Last Day!.....?

Today we finished closing up the Haunted Graveyard for the season. Ernie and I took apart and threw away a few pieces from the queue line entrance. They are going to be rebuilt next year. Justin and Kurtis finished closing up Slaughterhouse. Kurtis used it over the weekend for one of his projects so it was the last house to be closed. Justin and I also took apart a few very old queue line peices that have been sitting in our storage area. Julio and Julio worked on the canal all day. They plan on finishing it tomorrow. Ernie still needs to take the batteries and a few other things home so we may help with that but everything else is done.

Its been a good season despite all the rain. We'd like to thank everyone who came out this season to see us and thanks to everyone who viewed this blog. We hope to see you next year.

Temple roof

Bryan and Justin finished the Temple roof today. Kurtis and I helped a little after we finished with other things. I also finished some lighting and sound things. Kurtis finished stuff on the list. Julio and Julio kept working on the water trench. Its supposed to rain hard tomorrow and Saturday so their work should get a good test.

The picture is Bryan, Kurtis, and Justin working on the Temple roof.

clean up lists

Bryan, Justin, and Kurtis worked on the list today. Justin and Bryan were supposed to start roofing Temple like Manor but they didn't enough roofing stuff at the store ;p I took down the solor powered lights since the batteries don't seem to last through the winter. Julio, Megal, and Julio kept working on the water trench. Ashlee continues to clean costumes.

Graveyard canal

Justin and Bryan finished the Manor roof today and started working on a list Ernie gave us. The list has stuff we need to do before we finish for the season. Kurtis also worked on the list. I took down the emergency lights. Julio, Megal, and Julio finished taking down Spiders. They also started to work on the water problem we have. There is a spring of water behind the Bamboo hut in Fish Puppet and also when it rains a lot of water comes down the mountain in the same area. A trench was built many years ago to redirect the water but it has a few leaks. They are going to try and fix it.

closing up

Now that the props and mannequins are out of the show closing up has really begun. Julio and Julio started taking down Spiders. Justin and Bryan started roofing Manor. Kurtis and HB Mike started tarping things also like the Temple face. I continued my way through the show taking down lighting and sound stuff. I finished Manor which was my last big area.

The first picture is Kurtis and HB Mike covering the Temple Ball face for the winter.

The second is Justin and Bryan putting the roof on Manor.

Kevin's last days

The last two days we continued cleaning up the props and mannequins. Justin, Kurtis, Bryan, Ernie, Julio, and Julio have taken most of the stuff that needs to get stored out of the show and they have started closing rooms up. I've continued to take down lighting and sound stuff. Ashlee has continued to clean costumes.Kevin, Dan, and Elgin started taking down the animatronics today. They got about halfway finished by the time they left today. They are going to take the rest down tomorrow.

The picture is Kevin and Dan posing with one of the animatronics.

Many more props stored

We continued taking down props and other things for the winter. Justin took all of the plants from the Temple facade area and stored them in the Dungeon rooms. Trail 2, Spiders, Fear of Death and other areas had their props and mannequins taken down and stored. Julio, Megal, and Julio finished taking down Demons and then brought the rest of the tombstones across to be stored. I took down speakers and lighting things down in Pumpkins, Cornfield, Trail 1, and Vampires. Bryan finished the roofs over the porta potty areas.

The first picture is the Temple facade area with Justin taking down the plants.

The second picture is, left to right, me (James), Justin, Elgin, and Kurtis squashed into the box truck.

More stuff put away

Today Mike, Justin, Kurtis, Ashlee, Taylor, Ernie, and ??? worked on taking down stuff in Pumpkin Patch, Cornfield, and Trail 1, Zombie forest, and Vampires. Megal, Julio, and Megal brought all the tomb stones across to be stored. They then worked on taking Demons down. Demons and Spiders are on the Compounce access road to the log flume so they need to be taken down every year.

Bryan worked on putting roofs over where the porta potties go. Ernie wants to use that area as storage during the winter. I took all the lighting and sound stuff down in Cemetery, Demons, and Spiders. Elgin worked on testing and cleaning fog machines and he numbered the Spider panels. The new Spider area was supposed to be temporary for this year only but it looks like Ernie is considering keeping it like it is for next year.

The first picture is Ashley and ??? with the Zombie Forest poles in the box truck.

In the second picture most of the Cemetery monuments are on the flat bed.

Cleanup day 2: More people

Today we had more people and got a lot more done. Ernie, Dan, Justin, Mike, Julio, and Bryan finished up the Queue line stuff. They then moved onto Catacombs and got all of the props out of there. They also got all the mannequins out of Cemetery. Elgin worked on testing and cleaning fog machines. I worked on taking all of the lighting and sound stuff out of Catacombs.

