We were on TV

The KOIN 6 News van stopped by just as our party was getting started Saturday Night at about 8pm. The camera man said he was out getting shots of decorated houses for the nights news. He was told to stop by this house on SE 43rd. He said it wasn't at all what he expected. He did a quick interview and then took some video of the entire yard. He said that it probably wouldn't be on the with the other shots and that they would do a separate piece on it.

Sunday Night the 6pm and 11pm news ran a story on us showing lots of video and a part of the interview. It was great to watch ourselves on TV and see how the yard looks.

The Big Party

We had a great party Saturday night. Lots of great costumes and fun visiting with friends and family. Everyone seemed to have a great time and enjoy the yard display. There were some very good costumes. I'll try to upload a good sample of them. Chris and I came as butchers from the Davis Meat Co. It was an irony costume since we are both vegetarian. There were costume awards given for sexiest, scariest, best couple, judges choice and best costume and runner up.

We are going to be on TV!

After over 8 years of decorating our yard we are finally going to be on TV.

I got a call from Joe V. from Good Day Oregon KPTV Fox 12 and they are going to do a remote shoot live from our house Tuesday Oct 31 Halloween morning. They arrive at 5am and they shoot from 5:45am until about 9:10am. Joe is their new remote location guy who just started and replaced Drew.

I also got a call from Corinna Allen from AM Northwest KATU 2. They are going to do a remote with us from the house too! They will be filming from 8:30am - 10:00am.

We are going to have to stock up on the Candy!

Graveyard Video

Here is a link to a short video of some of the graveyard.

www.davisgraveyard.com/DavisGraveyard2006.avi


This was taken Friday Oct 20th by Roman Moreno who offered to help us out and capture some video of the yard this season. He has done a great job.

The weekend

We have had some great photos taken of the yard over the weekend. We have also had a great response to the yard for people from all over. We stand out front all night each night until we turn the display off and talk to people. We even have people driving by after we turn it off.

Neighborhood Open House

The Open House was a HUGE success. We had people from all over stop by to see what we do and to talk to us. Here are just a few of the pictures from the day.

Opening Night

Friday night and we had our first full setup graveyard. The videos were running, the fog was fogging, the sound was....sounding. Drew quite a crowd all night. We ran it until 11pm. I had spent most of the day finishing things and getting everything setup. Thanks to Tony for coming over and giving me a hand. We had advertised a "Media Night" from 5-7pm and invited all the TV, Radio, and Newspaper contacts but no one showed. Our friends Floyd and Marc stopped by and they said that the response is typical for home events. We have fun anyway.

We made it!

It was a long and tiring weekend. We got all the decorations up with just a few details to finish this week.

Saturday we started at 8:30am and had the help of Chris, Jason, Jen, Nick, Marci, Jeannie and my Dad. We went until about 8pm. We were able to get the Cathedral up and all the yard display setup.

Sunday with the rain we were slowed down but had the help of Nick, Marci and Jen. We were still able to finish almost all the details including getting all the LED lighting wired (thanks Nick!). We were able to test the video projectors and sound. We are so pleased with how great things look this year and are VERY greatful for everyone that helped us out with this crazy idea of ours.

We have stained glass windows!

Our windows from Fast Signs are done. They look FANTASTIC! They are stickers that are put on 1/8" plexiglass. They go in the windows of the cathedral. Two 3 foot circles and two 2 foot by 4 foot tall windows. As you can see these are mirror images.

We have signs for our cars!

Chris had Fast Signs make us some magnet signs for our cars. They are pretty cool!

Banners!

Jen painted us some real nice banners based on some sketches by Chris. I made some quick holders for them and took these pictures. The standard is for one of the mud men. One is going on a post along the driveway and the other 2 are hanging on the walls of the church.

Animated Grave digger

The grave digger is just about done. I attached the animated head and got it working pretty good. We need to get his hands to hold the shovel and lantern and he is ready for the front door.

LED Spotlights

This year we are using LED Spotlights for lighting the tombstones. I bought 50 amber colored lights. I needed a way to mount then and put them in the ground without moving. So I made 50 little wooden holders. I used landscape stakes to hold them into the ground.

Samples and examples

We took some time and made small version of most of the things we make. We did a sample wall, sample tombstone, mini cage, mini mudman, a tiny crank ghost, and corpsing example. Here they all are on a table. These are for people to examine when we have parties this month.

Grim Reaper Scythe

This is the new version of the blade for the Scythe. It is just about done. I have it attached to a PVC fitting for painting. Looks pretty cool though.

Cathedral finishing touch

We glued the skull ornament onto the tall peak half. This should make it easier than trying to install it after the peak is installed.

New Tombstone

We finally finished a tombstone that Chris carved last year that he never finished. We had him finish it and then we painted it. Kind of a funky runes thingy. (I wonder if anyone reads these?)

Spider's ready

We got the spider re-strung and animated. I had to buy a new motor since I ruined the last one trying to quite it down with spray foam (not a good idea with moving gears).

Direction Sign

At the last minute decided to make a direction sign for the yard. It has 6 directions all facing east. The lettering will be white stickon letters in a cool font.





Salem Massachusetts 2538 Miles
Transylvania 5858 Miles
Tower of London 4921 Miles
Castle Frankenstein 5238 Miles
Sleepy Hollow 2437 Miles
Amityville 2469 Miles

Talking Head

Scot Campbell came over Saturday Morning and sculpted a face onto the foam head we use to project video onto. He used clay and while the video was running he sculpted the face. We then cast the face in plaster and then poured a rigid foam version. We took the clay off the had and carved a slice off the front and glued the rigid foam copy on. With a little puty we were able to smooth it all out. My thanks to Scot and Chris for their work on this project. The video looks FANTASTIC on the face.

New fog chiller

We tested a new fog chiller. It works GREAT! It is made out of a big plastic garbage can with 2 holes cut into it with 3" ABS piple adapted down to 2" for the fog to come out of. We used dry ice in the garbage can. I got a industrial fog machine to pump lots of fog. This should work very nice.

What's that smell?

I bought an industrial blower and painted it black. We have some "Sinister Scents" we bought at a convention that I am going to place on the intake vent. It should make a wierd smell by the front gates.

Heater for the party

We bought a outdoor heater for our gatherings this month. It heats a 20ft area. It should be great for people that are standing on the driveway and its too cold.

Improved coffin

We made a change to our static coffin this year. I cut a busted out hole in the side corner. We corpsified a couple of arms and a skull and then placed them in the hole like it was busting out. We will leave the pieces on the ground next to the hole for effect. This coffin will be underneath the coffin with the moving lid. Should be pretty cool looking.

Spider Gates!

We ordered some custom iron gates for our patio this summer. The arrived this morning and I installed them. Pretty cool!