Halloween stuff

I built a couple of coffins for the smallest skeleton they call Mr. Thrifty. The first one was out of 1x3's but was too bulky and heavy. The second one I did today was out of lath slats. It looks a lot better and is very lightweight.

Not sure what they are for yet. Probably just decoration or maybe to sell?

I bet you can't figure out what this mess is? It is all the components for a new effect we are doing this year. It is based on the programable controller from EFX-TEK. The other components include a sound module, 16 port extender, Audio Relay switch and a 12VDC solenoid.

Here is what will happen.

1. A bit of video will be displayed with an audio trigger towards the end of the video

2. The sound relay will trigger when the audio is heard on the video

3. The controller that is in a wait state for a trigger will start it's program which does the following:

a. Play a footstep sound 12 times

b. Play a footsetp sound and light a UV light (which will iluminated glowing footsteps)

c. Trigger a solenoid 10 times rapidly

4. The controller will go back to waiting for a trigger again.

5. The video will have a build in delay before it loops back again.

I just need to mount the components and create the permenent wiring. The program is already written and everything has been tested individually now I just need to hook it all up and make sure it works.

I have been working on doing an animated skull this year. I have experimented with several different ideas on how to do the mechanics but just can't settle on the right one yet. I do like the nylon ball I am using to pivit the head. It moves very smothly.

I like the way I did the hinged jaw it works really good.

I am still playing with how the head is going to be moved. I am toying with a cable system right now but it is too soon to tell if it will work.

I am also working on a small mud guy lamp. Another decoration or something to sell?

Getting ready for the Secret Garden Tour

We spent the past few weekends getting ready for the Garden Tour on Saturday the 30th. They moved it back this year from mid May to June 30th. We thought that would give us plenty of time but we are still scrambling to get things done.

We did a brick and mortor edging around the mulberry tree to hold in the gravel we did last year. We took out that awful plastic edging.

We bought a new fountain for the vegetable garden area. Last weekend I dug up the beds and we brought a yard of compost in to cover the beds.

This weekend we got a 1/2 yard of pea gravel and redid the flower garden paths and the vegetable garden beds area.

Chris did a lot of weeding and planting and moving of stuff.

Of course we can't have an event if halloween isn't somehow present. Chris put some of the half concrete skulls in the gravel under the mulberry tree.

Halloween Progress

Things are moving slow in the halloween department. We have a lot of smaller projects this year and a few more technical ones.

I have been spending my time working on a new automated special effect using some prop controlers and other assorted electronics. It is going slow but I almost have it completed.

I have been doing a lot of research on how we are going to do the animated talking skeleton that will be sitting on our hearse this year. I think I finally decided on a method and there is a lot of support on the web with examples of how other people did it. Now I have to actually get started on it.

We have several new video projection projects. Some of them are just revamping the ones we did last year but we are also going to and 2 new ones. One of them is part of the automated special effect I metioned earlier. The other is going to replace the mechanical ghost in the shop window.

I am also going to be improving the grave digger just a bit this year and moving him to a new spot.

The Secret Garden Tour which we are in again this year was moved from mid May to June 30th. This has caused our halloween progress to slow while we prepare for this event. We are also attending Fright Fest Northwest this year and bringing a lot of our display. FFNW is July 13-15. We will also have to prepare for that too. So we really won't be in full swing with halloween until almost the end of July. This is a much smaller timeframe than we are used to but with the lack of big projects and the smaller ones we should be able to get everything done we are planning...

Ashland

We took our annual trip down to Ashland Memorial Day weekend as usual. We left Friday around noon and drove straight down. We checked into the Oak Hill B&B which is our second vist. We met up with Tim and Tina Reuwsaat (Mort & the Baron) our halloween friends in the area. We went to the Black Sheep an authentic pub and had dinner and caught up. The music was a little loud and Tim was recovering from a bee sting and his hand was getting swollen so we called it a night. We got back to the B&B and chatted with the guests in the main living room for a while and then off to sleep. We got up early the next mourning to meet with the Director of Literary Development and Dramturgy at OSF Lue Douthit. She had breakfast with us and answered questions about OSF including the changes with the new artistic director. We met up with Linda and David Barbur who always stay at the Willows B&B which is just up the street from the Oak Hills. We went wine tasting at Pascal and made it back just in time for our first paly.

We saw 4 plays with Linda and David as usual.

Tom and Pat Howard are the best hosts. They also have the coolest guests. This time it was a group of theater people from the Bay Area all older couples but liberal minded and smart as tacks. Had a great time visiting with them after the plays until late at night and at breakfast. Tom and Pat have owned this B&B for 8 seasons and moved from Minnesota so we have a lot of fun with their Midwestern accents and home style attitude. But they are great people. Pat makes a fantastic breakfast every morning.