The first picture is Justin, Bryan, and Julio moving the Queue Line pieces with the new cart Bryan made the week before.

The second picture is Ernie walking into the Cemetery with all of the ground props ready to go across the street. Elgin is also near the center Mesoileum testing fog machines.

Cleanup begins

Today we started cleanup. We need to get the queue line down as quickly as possible so Compounce can get their parking lot back. I was the first one there after Ernie and I started taking pictures of the queue line so we remember how it goes back together next year. ;p

I took down all the lighting and sound stuff while Kevin, Dan, Ernie, Hunchback Mike and Kurtis started taking down everything else. They started on the Endless tunnels. The last 16 feet of tunnel runs over the road and has to be taken down every year. They then started on the entrance and exit signs. Then then started on the corrals then finally started on the back wall. We got less than half down but we should be able to finish it tomorrow.

Happy Halloween

Tonight was our last night open. It started raining pretty early but we didn't close until around 11:30. Despite the rain we had a good turnout which is why we stayed open. We were short actors like we usually are on Halloween night but most people still had a good time. Last week we averaged 160 actors but tonight we only had 97.

The rain also made the place really muddy. It was already pretty muddy before the rain but got worse after it started. We didn't hear any complaints though.

Tomorrow we start cleanup. We need to get the queue line down so Compounce can have their parking lot back. ;p

Second to last night

Tonight we had a lot of people come out to see us. It was one of our best nights of the season. Everything went smoothly and nothing out of the ordinary happened. Tomorrow night it Halloween night and is our last night of the season. There is a threat of rain late but hopefully it will hold off a while.

Last weekend

Tonight and tomorrow night are the last two nights to come out and see The Haunted Graveyard. Tonight should be a great night but tomorrow there is a chance of rain later in the night. Come out and see us before its too late.

Water everywhere

It must have rained pretty hard last night because when we got to the Graveyard this afternoon there was water everywhere. Ernie told Justin, Kurtis, and I to get up there early to help try and get rid of some of the water. There were big puddles in just about every house and water running off the mountain through quite a few also. We did a pretty good job of getting rid of the puddles and stopping the water from running.

The night itself went well. Nothing surprising happened and we had a good crowd. Next week is the last weekend we are open.

The picture was taken in the bunk bed hallway in Catacombs. You can't see it well but the whole hallway was one big puddle that we had to get rid of.

At full staff

Last night the rain came a little earlier than it was supposed. It started raining around 9 but we didn't stop selling tickets until after 11. Many people came early so when the rain started we had a full queue line. The rain didn't stop people from showing up to buy tickets though so we kept selling them. We eventually got the last groups through around 11:30.

Its been raining all day today and its supposed to downpour tonight so we aren't opening today. Tomorrow is supposed to be a very nice night.

Fox61 morning show

Today a reporter from Fox61's morning show was at the graveyard doing live shots. I wasn't there but I saw a few of the regulars in makeup with him. They shot in our various scenes and I saw Marybeth and Taylor among others. Ernie also was interviewed. Hopefully Fox61 puts some clips on their website.

Also we are open tonight. Come out early thought because there is a slight chance of rain after 10.

Also from our website:

Friday night, we're teaming up with KC101 to give away tickets to the Daughtry Concert on Nov. 17th!

Come to the Graveyard this Friday, Oct. 23rd, for a chance to win 2 Free Tickets to see Daughtry!

You can see all the events going on this weekend on our main page at http://www.hauntedgraveyard.com/

Picture 7

Here is a picture of the Bamboo hut in Fishpuppet.

Picture 6

This is a picture of the Slaughterhouse freezer.

Picture 5

A picture of the Temple Calender.

Picture 4

Here is a picture of the Temple waterfall and facade.

Rain = closed

We didn't open tonight because of the rain. Here is a picture showing what The Haunted Graveyard looks like from the hill near the Spider/Demons area.

More special people

Tonight we had a pretty good night. The rain held off until well after we closed at midnight.

We had some people from Walt Disney Entertainment unexpectedly walk through tonight. They were in the area at for a conference and heard about Lake Compounce and decided to check it out. When they got here they saw that The Haunted Graveyard was here. They thought it was going to be some small little walk through so little did they know it was going to be as big and detailed as it is. They said they really liked the sets and the detail that went into them. Its too bad we didn't have all the actors again tonight though. They said they saw some empty rooms and figured we were a little short. Hopefully next week we will be at full actors again.

