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Happy National Donut Day from the Davis Graveyard

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Harold the Gravedigger squinted through the pre-dawn mist. A low, guttural groan echoed through the Davis Graveyard, sending a shiver down his spine. Not the usual mournful sighs of the restless dead, no. This was a sound more…sugary. More…sprinkled. Harold gripped his shovel tighter. The rumors had begun a week ago – whispers of a giant, sentient donut rolling through the cemetery at night, leaving a trail of sticky frosting and disembodied sprinkles in its wake. Tonight, he'd finally catch the culprit red-handed (or, should he say, red-glazed?). As the groan grew louder, a monstrous shape lumbered out of the fog. It was a donut, alright, but colossal. Its glazed surface shimmered under the moonlight, studded with malevolent chocolate chips and a single, menacing gumball eye. A chorus of disembodied moans rose from the disturbed graves as the donut flattened several headstones with an indifferent squish. Harold, adrenaline coursing through him, charged. "Hey, sprinkle-brained...
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Match Columns

When we decided to put our display up at Clackamas County 'Scare'grounds this October, we knew if we wanted to take the demons and the metal Cemetery sign from our columns, we would need to make columns to match the real ones on our driveway. We had to use a full wood frame to make this as heavy as possible because the metal frame that goes over the arch it has some weight and we did not want it to topple forward.  There is a lip of wood at the top that is not foam covered, that is where the demons will slide down onto, similar to our current set up. We drew out the grout lines for 4x6 bricks (average size) with a T-square to keep square, then used a Dremel trio on the pink foam.  We used our Demand Durarasp and a wire brush to make the grain. We use PL glue to glue the sheets to the boards and used wood blocks and strips screw into the wood at the grout lines to hold the glue for 24 hours to set. We needed to add an extra layer of bricks (to match our fence) that we just glue...
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Going to the Chapel

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...and we're gonna get..... no life during the summer. :) (We are almost done with the Chapel, in fact, if all goes well, most of it goes up tonight. But I have not been documenting it here.  So I am going to retrospectively show you through the chapel build.) After a few years of planning, we finally decided to sell the abbey and build a chapel. The plan is that this will be easier to put together than the abbey has been.  The abbey took an entire weekend, a scissor lift and an army of people to set up.  This new chapel should go up in a few hours. This is the SketchUp plan. Front view from SketchUP Here is the real chapel that we modeled it after. Ardgowan Chapel in Scotland Yeah, we decided to phone it in this year :D
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I call this one penitent

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I needed to make a prop to mud at a local  Northwest Haunters Association  monster mud class that I would be attending the following week. So out of the blue came this idea.  How about a praying skeleton prop. Let me start by saying this is not our best work and I really did throw this together at the last minute.  When I make it again, I will pay a lot more attention to detail and NOT use that crappy skeleton! Started by making a pedestal base out of scrap foam.  It is a simple four-sided column with the top cut at an angle and a piece placed on top.  This will accommodate a skeleton kneeling in prayer. Next, I took a skeleton I had laying around from Halloween closeouts that was intended as a door prize for our annual Halloween Party. I then bent and posed him the best I could (never using this type of skeleton in a prop again!) I used gaffer tape to hold him in place on the pedestal. ...
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NFW! Not ever, no way, no how.

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Never saw the first one (as you would have guessed) so I am definitely not seeing this remake.  I am getting faint just thinking about it. You could not pay me enough to be on that movie set.  Nope. Aracnaphobia II  I have to go hide under my desk for a while and think of puppies and kittens :D
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You must label your foam

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before you start cutting. Here are pictures of the (almost) complete shipment of foam for the chapel build.  We have labeled all the pieces and cut them to length this weekend.  The tools from Hot Wire Foam Factory arrive later this week and we can start making the more complicated cuts. What an adventure this is going to be.  Keep posted for updates as we build.
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Location: 8703 SE 43rd Ave, Milwaukie, OR 97222, USA
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Now we really do have to build

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the chapel. The abbey is loaded in the truck and on its way to Oklahoma City. Took us several hours to play this epic game of trailer abbey parts Tetris.  But we got it to fit in 14 feet of the truck (he has to pay to ship by the foot, we originally thought 17 feet, but we just that good.) It is very weird to think that that Abbey will never be up in our yard again.  But the new owner is over the moon to have it, so that makes it bittersweet. Even Hal, short for Halloween Cat, looks sad.  I made my cat sad, that makes me a bad human. Don't worry Hal, we have a new prop for you to climb on and scratch in a few months.
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