The Think Tank

As  I mentioned in the earlier post, one of the projects I really wanted to get done this year was an upgrade to the voicebox for our new Crypt Keeper jumping skeleton prop.

For our run through party I used the Christmas light remote control from last year, but it was just too flaky to be reliable.  Especially given that if the signal didn’t get turned off after about 2/1o of a second the damn MP3 player thought I was trying to turn it off and wouldn’t play the sound.  And the sound just has to be heard… its Bruce Campbell’s voice from Army of Darkness saying “Hail to the King, baby!” followed by Vincent Price laughing at the end of Thriller.

To correct that problem I wired a lightswitch into the middle of an extension cord and used that briefly – it worked much better than the remote, but it was not really ideal.  Fortunately for me, my friend Jim is an electrician and he was able to set me up with a timed relay and a much, much better wireless transmitter/receiver.

He came over last night and we got the whole thing setup and working just about perfect… I still need to adjust the timing a little bit so you hear Ash’s voice saying “Hail to the King, baby!”, then the skeleton jumps out of his chair in unison with the laughing.  My hope is that the voice will really attract your attention, so when he jumps out of his chair it will be that much scarier.

I really want to send a shout out to Jim for helping me with this.  I really appreciated it, although he may live to regret it.  I imagine I’ll be picking his brain frequently from now on.

Even without the sound working most of the time, he caused some really good screams during the Pre-Party.  I can hardly wait to see the new incarnation on Halloween night.

Well, we’ve worked long and hard and we’ve finally managed to get the halloween decorating finished!  And we even did it in time for our Halloween Pre-Party on Saturday.

Mom and Maure spent the morning and afternoon cooking up some really great food for the party, while Shannon and I finished up the last minute decorating and party preparations, including setting up the voicebox for the Crypt Keeper.  By the time that 5pm rolled around, I had officially put a close to this years halloween decorating.

The party went great and I think everyone had a good time.  Most everyone we invited showed up and shared some good food, good laughs and some good brews.  Although, I was a little disappointed in how the pumpkin and apple beers turned out: they were pretty lacking in flavor compared to usual.  Most people said they were still good though, so I guess if you didn’t have a reference point you weren’t as disappointed.

I still have a couple of projects left, namely to finish updating the soundbox for the crypt keeper and to fix the fog machines.

For several years now I’ve used this skele in the Ghoul Scout camp, and I have always attached his head and hands to the clothes lines above the yard.  But, as you can see in this picture, a little wind can really play hell with that sort of arrangement.

I thought about it for a while and I came up with the idea of stuffing copper tube through the leg and arm bones to make him posable and give him some stability.  I was so excited about my idea that I went on the Monster Page of Halloween Projects to post my brilliant and innovative idea.  Alas, I discovered that while it was indeed a good idea, it was far from original.

I picked up the copper tube form Home Depot, 20 feet for $18 which is enough for two skeletons, at least the way that I did mine.

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*** UPDATE  ***

This project is now 99.9% done!  As you can see from the picture, we have finished the sign for the top and we have also finished the mechanics of the Crypt Keeper and the voicebox is fully functional – I just have to adjust the timing and he’s done.  Should only take about 10-20 minutes.

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We worked for about 10 hours on Friday afternoon and night to finish the construction of the crypt.  Mike and Mairi came over for a while and helped me and mom put the plywood up, and then I carved out the gaps between the stones while mom and Mo painted it.  We finished up around midnight or a little after.

The front and north sides are the only two that really show, so I didn’t bother with the styrostone on the back or the south side, I just left them plywood painted the same stone color as the rest.

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Mom likes to keep track of the changes in crude oil prices and how that effects the price of home heating oil, so she has decided to stop scribbling her notes on scraps of paper and start putting them on here instead.

If you want to keep track of her observations, be sure to check out the Oil Prices page.