½Ѡ⒤ⓣ

Tonight we closed early again because of the rain. We closed at 10 and it didn't start raining until a little while after we closed. Ernie decided for the first time ever to reduce the number of paid actors and other paid staff. We had some holes in the show but it wasn't anything too bad. All of the normal volunteer actors were there and they make up most of our scarring actors.

Some good news is that the power didn't go out. Booch, the Compounce electrician, changed the breaker that was tripping the last couple weeks. The new breaker seemed to work better last night and didn't trip at all. Hopefully this solves our power problems.

A group of people who go to major haunted houses around the country came tonight to check out the show. They write articles for some magazine. Someone told them we were one of the two best haunted houses in the country. They didn't seem to expect the size and detail we had in the show. Kevin showed them around before we opened in the daylight and they came through again at night after we opened. They said they really liked the show.

Picture 3

This is a picture of the first hallway in Temple.

Picture 2

This is a picture from Vampires in the room with the 8 caskets. The mannequins appear to be getting married. Why they aren't getting married in the Wedding room you'll have to ask whoever set them up.

Picture

Today's Picture is the Milk Truck outside the Slaughterhouse.

Last night was another nice night. Nothing too eventful happened. The power went out once again but after leaving the door open in the Compounce and shutting off a couple nonessential for machines it didn't trip the rest of the night.

Before the show opens we have to fix things that break during the previous night. I had a strobe light go out that I fixed and Kevin had an animatronic that wasn't working. There were also a lot of smaller repairs like a chair that someone in Manor sits on broke. During the show I started taking down solar powered lights that are placed behind the scenes. Its a little dark behind the scenes since most of the lights aren't working. I'm going to go to the Graveyard sometime this week and replace their batteries.

I took some pictures after the show closed. I'm still getting used to my new camera so they didn't come out as good as I would have liked but I'll post a few of them the next couple days. This picture is from the Pumpkin Patch.

Busy night

Last night the weather was a perfect cool October night. We had a very nice sized crowd. The night was pretty uneventful except for the power going out a few more times. The Catacombs pole went out once due to someone turning on the heat in the makeup trailers and not shutting it off. Heat in the makeup trailers and the break trailers along with everything else running off that pole will eventually trip the main breaker. Its fine as long as the Makeup trailer heat is off. The Manor pole went out 3 or 4 times. We are still trying to figure out why but it might just be getting too hot also. Compounce is going to try installing a bigger breaker to see if that helps.

Tonight we are having another radio station with a contest. Our website says:

"Join Hot 93.7 for a Scavenger Hunt only at the Haunted Graveyard! Get a list of what to look for in the Haunted Graveyard. Turn in your answers for a chance to win tickets to this year's Jingle Jam including some special BACKSTAGE PASSES from Hot 93.7 WZMX-FM!"

The site also says

"This Sunday, get a free $10 Gift Card from the Wireless Zone with each paid parking when you come visit The Haunted Graveyard!"

The commercial

I uploaded the commercial to the Haunted Graveyards official Youtube channel. You can watch it here but its better to watch it on Youtube itself:



You can also see behind the scenes footage I shot here: Commercial shoot video

The rain held off

We lucked out tonight. It was sprinkling very lightly after we opened but stopped pretty quickly. The rest of the night was a very nice night for the Graveyard. The park closed early and stopped selling tickets at 10 and the last group left a little after 10:30. It didn't stop raining until 12 as a few of us who shuts down the show were leaving.

We had some excitement when the power went out twice. A breaker in one of the Compounce buildings feeds power to over 3/4 of the show and it decided to trip twice. We aren't sure why it trips since none of the breakers in the show trip but we suspect it happens when a bunch of compresses come on at the same time. It happens very very rarely though and we get the power back on in less than a minute.

We continued to improve the show through out the week. The Manor facade received some new mannequins in the windows and the funeral precession between Catacombs and the cemetery grew larger. The Cemetery path was also lit a little better.

We are expecting big crowds tomorrow since last Saturday was rained out and the weather today might have kept some people away. The weather is going to be perfect so it should be a very nice night to come out.

Commercial shoot video

We had a commercial shoot last month on September 5th. I took a lot of behind the scenes video that I finally found time to edit. The video shows some of the stuff that went on that night (at least the stuff before I ran out of batteries. >< )

Kurtis directed the video and Taylor, Jesse, Marybeth, Mike, and Bobby were in it. Leigh did the makeup which you can see in the original post here.

Opening night

Opening night went pretty well. We had a good crowd and people enjoyed the show. We finished the stuff we didn't get to for the preview night. The night was pretty uneventful. We had a problem with the ball and a shelf Elgin made for a fog machine to blow smoke out of the faces nose. The ball started hitting the shelf and we had to remove it. There are a few dents in the ball that will have to be repainted.

