Haunt Progress Update

Finally got some additional 1" PVC pipe and swapped out the prior set of "tibia" pipes with 3" longer ones on the wolfman mannequin. The proportions look much better now. Also finished adding the new decorative trim molding to our old 2009 built pedestals. They were originally made as an addition to our cemetery post and chain fence at our old house, but we ended up moving to our current house the following year, and they didn't work with this front yard's slope, so they were simply used as display pedestals in our haunts here. Felt that it was time to breath some new life into them. They'll be painted a desert tan color, get an antiquing coat on top to hopefully bring out the trim details, and will be used for displaying a pair of LED flame lanterns in our Mummy vignette for the haunt. The bookcase prop for the Frankenstein's Lab vignette is also coming along. Decided to put off plans for building three new ornate pedestals for our gargoyle statues this year, those will have to wait until next year. Prices on wood and other items have gone up considerably and there's been a "tad" of scope creep already for this year's haunt. Creating Frankenstein's Lab, even on a small vignette scale, has cost more than anticipated, so we have to start reigning in the spending! We still need to purchase trick-or-treat candy and 12+ pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns comes the fall. We decided to forgo treat bags this year and go back to handing out full sized candy bars on hand. We really stuffed the bags with treats the past few years and it got rather expensive and time consuming. It's easier just to have boxes of full sized bars. We also need to get a new 5' tall poseable plastic skeleton as soon as those start becoming available again (hopefully at a reasonable price). Plastic props get brittle over time and we've lost a few of our oldest 5' skeletons to breakage over the past couple of years. Part of the reason why we've been doing mods to them, e.g. the red/blue light up jewel eyes behind the 3D glasses for the moviegoer skeletons, because they're not going to last too many more years, so why not go wild with them. Even some of our power tools from the 2000's that were purchased primarily for specific prop building tasks are on their last leg. It's hard to believe we started doing an annual yard haunt for All Hallow's Eve, aka "Haunted Eve", 24 years ago!