Month: November 2014

Final thoughts on 2014.

Every year, I like to sit down and analyze what worked, and what didn’t.

This particular year, it was just a minor miracle we were able to do it at all. However, analyzing the new additions:

“The Orchard”, so coined in 2010 was a night and day improvement over the 2010 concept, but still not quite where I’d like it.

One teenager stopped to ask me at the entrance. “What is this, Mr Jones?”

It’s a rare treat to be compared to the nigh perfection that is Pumpkinrot’s works. Alas, I hadn’t watched Mr Jones until this past Saturday. I can kinda see where the teen was coming from in a very broad sense, both works meaning to imply something mystical being set up with the bones and sticks.

The Orchard was one of the few successes, and I’m determined to make it return in 2015, with more proper attention than we were able to give it this year.

Jim.

Jim was another project I started years ago and never finished. Representing my first foray into animation, I’m left unsure whether I will return to animation or not. When he was working it was a marvelous, almost magical thing. A neighbor girl on the 29th went down that corn tunnel (her brother stopping at the gate), encountered Jim, and come running right back out. It remains one of the funnier things of the year.

However, I believe in an attempt to figure out how it was working, someone went fiddling at some point during the party on the 30th, and Jim took a dive. By the time I found him, it was in such a state I knew repair would be impossible with the time and resources I had available. So, a half-working Jim was on for Halloween night. Don’t know whether I’m just not going to put out future animatronics till after the party, or just stick to static.

Jim did look ominous just sitting there waiting for someone to trigger his motion sensor.

The coffins.

They really weren’t my thing to begin with. They got me through a rough time, though, and kept me busy.

Missed opportunity to do up a whole old west graveyard with wooden crosses. Didn’t even cross my mind till it was too late. (I keep seeing the scene with Ned on display outside the bar from Unforgiven when I look at this. Poor Ned.”) Not a bad idea for a whole theme, really. Just, not my thing. They sold about 10 minutes after posting them…which was kind of the point of building them in the first place.

So, where does that leave us?

Well, I’m strongly considering a fresh start for 2015. Return to the most basic elements from 2010. Full on Harvest theme.

I also discovered my city has started a scarecrow contest. I think I might just have to follow a bit of Pumpkinrot’s example, and enter such a contest. I don’t know what won, but I only saw a bunch of smiling stuffed happiness on display. Can’t allow that to stand unchecked. Last time I went looking to make a scarecrow, I stumbled on the Chimera.

Now, how do I take my style there and translate it to a more traditional ‘scarecrow’ form?

Reflecting on 2014…

I’ve been wondering how to word this for a LONG time. You may have noticed my activity has been rather diminished over 2014.

As you might expect, Halloween 2014 for us really began in 2013. Actually late September of 2013. However, 2014 was a different kind of beginning than is typical for us. We were not making plans and figuring out what to build for the following year. 2014 began when we were informed in September I would possibly be losing my job in January.

We already had the vacation planned for Disneyland last year, and we went and enjoyed as best we could, but everything was just a bit muted. As December approached, that possibility soon became a certainty, and thus in January, I found myself unemployed for the first time in my life.

It’s hard to express the changes this wrought mentally and emotionally. I didn’t speak about it here, as even posting to this blog made me feel somewhat guilty keeping such a frivolous hobby. I was bound and determined to somehow keep Halloween alive. I couldn’t really justify it logically. I had no idea how it would even be possible. I just knew that it had become a part of who I am.

Little projects I managed to pull together for no cost both helped and hurt. Sure, building coffins kept me busy, active, and gave some sense of accomplishment, but at the same time, they reminded me it all might be for nothing, that I was unemployed.

I soon found myself switching to REALLY old hobbies, ones pre-dating Halloween. I could take pictures free these days, and it let me rediscover my love of bugs.

And, through that, a love of gardening, and of cooking. As summer stretched on, and various disappointments reared their heads (something eating my corn…something not me), it became clear Halloween was soon going to be in jeopardy as well, and I gave up on a camera upgrade I had been hoping for, instead using that squirreled away money to begin buying treats for Halloween, and hoping to be able to keep the party going.

September brought a massive roller coaster ride with job opportunities appearing, and disappearing, and pumpkin harvest looking great…and then a lot rotting earlier than usual. But, it was nice to be back at Frightmares for Halloween.

On the verge of needing to let go of some aspects of our Party, things I can clung to with almost irrational zeal, I finally found employment again at the first of October. By some miracle, it even allowed me a schedule by where I would be able to be off for our planned party and Halloween night. However, putting the yard together was going to present a challenge.

One final setback struck in a personal manner when my Father in law died in mid October. Somehow, our yard that featured bodies and coffins suddenly seemed to be something less than tasteful. Still, it was a part of me, somewhere deep inside.

As the day drew near, family, friends, neighbors all pitched in to make this come together this year. My boys were responsible for entire projects in the yard. Neighbors helped build. Additional pumpkins were donated to fill in for the rotted ones. Family and neighbors come to help with cleaning out the pumpkins. Several offers were fielded to help ensure the party was able to continue.

I started the year knowing how much this means to me. I’ve learned through this year how much it means to a larger community.

As one little boy pulled on my leg Friday night, and asked “mister scary” (me) if he could have another magic light (glow stick) this year, as it had kept him safe last year, I realized what a rare and precious gift this is. For one night, that light is magic, and it DOES keep the monsters away. I’ve made that story real for that child, but just as much, he has made it real for ME.

Now, time to start working on 2015.