As we were trying fixing a spring that keeps an emergency door at the end of Catacombs shut we ran into a few strange customers. The first was a lady that walked up to us and started trying to push by Mike's arm(the Mike that helps with electrical stuff) . She tried to get past us a couple times until we asked if we could help her. She didn't immediately respond and just kept trying to get by us through the door. Eventually she realized that she wasn't supposed to go through the door and we pointed her toward the Graveyard.

The second was a very drunk older guy. The guy came over to us and started asking what we were doing. We told him to keep walking through the show but he said something about it being fun watching everyone get scared. He kept walking around the display at the end of Catacombs while we were trying to get him to keep moving through the show. He ended up going into Cemetery but only after we kept telling him to move on.

Unfortunately its raining today so we arn't opening tonight. Hopefully there will be better weather next week

Preview night

Last night was our preview night for sponsors and Lake Compounce employees. Everything went pretty well. We have some great new actors especially in Manor. Everyone in there was really getting into the parts. Since there wasn't a lot of people going through the actors were really able to spend some time with each group which is really entertaining to watch and be a part of. Unfortunately when we get busy and have 9000 customers through a night everyone has to keep moving through. (so get here early and get here in the first two weeks when we aren't too crowded.

The last couple days had been very hectic. We had many people working trying to get as much completed as possible. We even had some actors and house managers helping us get finished. The Manor facade was finished on Wednesday and looks really good. It wasn't finished painted until about an hour before the show opened though. The Queue line was also done during the last couple hours before opening. I had a lot of stuff to finish and Dan helped me out a lot getting most of it done.

Not everything was 100% ready for opening but we were close. I forgot the heartbeat CD at home so the Endless tunnel had no sound. I also didn't get to put up the lights in the Manor facade windows and a few other small things. The construction side of things was a little unfinished also. We started putting up the sight blocking walls around the manor facade but ran out of plywood. There was an 8 foot gap in the wall where if you turned around you could see the Compounce paint building. All that will be fixed for tonight's real opening though.

Tonight is the real opening night so it should be exciting to see real customers and hear their reaction to what we've done over the summer.

Lack of updates

Sorry for the lack of updates. Its been really busy around the Graveyard. I've been getting there early in the morning and getting home pretty late.

The last three days have seen a lot of progress but the rain today didn't help though. There are only three and a half days left before the preview night and still a lot left to do.

Kurtis started cementing the Temple ball face on Friday and Jesse and his friend put a second layer on Saturday. The face still has to be painted and the bottom of the mouth area has to be finished. (No its not going to be a big blue face like one of the House Managers said today. ;) Jesse and Erin have been finishing some other small things . Erin is putting up even more stencil work on the walls. The stencils are little drawings of people and animals and they add a nice touch the place.

I've been mostly lighting Temple with Jesse. I've been getting the wires ready during the day and Jesse has been deciding where most of the lights go. He's an artist so he wants every light perfect. It takes a lot of time but it looks really good. I still have a lot left to do besides Temple. Spiders still needs more lights, the Manor facade needs it lights, and the Queue line needs lights and sound. I'm pretty far behind but I have to get it all done somehow.

Witches finally got weed wacked and proped but Ernie doesn't really like how it was done. Last year he spent a lot of time on it and when Mike and Marybeth did it this year they changed things. Ernie is probably going to have someone redo it. Manor also got its props. Most of the other props are done except maybe a few small things.

Kevin is in good shape with the animatronics. He and Dan have been working on them a lot the past few days and almost everything is going. Pete came up for a few days to work on the animatronic wolf we bought in St. Louis.

The construction side still has some work especially the Manor facade. It needs a lot of work. The porch, the siding, and the roofing still need to be finished. The Queue line also has a lot of work left. The corrals are done and a small section of wall that blocks the view from the queue line to the show between Catacombs is finished but the queue line itself isn't even started yet. The Endless Tunnel also needs the last few sections put up.

Actor meetings and orientation have been going on the last two days. Lots of kids being showing their houses and where everything is. Leagh has been in the makeup trailers getting them ready and Bonita has been around also working on the costumes.

Zombo kicked out of the Big E.

Today I worked on putting repeaters in for Spiders, Temple and Fear of Death. I hooked up the Endless Tunnel Heartbeat and Strobe lights. I fixed a Light in Slaughterhouse and put a strobe in Demons.

