Summer Daze

Considering the lousy weather I've endured the past two or so years in October, I guess I really shouldn't be talkin' smack about the string of gorgeous weather we've had here in New Jersey. I know I've seen Steve from Steve's Haunted Yard get pummeled by rain and Troy of Halloween Hellmouth has had bouts of stormy weather. Even the Bloodshed Brothers were bemoaning the spate of bad weather they've been through in California.

Here, though, we've had some unseasonably warm weather with today being another one in the mid-80's. What's even more remarkable is the calmness of it all. I'm sure I shouldn't be jinxing things, but we've probably enjoyed almost two weeks of perfect weather and I haven't had to chase one prop down the block yet that got picked up and carried away by the wind. There just hasn't been any, other than gentle breezes.

So I've been making the best of it by setting up my yard and finishing like mad a bunch of unfinished I left for the last minute. Yesterday I was at the upstart NJ Hookerman Make & Take group (don't ask, I'm not really sure about the name, though it certainly seems right up my alley!) and completed my grave grabber, painted some tombstones (five of them, count 'em five!), and brought my two obelisks to near completion.

I got to see niblique71's haunt up close, which is about three-quarters of the way set up. It was a real treat, and I really liked his Karl prop at night (at 15 feet tall, it's huge!), but there's just so much to see:

But I'm also able to go out at night and start fiddling with where I want my props and how I want them lit. Right now I still only have my two green spots out, but I ran the low voltage wire today and tomorrow I'll start setting out my mini-spots. Still, the nice evening weather gives me a chance to enjoy my set up and see how new props -- like my obelisk that needs to be painted still in the photo above -- looks in situ.

Never look a gift horse in the mouth and haunter's should never gainsay gorgeous weather in October.

Nor'easter Not'sobad

They told us a Nor'easter was going to be blowing through last night. It would begin with rain then swing over to strong gusting winds. Sounds just like last year!

This time I was prepared, or more so than I was when I was constantly running down the block scooping up my props that blew away. Ah! The wonders of PVC and rebar. Just about everything that could be staked was, including my reaper who got knocked over so many times last year that he started to come apart. I finally left him laying down until the winds died down and then tied him up.

Not this year, though. This time I drove an 8-foot pipe 2-feet into the ground and slid his PVC support brace over it. In the wind that we did have, he was something like a weather vane turning where he stood depending on which way the wind blew, but he didn't fall!

There were two props that did fall however. One was my "pumpkin kreep" prop; the other was simply a wood column I had scored off of Freecycle and painted. The pumpkin prop didn't really fall so much as bend waaa-a-a-ay over. It has a PVC superstructure too, and was surrounded by corn stalks that were tied to the PVC. I'm assuming with all the rain the stalks became saturated and toppled causing the PVC to bend.

When I had erected it, I drove a short piece of rebar into the ground and slid the PVC over it. While it was still dry outside, that was sufficient to hold it erect. By rain and wind took its toll and made him bow down to the other props. If the winds relent tomorrow, I'll drive another steel  pipe into the ground and slide him over it too.

The column I left lying on the ground. No sense in picking it up to have it fall over again. The only other "damage" was one of my tombstones busting away from its PVC support. Apparently adhesive for foam insulation isn't as strong as I had expected. I'd read Gorilla Glue was excellent and wouldn't damage the Stryofoam, but I couldn't find my bottle and substituted the adhesive. Next time I'll not be so lazy and drive to the store and buy another bottle.

Turn a Weather Eye

As many haunters remember -- particularly in the northeast -- last year's Halloween was marked by some pretty disastrous weather, from gale force winds to torrential rains. I recall checking the Farmer's Almanac last year and it had fairly correctly predicted what the weather would be, so I put it on my list of things to do to check in again this year.

However, the Old Farmer's Almanac only gives a two-month window so I had to wait until now to check in and it looks like we're going to be in for it again. Although it says the New York/New Jersey region -- the "Atlantic Corridor" as it calls it -- will only experience 1.5 inches of rain for the month, some 2 inches below normal, it's pretty much scheduled to rain almost every week of October, and the 30th and 31st will be "rain, warm."

FWIW, the forecast for September 9-16 was listed as "T-storms, then sunny, warm" and the thunderstorms only just pulled out a little while ago. They were brief, but they did come through and that's what the Almanac predicted.

Of course, that rain forecast can mean a lot of different things. When the Almanac says "rain," it doesn't specify whether it will be a drizzle or will instead spawn Ark-like conditions (hey, they might be good, but can they really be that good, the current T-storm prediction not withstanding?).

And as many probably are aware, there's another "Farmer's Almanac" too, that's probably been around just as long (or maybe it's been around longer, I get the two confused) and its forecast is drearily similar (but it predicts some heavy wind gusts from the 8th to the 11th, so you may want to tie your props down especially tight those days). Its forecast for Halloween, which runs from the 28th to the 31st, is "fair, then showers." 

Sounds like us New Jersey-area haunters are going to have another wet Halloween. Sigh.

Rain

The cold October rains swept in today and gave everything a thorough soaking. The Reaper has held up fine, no doubt an attribute of the Dryloc waterproofing sealer, several coats of exterior paint, and two coats of deck sealer. So long as the wind doesn't knock him down again I have no concern for his durability.

My zombies I'm a little more concerned about. They seemed to have held up pretty well considering the driving rain that was falling on them, but at about 6:00 p.m. tonight I decided discretion was the better option and brought them inside. I think I should have done that from the beginning.

While they're still maintaining their integrity, I have found a few areas on both of them that feel "spongy." Interestingly, these are also the areas that contained the least amount of newspaper packing inside. For example, the ribs and breastbone on both zombies remains as hard as ever, but between the ribs, sections of the skulls, and certain places on the arms (joints mainly), it has that soft feel. My concern is that water has gotten into them and they will now rot from the inside out...like a true zombie!

So I've wiped them down, used a hair dryer to dry them off, and will keep them inside until the rains pass. I'll then recoat them with the deck sealer to try and protect them further.

It's a little disappointing after all the work that went into them to think they might end up getting ruined. While they're my first attempts at this I want them to remain intact for years. At least a couple. It may mean though that next year (and beyond, if they last so long) I may have to wait until just before Halloween to put them out...which isn't such a bad solution, but I enjoy coming home and seeing their unearthly mouths agape at me.

Rich