Box of Monster Guts

A fresh package arrived from Monster Guts prop building supply. Mostly miscellaneous air fittings that will be critical to the operation of the new pneumatic scares this year. Also got a new pressure mat to trigger the scares. Racing against the calendar to realize the complete vision this year. Next 2 days will be spent on final touchup of East, North and South sides. Have a dozen or so new walls to build for the front. Cemetery will probably not go out on October first this year like it has in year's past. It will interfer too much with the construction of the new corridor of darkness.

Chicken Run

Thursday, October 29th is the Day of the Chicken on the haunter's zodiac. Too many children came out of last year's haunt in tears, so we're putting on this fear free walk through one night only for small children accompanied by their parent. Come in costume and take pictures if you like. http://www.day31.net/ChickenRun.html

Day 6 & 7

Day 6 was spent erecting walls on the South side of the haunt. Got most of it up, but was delayed by some of the mods needed for this year's changes.

Day 7 was mostly about the mods. Made another trip to Lowe's and brought home another load of 2x3's. Built some hidden doors on several of the walls to allow easy access to various areas of the haunt during the build and by staff during operation. Made some changes to the coffin table to make it more solid. Still needs to be lowered a good foot or so. My next build day should see the completion of the North, East and South sides minus the outdoor portion on the East side this year. From there we can move on to props, paint and walls for the front side.

Day 5

Another scorching day. If time wasn't short I would have plopped down infront of the air conditioner and sat this one out, but the calendar indicates I don't have that luxury. Finsished 2 more walls for the East side today and got them dressed out with wall paper and paint. Not happy with the amount of progress considering I was on it from dawn 'til dusk, but the heat was sipping at my mojo all day long. The goal is to have the North, East and South sides complete by mid October- props and all- and I still think it's an achievable goal. There's another heat wave incoming next week...just in time for my next set of days off, which is when I work on the haunt. Gotta love living in the desert. Where are you Fall?

Day 4

No pictures for the 4th day of the build. Finished the North side of the haunt...just need to buy the material for the ceiling, build the mantle room prop and run the wiring and air hoses. Started the East side and began the framing of the 2nd room. A popular scare from last season is getting an interesting new venue and some new flair. UPS showed up with my new Bucky skeleton. That makes 5 Buckies total. They say the measure of a haunt's legitamacy is directly proportional to the number of Bucky skeletons that can be found within it. I don't know about that, but I'm trying to add a couple Buckies per year.

Lots of framing and painting yet to do, and I haven't even started on the new props yet. People think it's nuts to start the build in September, but I'm actually concerned I may not have started early enough to realize the whole plan. Will keep hammering away and hope for as few problems as possible.

Day 3

The end of Day 3 saw the near completion of the 1st main room...minus a ceiling. Trust me- it's scarier looking in the dark. The next project is painting the reverse sides of the Thunder Hall wall panels for protection against deterioration and to keep light from showing through in the wrong places, and touching up the Fireplace room's walls with some distressing. They look way too new and shiny.

Day 2 Pics

With the help of my trusty haunt apprentice sidekick, all ends well with the build on Day 2. The reVAMPing of the rooms in order to make them open and interactive is requiring total rebuilds of some existing walls. I hate building walls- it's tough work and it's boring. Put a new wheel on the fireplace so now it rolls easier. In total got 6 walls up, but the goal was really to get the right measurements so I could build the new walls to fill in the gaps. 4 more to build today, and if there's time I'll finish the rest of the 40 foot hall (thunder hall).

Day 1 Pictures- ORBS

For the first time ever, a photo taken on my property shows what is clearly an orb in the center of the picture. Orbs are commonly thought to be the physical manifestation of spirit energy. Although it has been more than a year since there as been a reported sighting of the girl in blue, the orb appeared on the same side of the property that all past sightings of her occurred. Read the full story about the girl in blue on the AboutDay31 page at http://www.day31.net/AboutDay31.html

Wait, it gets weirder. Look at the next picture and count the orbs. Although only 1 truly stands out, I count what may be as many as 12 additional fainter orbs. Police suspect that the number of bodies dumped or buried in our area could total more than a dozen, although only 7 were actually found. The ultimate Halloween treat would be to have the girl in blue make one of her rare appearances in the Day31 Haunt!

Day 1

Day 1 of the 2009 build was scorching hot, but there isn't time to wait for cooler temps. I need certain sections up early to make the changes I have planned. I anticipated while pulling down the stacks of walls I might encounter a critter or two- those frames have been sitting outside for nearly a year. Of course I was thinking more along the lines of bugs and spiders. The biggest Day31 scare this year was definitely lifting up a wall frame and discovering a opossum staring up at me from a foot away. It didn't really look viscious like the one in the picture. Actually, it sort of looked cute and cuddly, but it didn't have any interest in sticking around to be my pal. I hope it finds a nice new place to chill at least through October.