Justin, that guy, and Dan worked on the Queue line. Kevin came up late to put Controlers in the animatronics. Dan helped him. Hunchback Mike worked on blocking off some of the gaps between areas with cloth. Marybeth and Walter's roomate worked on Manor props. Julio worked on Alisha's coffee hut and building a platform for the wolf animatronic. Pete worked on the wolf animatronic. Jesse and Erin also showed up late and worked on Temple.

Taylor was back in Zombo at the Big E but he ended up getting kicked out. Some guy came up to them and said that he and his son were there yesterday and that his son saw Zombo and as a result had nightmares and couldn't sleep all night. He also said they couldn't get into the Connecticut building since he was standing on the road in front of it. He told them to get out before he complained to someone. Eventually someone from the Connecticut building came over to Zombo Taylor and the Compounce person with him and told them they had to leave. After they went inside the Connecticut building and took the costume off the guy from the Connecticut building told them to turn the head of Zombo around so no one could see it. It was the first and only complaint about Zombo so its sad that we live in a time where one BS complaint and someone in power overreacts and kicks us out.

The picture is Kurtis working on the Temple ball face facade.

Deleted scene

Elgin, Justin, and some other guy put up mannequins in the Cemetery. I put sound in Spiders and Demons. Dan and Hunchback Mike put exit signs on pieces of plywood. Julio and Megal put a roof over Demons. They also worked on building Alisha a new bigger coffee hut. Ernie, Dan, Justin, Mike, that guy and I then started the corrals of the Queue Line. Jesse and Kurtis worked on the face on Temple ball. Taylor did Zombo today at the Big E. Also Pete came up today He's going to get the new wolf animatronic working.

The Graveyard had its first deleted scene. Never in the history of The Haunted Graveyard have we completed a scene and then removed it. The scene was the car crash. It was supposed to be something humorous like most of Trail 2. One of the original ideas was a hick crashed his car running from the cops with moonshine in the back of his truck. Somehow the actual scene that was put up was pretty disturbing, not scary, and didn't belong in a haunted house. There was really no point to it. We took it down and now plan to turn it into an axe murder scene.

The first picture is Megal on the left and Julio on the right working on the Demon roof. The second picture is Elgin in the box truck with the Cemetery mannequins.

Zombo at the Big E

I took the day off today to go to the Big E. Dan was there doing Zombo. The guy that normally does it hurt his knee so Ernie is making some of us do it.

I got word from Justin about what when on at the Graveyard today. Justin did Cemetery. Ernie said two people were supposed to come by and help him but neither person showed up. Both of them have worked in the past but not this year. Ernie then said that hunchback Mike would help but Ernie made him level the area in front of the Manor facade. He then said Big Mike would help but when he got there Ernie made him paint. Ernie then said Julio and Megal would help but Ernie had them doing other things. Basically Justin had to do everything by himself. He ended up spacing the Tombstones a little closer together than normal so now we don't have enough stones to cover the entire Graveyard. The current plan is to make more tombstones and monuments.

forgetting more

Today Justin marked out the Cemetery path with string and Dan burned it. I worked on Spiders lights. More stuff happened just not sure what.

So much to post about so little time

Today I worked on finishing the Temple sound. It will have a general house sound and four special room sounds. Justin, Ernie, Julio, Megal, the new Mike and his three people worked on finishing Demons. Elgin hung fishing line in Spiders. The fishing line sort of feels like spider webs when you walk through it. A lot more happened but I can't really remember what four days later.

Another mike

Another Mike had his first day at the Graveyard today. Now we have the hunchback Mike, big Mike and this new one. He worked on the new Demon walls along with Julio, the special machine, and some lady I haven't been introduced to yet. They also put half of Demons up in place.

Jesse and Erin worked on Temple. Erin stained the fire room walls and used stencils to put drawings on walls. Jesse worked on the huge face that will be the new facade for the ball and also worked on the water room.

I worked on Temple sound, installing speakers and running wire. Justin worked on Slaughterhouse props and helping make the Demon walls. Bonita was here too. She is the new costume lady and has been at the Graveyard a few times since being hired a few weeks ago. Kevin worked on animatronic stuff. Elgin hung fishing line in Spiders. That's what we use for the feeling of spider webs hitting you. Mark was also here working on the Manor facade. Hes been working on it for many weeks now by himself. He still has quite a way to go but it looks really nice so far.

The picture is the start of the Temple Ball face.