So the plays, we saw As You Like it, The Cherry Orchard, On The Razzle, and Rabbit Hole.

Cherry Orchard was well produced but not really one of Chekhov's most compelling plays yet his last.

Razzle is farse as Tom Stoppard knows how to do. It was funny and fast paced. A good afternoon show.

As you like it was set in the 1930's depression era. 2nd half was better than the dark first but a good show.

Rabbit Hole is by David Lindsay-Abaire and winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It deserves it. The best show of the weekend and all the buzz from everyone who saw it. A story about a couples loss of a young son in a accident and how the people in their lives deal with grief. Although it sounds very depressing and even I wasn't looking forward to it Abaire's humor really helps the audience through it. One of the best things I have ever seen.

Plays we didn't get to see or that are starting later that would be worth coming back in September for.
Gem of the Ocean - August Wilson
Tracy's Tiger - World Premier Musical
Distracted - Lisa Loomer
The Taming of the Shrew - Elizabethan outdoor theater
Also Tartuffe, Romeo and Juliet, and The Tempest.

Of course we did our share of wine tasting with Linda and David. We also ate at some great places including the Ashland bakery who now serves dinner.

On our way home we drove up the Applegate Valley and stopped at several wineries. We tried a new one called Schmidt Family Vinyards. We at lunch there. We stopped at a few more and then drove home the rest of the way.

Another wonderful Memorial Day weekend in Ashland.

More Halloween stuff

We got our order from EFX-TEK that we placed at Hauntcon. We ordered a Prop-2 controller (16 outputs, 4x more code ROM), AP8 (60 sec Audio card with amplifier), RC4 (110v digital relay switch). They also threw in a Prop-1 controller with a bad switch and a Prop-1 Tester. We won a USB adaptor at one of their seminars and we already have a Prop-1 controller that we used for the Grave Digger last year.

I have already tested the audio card along with our Prop-1 Controller and some UV LED's that we are going to use for a new effect this year.

I am going to convert the Grave Digger over to using the new Prop-2 and maybe play some sound out of him too?

More to come soon....

We got Skulls!

Our order from Anatomical Chart Company showed up yesterday. We ordered some skeletons of various sizes, some arms (for mud guys), and 3 different sized skulls. We plan to cast all or part of the skulls for foam casting and using as decor. The one on the far right is the normal sized skull. The one to it's left is called 'Giant Skull". The one next to it is "Boomer Skull" 13"x13". And the far left is "Fraken-Skull" 15"x15".

Back from HAuNTcon

We flew out Thursday early morning and arrived in Detroit late in the day. We registered and took a bus out to a haunted forest. We got up Friday morning and attend seminars all day and walked the show floor. Friday night we went to two haunted houses in Pontiac and got back pretty late. We got up Saturday and attended more seminars and did some shopping on the show floor. Saturday night was the costume ball that went till about 1am. We didn't get up quite as early Sunday morning but we did attend a few seminars and did some last minute shopping on the show floor. We presented our seminar at 2:30 which was the last seminar of the day. I wasn't expecting many people to attend but it turned out to be standing room only. The seminar was a big success and everyone loved it. It was a great way to end the weekend. We hung out with some new friends for the evening and then got up early monday morning and flew home.

It's a sad day at the Davis house

After over a month of fighting health problems our 17yr old cat Maddie is no longer with us. As all our cats before her she was a big part of our lives and she will be missed.

4 Cats! What were we thinking?

Chris the human cat tree. Our two new little ones have made themselves right at home and Hal and Maddie are fine with it. We are just one big happy family now. Ya, I know, how many more cats do we need to be considered crazy old people?

We have new members of our family

I had spent the past 4 weeks taking our 17yr cat Maddie to the vet for daily fluid injections. Each day I would see these 2 kittens that they had in the waiting area. One day I finally asked and they said that they were found at a construction site. The vet nursed them back to health and they were trying to find them a good home. They prefererd that they went together. We have been wanting to get a small cat for Hal to play with and keep him company but have been worried about how our old cat will handle it.

Meet Dorie and Mason our 3month old kittens. Mason is the charcol black one and Dorie is the Grey one. Mason is very outgoing and loves to be held and petted. Dorie likes attention but is a little afraid of everything that moves.

