Gonna Get Moving in '09

My goal this year is to get my haunt moving.

Before 2005, it was the usual pumpkins and spider webs and bats. Then a friend at work gave me a blucky she found at a yardsale. I set him up on a straw bale with a spotlight on him and was hooked. I made a couple of tombstones that year and the prop-building bug firmly took hold of my brain. No turning back.

I started decorating big in 2006 when I first built the pirate ship Merry Gin. Rather, I decided to do a pirate theme and a friend built the ship out of some old lumber he had. I created the crew and decorated the rest of the yard with a nautical theme. The graveyard remained, taking on new residents.

The driveway looked so empty on Halloween night when I moved the car out of the way for the trick-or-treaters and I vowed to add something to that space. In 2007 the pirate jail was created, complete with prisoners and a determined group of pirates trying to help them escape.

2008 was going to be the last year for the pirates - I had planned to have a sea monster attack the ship and demolish it on Halloween night. I created the sea monster, but realized in the process that I wasn't quite done with the pirates yet.

This year I'm getting things moving - motors, servos, whatever it takes. I've been cobbling together props, using zipties and duct tape to play with linkages long enough to confirm a prop should work then moving to the next concept. I have one more week to create new set-ups then it's time to go back and polish up the movement and dress the props.