Catacombs looking more creepy

Today I mostly worked on fixing the rest of the Manor flickering lights. Justin worked on getting more LEDs ready for the show and putting props in Trail 2 with Taylor. Jesse and Erin worked on Temple stuff this morning before leaving for school in the afternoon. Jesse brought his Mayan calender hes been working on at home. Its quite big and looks real good. Elgin tested fog machines. I had already tested them but some of them were screwy so Ernie wanted them tested again.
Here are some pictures of Catacombs with the Mannequins in place. The show looks so much better with mannequins. The mannequins should help with the actors scaring. Without mannequins every body a customer saw they knew was a real person so the actors had to hide behind walls and other things to scare. Now that the mannequins are back actors can stand out in the open and the customers won't know if they are real or not.

Little light rain

It rained a little today but it was all light and it didn't really halt work. Julio worked on Catacombs. He was cutting out sections of wall to install these small boxes that hold props. I finished the Temple low voltage wire and ran a new wire to the front of Vampires for a new display we have out there. I also tried to fix another candle light in Manor. Justin worked on proping Spiders. He then helped me by putting resistors on LEDs. I hope to use more LEDs in Temple than in other houses.

Taylor worked on more mannequins. Mike and Marybeth worked on the Car Crash. Dan and Elgin made some new panels for Demons. Later Elgin helped to test and clean fog machines. Kurtis continued work on Temple.

There was another actor meeting tonight. We got quite a few more applications.

Looping wire

Today I worked on running the Temple low voltage wire. In some of the houses the lights get dim toward the end so I'm trying something new by looping the wire. Hopefully the lights far from the low voltage box won't be so much dimmer than the rest of the house. I also worked on one of the Manor flickering lights. For some reason a few have gone out so I'm replacing the LEDs in them with Tea lights.

Justin, Dan, and Elgin continued work on Spiders. The area doesn't have straight walls so its its something a little different. The only other areas that don't have straight walls are Lost Souls and Fish Puppet.

Kurtis, Jesse, and Erin worked on Temple. Mike worked on Mannequins in Vampires. Marybeth worked on touching up her new paintings in the Ballroom windows and painting eyes on Mannequins.

Spiders redone

Julio and Megal worked on the Temple ball today. They had to rebuid the front wall of it. We took four feet off of it a few months ago to make room for an emergency exit between Temple and Dungeon.

Justin, Dan, and Elgin worked on the new Spider area. We decided in early spring to bypass the old spider house. It was a low point in the show and it needed a lot of repairs. The new spider area will be between the Car Crash and the Demon walls. Big mike also helped later in the afternoon.

Kurtis worked on Temple stuff. The other Mike worked on Mannequins in Vampires. In the morning I worked on showing the electricians where the emergency lights go and where we need extra outlets. I also worked on the Fear of Death sound, and some other small things around the show. Marybeth painted stuff including eyes on mannequins. The special machine was also here again today. I don't believe hes finished yet though.

The picture is the new spider area in the process of being built. Dan and Justin are inside working.

Still lots left to do

Its getting close to opening day and we are running around all over the show getting stuff done. I put up strobes in the Fear of Death and Vampire Ballroom. I also fixed lights in Catacombs, put a light on a new Vampire prop and started converting some candle lights to low voltage.

Justin finished taking off the Manor roof. Dan, Elgin, and Mike picked up the Manor roof and brought it across to be stored while the show is open. Dan, Mike, Elgin, and Ernie also put one of our trucks on the top of Trail 2 for the car crash. The four of them then put up the wooden fence in front of Slaughterhouse, moved the milk truck into place, put up the hanging meat in the last hallway, and put up the plastic freezer flaps. They then put up the stretchy walls for Demons.

Marybeth finished painting the Ballroom windows and continued painting Dungeon. The "special machine" continued his weedwacking. Taylor put arms and hands on mannequins for Catacombs.

The picture is the Catacomb mannequins standing in the front hallway waiting to be installed.

all Kevin's fault ;p

It looked like it would rain a few times today but nothing fell. I worked on fixing Trail 1 lights, Fish puppet lights and Vampires lights. The Trail 1 and Fish puppet lights being out were a result of Kevin not connecting the wires back together after taking out some animatronics last year. The Vampire problem was from people cutting wires when we were replacing the Transformation room area. I also fixed a couple random lights throughout the show and put up some covers for the strobe lights in the Fear of Death.

Kevin and Dan worked on stuff for animatronics. They put the compressors in for Cemetery and made some amplifiers. Elgin picked up garbage around the show with Ernie. Justin took off the Manor roofs we put on the hallways. Katie was in the park for the Enter to Win 2 free tickets contest. Its the last day Compounce is open until we open in two weeks.

Stitches

Today Jesse and Erin worked on Temple for a few hours in the morning. I worked on soldering some bridge rectifiers for the repeters and then installing them. Kevin worked on making bridge rectifiers for animatronics.