We are still not sure what have got ourselves into and are just remembering what having a kitten is like around the house. Hal is a little mad about the whole thing and doesn't think these 2 kids are much fun but he is starting to warm up to them. Maddie doesn't really care about them and in fact thinks kitten foods is quite tastey.

We are going to be in the paper

You can view the article on OregonLive.com

http://www.oregonlive.com/ccweekly/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/metro_south_news/117348634378840.xml&coll=7

It is in the Clackamas County Weekly section of the Oregonian that comes out on Thursdays. It should be in Next Thursdays paper 3/22.

Jeff's helicopter fun

I took the picture but Chris wrote the following...

-----------------------------------

Helicopter #2 (white and green)

The UPS driver pulls up to the house in between rain showers…..

10:15 UPS arrives with box
10:16 Jeff rips open box to find the second helicopter he got for his birthday
10:20 Jeff is finished putting it together and he and Hal head outside to test
10:25 helicopter meets gravity – gravity wins
10:26 Jeff starts the salvage mission
10:45 Jeff spends 10 minutes looking for super glue

Flash back about a week ago…….

10:15 Jeff opens the box of the first helicopter (yellow) he got for his birthday
10:16 Jeff is finished putting it together and he and Hal……Long pause as several days go by with lots of rain…..

A few days later
10:20 Jeff and Hall head out for a test run
10:25 helicopter meets rose bush – rose bush wins
10:26 Jeff starts the salvage mission
10:45 Jeff is on the internet ordering spare parts

------------------

In my defense the first helicopter only broke a small plastic bar that helps hold one side of the canopy on. It did make it a bit unbalanced but it still flew. The replacement part was $2 and it shipped right away.

I got the 2nd helicopter because it is a 4 channel instead of a 2 channel and has more control of flight. It was also a HUGE deal...$250 retail and I got it for $85. I broke one of the runners where it attaches to the leg which I just superglued back together.

Lessons learned....

4 channel is better than 2 channel for trying to fly.

Don't practice on the driveway it is too hard of a surface and there are too many rose bushes. Practice indoors in a smooth floor in a smaller space so you don't go wandering too much. Oh, and practice practice practice...it takes time to learn how to fly these darn things.

Davis Graveyard on the Web

Chris did some searching and found these interesting links


http://www.hauntproject.com/projdetail.asp?category=Animatronic%20Props

http://www.mouseinfo.com/forums/archive/index.php?t-80497.html

http://www.kristenandstevewong.com/What's%20going%20on%20in%20WA.htm

http://www.eastpdxnews.com/index.php?mod=article_detail&id_art=210&PHPSESSID=0ceddb7001136cd13533b09ea7c258c4&date=2006-10-21

Souvenir from HauntX

I bought these from a guy selling stuff out of leather at a booth at HauntX. They were custom made for me and I just got them in the mail today. I choose the design and the type of leather. It will look good with the grave digger costume.

HauntX

We just returned from our weekend at HauntX the haunters convention in L.A. at the LAX Hilton. We had a great time and met some friends from previous trips and also made a whole bunch of new friends too. We learned some new stuff, bought some stuff, and drank some stuff. It was a big party and we enjoyed ourselves.

We won an award!

We just got back from HauntX the Haunters Convention in L.A. at the LAX Hilton. They gave out the video awards on Sunday night. We were the runner up for the Yard Haunt category. Out of hundreds of video entries our was considered the 2nd best yard haunt. We are VERY excited.

The Davis Graveyard DVD

We just fnished putting together our DVD. We put all of our video and photos on one DVD with menus and cover art. Here are the YouTube versions of the most of the videos on the DVD.

Promoting Halloween


Photo Gallery


Building a Cathedral


Graveyard Video

Happy New Year!

Well it is 2007 and we just bought our tickets to HauntX. It is the weekend of Feb 17th. http://hauntx.com/HauntXAwards/hauntxaward.htm Can't wait to see who wins the Best Yard Haunt of the year award. Fingers crossed. We sent in our video last Saturday to both HauntX awards and to the Haunters Choice awards www.haunterschoiceawards.com

You can purchase the 2 DVD sets from these locations when they are ready.

http://www.hauntvids.com/2006.htm

http://www.halloweenpropmaster.com/2006_dvd_set.htm

Christmas surprise

When we got home from Salem Christmas day we found this on our doorstep.

There was a little bag of extra candles for inside him. Chris lit him up right away.

Thank you Nick and Marci!

Christmas at our house

Another Christmas has come and gone. We had Chris' family over to our house in the morning. We hung around for a few hours and then drove down to my Dads to spend the evening. We got back home around 11pm. We took the next day off and just hung around the house. It was a fun day with lots of presents and surprises.