Yes, Halloween, my most favorite of all holidays, is once again barreling down upon me like a freight train. Every year something comes up that pushes back my plans for the garage until nearly the last minute. This year it was the birth of my son, Magnus. However now that he is home I am dedicating much of my free time over the next two weeks to getting the garage ready to scare the little kiddies.

I have plans for this year that require adding some animated props to the layout and while I had planned to build the rigs myself I found a couple prebuilt rigs at the local Spirit store that I am buying (as soon as they come in on Monday) and which I will be able to cannibalize for the parts I need to make better because, quite frankly, they are not quite up to the snuff that I would use as is given the choice.

The first task this year is to do a pop up on the main table. The plan is a foot pad activated rig that will trigger a corpse to sit up under a blood covered sheet that will scare the kiddies when they go for the candy. The second will be a rising spirit coming out of the grave.

I am also looking at changing up my costume this year as the trick or treaters are getting a little wise to the Ring Wraith outfit. The plan this year is to put that costume on a dummy that will distract visitors who are used to me being in it. We will see how that works as I am still looking for a mask to use.

I post some plans and layouts as the days go by as well as pictures of the process and the eventual layout too. I know I promised pics last year but my ADD set in and prevented that plan.