While Kevin was cutting some hot glue off one of them he cut his finger. It was pretty bad and bleeding a lot. We went to the Compounce security shack and they called the medic. She bandaged Kevin's finger and told him he needed stitches. By the time we left the guard shack his finger pretty much stopped bleeding though. I drove Kevin to the hospital in Meriden. Kevin's parents came after about 20 min of us being there. He got called into the waiting room about an hour and a half after getting there and it took about another hour and a half to get treated. While he was in the room Dan and 3 of Kevin's friends showed up. Dan kept sneeking into Kevins room every time a nurse opened the doors to the patient rooms. Kevin got 5 stitches total from the "crabby doctor"( Kevin and Dan called him that). After we left the hospital, Kevin, Dan, the 3 friends and I went out to dinner. We then went back to the Graveyard around 1am and walked through the show making a list of stuff we still had to do.

special machine broken

Jesse and Kurtis worked on Temple. Justin and I worked on Pumpkins. Julio worked on putting plywood on the new Manor facade. Mike and his friend worked on proping something.

Apparently the special machine broke yesterday. Instead of the electric weedwacker he was using one of our gas powered ones. Since we aren't sure if the electric weedwacker or the person was the special machine we are going to call him the special machine now.

The picture is Jesse and Kurtis working on a skeleton.

Tagged

I started out today by looking at the tagging the kid Julio brought did to some of the queue line stuff. Apparently someone gave him a can of spray paint to paint props but I guess he wanted to paint more. ;pChris worked on putting more roll roofing on the rooms in Temple. Justin, Taylor, and Dan worked on putting up the props in Cornfield, Pumpkins, Trail 1, and Vampires. They also picked up some trash around the show.

I worked on Pumpkins.

Ernie had been talking for about a week about how Julio was going to bring a friend with a special machine to pull up weeds in the Cemetery or something like that. Today that special machine arrived and it was (drumroll) an electric weedwacker. Not sure whats so special about it, we have plenty of gas powered ones and they generally work a lot better. Guess we'll see over the next couple days. He only got one very small section cut so far.

The picture is Dan holding the scarecrow, Taylor pulling something out of the box truck, and Justin telling Dan where the stuff goes.

Wish I wrote this the day it happened

Today Julio worked on doors. He put one in Vampires and another one in Catacombs. He also brought a kid. He was helping out a little here and there. I worked on Pumpkins. I'm over half way done wiring them up now. Taylor worked on more props for Catacombs. I'm not sure about anyone else since I'm writing this a week later. ;p

weekend quiet

I came in to work at the graveyard today. I expected to see other people when I got there but I was alone. Kevin eventually came around noon and Justin and Katie came at 3. I worked on Pumpkins. Kevin worked on animatronics. Justin and Katie were in the park signing people to win the two free tickets to the Graveyard.

Kevin told me he was the only one at the Graveyard on Saturday. Overall it was a very quiet weekend.

Commercial shoot!!

Today started like any other day. Justin and I worked on Pumpkins. We finished the middle fence. Kevin ran air hose for animatronics in Temple. Ernie and Taylor kept installing new props in Catacombs. Kurtis ran around and got things ready for the Commercial shoot.

Kurtis is the person making the commercial. Leigh did the awesome makeup. The shoot took place in Manor, Slaughterhouse, Cemetery, Catacombs, Vampires, and Trail 2. Jesse, Bobby, Taylor, Marybeth, Mike and two other people I don't know were in it. Many of us stayed at the Graveyard until after 3am when the shoot ended. Here are some pictures of the night up until my camera battery ran out. >< Marybeth and Mike during the shoot in the Cemetery.

Kurtis, the camera man, and Mike at the entrance to Catacombs.
Taylor in the Sawmill.

Still more Pumpkins

Justin and I are still working on the Pumpkins. We have most of the middle fence wired. Ernie and Taylor worked on installing props in Catacombs.

The picture is Taylor working on putting foam noodles on the Catacomb facade with Bobby watching.

Many painters

We had four painters painting stone today. Marybeth, Mike, Mikes friend, and the other Mike all showed up to paint today.

The picture is Marybeth, the newer Mike and his friend painting the new Ballroom in Vampires.

Jesse and Erin showed up this morning and worked on Temple with Kurtis.

The Picture is Jesse, Kurtis, and Justin in the Earth room of the new Temple.

Taylor and Dan worked on some Vampire stuff and later in the day Taylor worked on some new stuff for Catacombs. Julio and a friend he brought worked on the Catacombs main alter and some other things.

The picture is Taylor working on some new things for Catacombs with Julio, Ernie, and Justin in the back. Julio is in front of the new main alter he and Megal built.

