New Year, Same Old Me

Happy 2023, everybody! I took a few weeks off, but I wanted to get back at it with a very big announcement.

I still can't believe this, but 2023 is going to be the 20th year of the Highbury Cemetery yard haunt!!

Wow. Where has the time gone (and am I REALLY that old??)?

I can still remember those early days of discovering the crazy world of home haunting, learning how to build props for the yard, meeting and collaborating with likeminded haunt lunatics, establishing the identity of the haunt, drafting friends and family members to join in on my Halloween fun, and finally taking the big step in starting this blog!

As they say, time flies when you're having fun and this trip has been one hell of a good time! In honor of the big milestone, I'm going to be bringing the goods throughout the year.

I'm kicking it up a notch with a ton of new posts from now through All Hallows Eve, including some extra special surprises along the way! Lots of announcements to come in the following months, so check back, hang out and celebrate!

Twenty years is a pretty big deal to me, so I want to make it extra special and share it all with the haunt community that has been my extended family for the entire ride. Let's do this.

Only 277 days until Halloween. Are you ready?

  

Highbury Cemetery Begins...

It was a sunny day with temperatures reaching 75 degrees - which is somewhat unheard of in late October in Northern Ohio - but it made for a wonderfully productive day. I was able to pull everything for the yard haunt display out AND get a lot of it set up in the front yard. I was desperately behind schedule, but I took a big leap forward today.

I'm really happy with the brand new archway (featuring a repurposed, original Highbury sign from all the way back in about 2003!), the fencing, and the spread of tombstones and old, wooden crosses.

Tomorrow night, I'll run all of the extension cords and start laying out all of my lighting. I want to make sure that it's all set for Sunday night's big show.

By Friday, I'll have all of the jack-o-lanterns carved and placed throughout, the spirits will be roaming the grounds, and I hope to have one more little surprise pop up for the big night.

One week to go and the Halloween spirit is in full flow. Just what I need to power me through the list of things still to get to. Let's do this...

  

Highbury Cemetery 2015 Video

I was able to film a little bit of video right after trick-or-treat ended this year, so I decided to throw this together. Next year, I'm definitely going to bring someone in to shoot throughout the entire night so that I have more than four minutes of total footage to work with...

Enjoy!

Highbury Cemetery, 2013

Sunday, Oct. 27 - Partly Cloudy - 50 degrees - 0 precipitation
Monday, Oct. 28 - Partly Cloudy - 57 degrees - 0 precipitation
Tuesday, Oct. 29 - Partly Sunny - 56 degrees - 0 precipitation
Wednesday, Oct. - Partly Sunny - 64 degrees - 0 precipitation
Thursday, Oct. 31 - Rain and High Winds - 67 degrees - 1" of precipitation
Friday, Nov. 1 - Windy - 63 degrees - 0 precipitation


I think by the data above, you can tell what kind of Halloween we had. Mother Nature let us know what she thought of Halloween this year and she gave us her worst. Had we an extra 12 hours, it would have been a different story.

By 2:00, the skies opened up and did not stop for the rest of the night. To make a long, painful story short, we ended up putting up about half of our yard haunt. I think I managed about 3 lights through the entire cemetery, as I didn't want to chance having someone getting electrocuted. As we speak, some props are STILL drying out in the garage. I think to say that 2013 was one of the worst home haunt years on record for us would be a bit of an understatement. And yes, even worse than last year, when we had to reschedule Trick-or-Treat due to the effects of a hurricane. IN OHIO...

We watched the ever-changing weather forecast and rolled the dice. Unfortunately we came up a bit short in our effort to continue Trick-or-Treat. The only question that was burning deep in my brain was whether or not any kids would even show up in such miserable conditions...

While we set up in a steady downpour, I grabbed my camera for a few progress shots. By the end of the night, everything, especially the yard haunt actors, were thoroughly soaked. At 8:00, we threw in the towel and tore everything down as fast as we could. I didn't even bother with any night shots this year, as there were hardly any lights.

So I present the only shots from this year's haunt. Grab the life vests!! 



2013 was to be the debut of my new cemetery entrance. The new gate and sign were this year's big project and took roughly 3 months to finish. Luckily, everything survived the weather and will be ready for next year's haunt.

We ended up keeping the black garbage bag over the talking skull cemetery greeter for the entire night. No sense in getting everything wet. Although in the dark, it DID look somewhat like a bodybag...

And although the tombstones got soaked, everything made it through the night and will be ready to go for next year, too...

None of the jackos washed away, either!

All in all, we managed to salvage the evening and have a little fun, even if we didn't get to put on the grand show in light of this year's exposure. A lot of friends braved the elements and still came over to work the yard. A very, very heartfelt thank you goes out to this year's crew: Sharon, Karen, Laurie, Andrew, Neighbor Joe, Stacey, Vince, Sabrena and her boyfriend, Eric and Jennifer, and even Daniel, the young guy from up the street who knocked on our door 2 hours before trick-or-treat asking if he could help work our haunt with a bladeless chainsaw that he had.

