Remember how I mentioned a few blog posts back that my husband and I are building a haunted attraction? First, let’s start with getting a show of hands for who likes things like scary movies?

Note that my hands are most definitely not raised.

Okay, now let’s get a show of hands for who is perfectly willing to scare the everlivin’ outta you?

Note that my hand is very enthusiastically raised.

This is a truly insane endeavor. First, we had to find and buy property dedicated specifically to the haunt. Done. Then we had to put up a couple buildings to store tools, take tickets, give the actors a place to change and put on makeup, etc. Done. Then we had to blaze a trail through the woods. Done. Then we had to spend about 8 months raising said trail about a foot because once we had cut the trail it became the lowest point on the property, so every time it rained, it turned into a creek. We also had to pump the water out because we had the 2nd highest rainfall on record since 1892. Done. Then we had to run electricity throughout the property and do all the trenching ourselves to be able to afford it. Done.

Please note, that when I say “we,” I really mean “S,” because, to be honest, I had to do very little of that work. Granted, I was running the studio which is what pays for this insanity, so it’s not like I didn’t help, but I was not the one out there raising the trail one shovelful at a time. I was also not the one battling giant swarms of mosquitos and gnats and ticks (okay, so ticks don’t really swarm, but we had so damn many one year that I was pretty sure we’d discovered a new breed and that this breed signaled the upcoming zombie apocalypse). Here is a pic of me in my anti-things-that-want-to-eat-me gear during the worst of the flooding we had.

Note the fertile breeding ground for malaria-and-west-Nile-virus-bearing bugs.

But now, after 3 years, we are FINALLY at the phase where we get to start doing work that people will actually notice. Here are some of the sets we’re working on:

Eerieville graveyard’s hand carved gravestones

Gate opening onto Eerieville’s trail

Eerieville’s graveyard

Eerieville’s remains of a cottage

I know, madness, right?