thursday, November 3, 2016