And as to that burning question that was eating at my brain before trick-or-treat? Amazingly, the neighborhood kids and their parents showed up in full force. While we couldn't give you all the show that we wanted to, we really appreciate every last one of you braving the elements and coming out anyway. It really made the night all worthwhile.

And how many kids came out, you ask?
 

Not too bad for one of the worst-weathered Halloweens on record. But don't worry. This year's miss will definitely turn into next year's hit. I'm already planning for a few big projects for next year and it's only going to get bigger and better.

As long as Mother Nature cuts us a break...

 

Highbury Cemetery, 2012

Five straight days of rain, huge time commitments at work, a last-minute weather-related rescheduling and taking care of our newborn son. Even through all of that, we still managed to pull it off. Somehow we all got together and managed to get through another incredible Halloween season. Saturday's rescheduled neighborhood trick-or-treat left many questions as we set up a scaled-down version of our haunt through some light morning rains. Would the weather ever break? Would anybody show up? Would anybody think a scaled back version of Highbury Cemetery would still be cool??

In reflecting on last night's mayhem, I can happily answer "yes" to all of the above! The skies cleared up and allowed us to run all of our lighting. We still had over 100 trick-or-treaters, neighbors and curious onlookers stop by. And we had many compliments and photo requests throughout the night.

After all of the stress of trying to get everything set up and organized, 2012 goes down in the books as another successful year for the Highbury family.

So without further ado, I present Highbury Cemetery, 2012:

A big, big thank you goes out, as always, to everyone who helped set up, scare, and then tear down this year. You all earned your shirts this year! The Golden Zombie awards go out to Sharon, Karen, Scrapes, Andrew and Neighbor Joe for helping making this year so much fun. We couldn't do it without you! 

And of course a big thanks to everyone who cooperated with the trick-or-treat reschedule and made it out to visit us. We enjoyed serving you. And especially the kids that I got to chase all the way down the street. You guys really make trick-or-treat fun!

But a special Platinum Zombie award goes out to Mrs. Highbury, who couldn't help out this year, as she had her hands full with one very special little skeleton:

I can't wait until he's old enough to become one of the members of Highbury Cemetery. I'd say he's already got the look down! 

Highbury Cemetery, 2011

Well group, after months and months of planning and building and taking trips to Lowe's, the big day finally arrived. Halloween. The nervous anticipation was palpable with everyone who was on hand to help out. And there were numerous people helping out this year!

As we started setting up, Mother Nature was in a foul mood and opened the skies with a cold, miserable rain. This stretched everyone's already worn nerves to the brink, but somehow our good karma must have cashed in, because an hour before trick-or-treat, the clouds retreated and the sun actually poked out to dry things up a bit. We kicked it into overdrive, setting up all of the props, running all the extension cords and taking turns in the bathroom-slash-makeup booth.

And after everything was said and done, the clock struck six and we were ready to go. The hordes of children, parents and curious neighbors descended upon the cemetery to see what we had cooked up this year.

All in all, it was another incredible Halloween. The weather cooperated, friends and family either worked the yard or stopped by to check things out and we totaled close to 300 visitors.

A HUGE, HUGE thank you goes out to everyone who helped put this thing on this year. Without your help I could have never done this. This year's t-shirt recipients are: Scrapes, Mrs. Highbury, MY MOTHER-IN-LAW!!!, Sharon, Karen, Neighbor Joe (who graciously let me spill into his yard this year!) Andrew and Peter. With the cast above assembled, we were able to set everything up AND tear everything down in one day. Unbelievable...

Okay enough of the rambling, onto the photos!!

Mrs. Highbury (right) and our newest member, my mother-in-law!! Two of the four witches from the new witches' den.

We all prayed for the rain to stop. And by trick-or-treat time...

My favorite shot of the night. The colors really popped in this shot and give a wonderful creepiness to the image.

Little Dustin Horner was playing his part all night. I saw so many people checking him out, poking at him, wondering why he wasn't moving. It was hilarious! I even caught a couple of kids "peeking" into his little pumpkin bucket. Shame, shame!!

Abigail Harrington (my new FCG) worked flawlessly all night, shrouded in a dense fog (except in this shot) within her crypt. A few kids asked if she was really flying.

This year, the front porch was transformed into a witches den, complete with 4 terrifying witches.

The witches' cabinet of potions and other curiosities.

Stick your hand in the cauldron to get your treat!

One of two new potter's fields, on either side of the main cemetery. It appears as though someone was not happy being buried without an identity...

The new Highbury Obelisk taking its rightful place in the center of the cemetery.

The shihatsu ground popper created last year. I will have to post a video and how-to on this one. Quick and easy with really great results.

Walk up the pumpkin path to get your treat...

Scrapes, Highbury and Andrew

 

And now we only have 364 more days until Halloween, 2012. Time to get back into the garage to start planning the props to top this year's display! I hope everyone had as great a Halloween as we did!