Justin and I worked on more pumpkins.

Another new person

Justin and I continued on the Pumpkin Patch. We took down all of the shelves on the Left wall when you first walk in then put them back up. Some of them were a little loose so we put a 1x3 on the fence where the shelves are so when we screwed the shelves back on the screw was into more than just a thin piece of fence. Kurtis worked on Temple. Julio and Megal worked on a new main alter for Catacombs. The top of the old one was starting to sag in a little so Ernie had them make a new one. ALso Mike an actor that applied to act this year came up to do some stone work painting on the new wood in the houses. He and Marybeth went through and finished all of Catacombs by the end of the day.

Quiet day

It was quiet around the Graveyard with Kevin and Jesse in school. Justin and I started the work on installing the Pumpkins in Pumpkin Patch. I took down one side of the double sided fence in the middle and I started ripping out the old wire. Later Justin dug up the PVC pipe that contained the wire going under the path.

The picture is Justin with part of the fence taken down.

Jesse and Kevin's last day....

Today Jesse, Kurtis, and Erin worked on Temple. Erin pained walls while Jesse and Kurtis worked on the Earth room. Justin sanded Styrofoam rocks for the Temple. Megal and Julio worked on Dungeon repairs. Taylor worked on things like installing more fake doors in Vampires. I installed speakers in Cemetery and the strobe lights in Pumpkins and the Cornfield, among other things.

Today was Jesse, Kevin, and Erin's last full weekday of work. They are all back in school next week.

The picture is Erin sand painting Temple with her hand.

Cemetery gets a cut

Today the Cemetery grass finally got cut along with most of the other areas of the show. Dan, Taylor, Chris, and Kevin cut it with Dan and Taylor doing most. Dan also worked on more fake doors for Catacombs and Taylor worked on making fences for family plots. I spent the day fixing the wire in Cemetery that they ran over or weed wacked. It wasn't too bad and I only had to fix a few areas. I also put low voltage blacklights for the Dungeon fire bed and I installed the Dungeon repeters.Kevin also worked on fixing the saw blade in the Sawmill.

Justin worked on Temple waterfall area Julio and Megal worked on putting floors in all of the Dungeon rooms. Dungeon is really muddy this year and Ernie didn't want actors to have to stand in it all night. Mark was also there and working on the Manor facade. Jesse, Kurtis, and Erin worked on Temple.

We also had the second day of Featured Actor signups.

Food!!

Today Julio and Megal did more Dungeon repairs. Dan made some Catacombs doors. Taylor put Bats on the arches of Vampires. Justin rode around with Ernie to get wood. Justin, Kurtis, and Jesse then used the wood to make a walkway in the Earth room. Jesse also installed a big face he made in the Earth room. Erin painted stuff in Temple. I installed repeaters in Fishpuppet and finished some torches for Fishpuppet that were started last year.

Julio and Megal brought food later in the afternoon. The Chicken and rice were very good.

We also had featured actor signups.

IMPORTANT ACTOR INFORMATION

If you would like to be an actor this year you need to read this page. There is a lot of information including dates and the location. One important addition this year is our Featured Actors that will help tell the story of the graveyard. If you can act we need you. Our scare actors are still our core and we need you also. There are other jobs too if you would like to work behind the scenes. For more detailed information goto:

http://www.hauntedgraveyard.com/jobs/

I'm going to try and keep this on top of the blog.
Original post 8/14/09

Second day of Signups. More House Managers

Jesse and Kurtis are continuing along in Temple. They are working in multiple rooms but they started on the entrence to the Earth room today. Erin was also there painting the hallway from the Sun room all the way to the Wind room. Megal and Julio worked on more Dungeon repairs. Ernie told Justin to bounce between helping Jesse and Kurtis and MEgal and Julio but after standing around pretty much doing nothing for a while he went and helped Kevin. Kevin was installing animatronics mostly in Manor. He made two new ones that go in the windows. Dan had a list of things to do and after he finished them he helped Kevin with building some boxes around animatronics to protect them. I jumped around the show doing random things. I started with putting some lights that got taken down when we were redoing the Ballroom. I also put up the strobe lights in Zombie Forest and the lanterns in Trail 2. I also started installing our audio repeaters.

This evening was the second night of House manager and behind the scenes sign ups. I put up some signs and it seemed like most people didn't have as hard a time finding it as yesterday. One woman showed up very angry though.

Tomorrow is the first night of Featured Actor sign-ups. It should be very interesting as we've got a lot of responces to our posts.

The picture is the Wind room in the new Temple.