http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/ Halloween Discussion Forum, Haunts and Home Haunt Community. en Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:11:01 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.halloweenforum.com/images/afterdark/misc/rss.jpg http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/ http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/524-quite-audience-last-night-january.html Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:54:20 GMT Four artistic, creative , very successfull people, who know very well what is required to entertain the public and make a living doing it. Several... Four artistic, creative , very successfull people, who know very well what is required to entertain the public and make a living doing it.
Several times they "paid" me with their spontaneous applause!
WOW!!?
Very impressed, even as they neared the final steps out the exit.
You never know who is going to be coming through your door.(So I treat them all the same)
It obviously is Not just all about "The Money". ]]> Gym Whourlfeld http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/524-quite-audience-last-night-january.html http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/516-accidently-scaring-kittys.html Sat, 02 Jan 2010 12:48:14 GMT As I turned to my Wife I was to say, "I love you."
My throat suddenly "caught" (for want of a better description) and all that eminated from me was sort of a low "oowww!" (the "You" of "Love you")
She immitated the sound back at me and two big yellow male cats in the room scampered and made fast tracks out of the room, into the bedroom, and hid under the bed!?
It was just too much evil fun not to try it again, and again as they would relax, stroll back into the kitchen, take up their "positions" one near the aquarium..She would "Oooooww!"
And claws sliding for immeadiate grip and yellow blurrs evacuating the kitchen followed her slight, rather low noise.
In their defense , right out the kitchen door is the cliff dropping down to a small river about 80 feet away and more woods on the other side, we see no neighbors looking out that direction..but we will hear coyotes every so often singing a almost deafening "song".
"Oooowww!" Run! Coyotes! ]]> Gym Whourlfeld http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/516-accidently-scaring-kittys.html http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/514-chainsaw-trike-picture.html Sun, 27 Dec 2009 03:00:05 GMT Is now on display here for everyone to see. Is now on display here for everyone to see. ]]> Gym Whourlfeld http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/514-chainsaw-trike-picture.html http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/513-i-have-been-too-busy.html Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:26:54 GMT I have been away from halloween forum for quite some time now. My one blog post before I vanished told about the mundane, necesarry fixes I had to... I have been away from halloween forum for quite some time now.
My one blog post before I vanished told about the mundane, necesarry fixes I had to do here, well the year just kept right on providing more and more of these seemingly about every other day!I am also building a garage inside of my garage now. I'm making extra wall and ceiling studding since 24 inch centers for wall studs are not condusive to insulation installation or overall building strengh. (In my opinion)
Of course this could all be alot quicker and easier if the whole building WAS NOT already full of "Stuff"! Stuff needing to be moved around and around as I clear one wall, one square foot of floor space to keep working...."GGRRR!"
Organization of where things belong will happen when the work is done, maybe sometime within the next few years!!! "GGRR! (once again!) ]]> Gym Whourlfeld http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/513-i-have-been-too-busy.html http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/271-snow-doesnt-stop-them.html Sat, 10 Jan 2009 03:28:30 GMT Jan. 9th, 9:24 pm. Phone rings , they are 25 miles away headed here!
It's been snowing out for quite some time now. I wonder if the late afternoon rain froze under the snow? A question I would not like to find out the answer to as I was driving.
Just as I was thinking about turning off the house lights....
I just sent an e-mail to a man who is a haunter in another state many miles from here, he has been to my house and taken the tour, I asked him if he thought there was much in common with what I do here and the average haunted house?
(Probably not)
I see myself at the opposite end of the spectrum from most. I really don't care to own props invented and made by someone else, I see and feel that my place is and should remain to be a very personal expression of my concepts and ideas, my art in other words.
Their art is not my art, simple as it can get.
I have met people who mentally catalog all the displays they encounter in a professional October haunt then itemize and financialise the out come's total buck-a-roo's value.
If they can really enjoy the show while their adding machine mind is so busy with all the numbers remains to be seen.
A great many people who have been here can't stop thinking about the experience , they return bringing friends, relatives and they will confide that they just could not really describe this place, this style of entertainment that I do, but they obviously liked it!!
...and therein lies my financial strength and future. ]]> Gym Whourlfeld http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/271-snow-doesnt-stop-them.html http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/268-3-years-planning.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:40:40 GMT I seem to do things slower anymore but my little piece of work I am currently doing has been mulling over in my head for about three years now.... I seem to do things slower anymore but my little piece of work I am currently doing has been mulling over in my head for about three years now. Mulled long enough?
A week ago I striped out the non-essentials from an old car and I have now made the new front suspension for it, the frame that bolts onto the front suspension and the extended frame to lengthen the wheelbase with the new custom body I will be fabricating.
The orginal car body is styled like a 57 Cadillac and was a kid's riding toy that was modified to be a fire truck, so my mini-hearse will be 15 inches wide by 4 feet long when done.
It's roofline will angle up toward the rear of the car like a real hearse and it will have a vynl roof which will also be my padded seat for my unpadded seat I carry with me everywhere I go.
This will be a display here and double as a parade car . Wether or not to place a mower engine in it I'm still debating, it might just be towed in a parade via a steel cable.
I have very heavy-duty tires and wheels mounted using a very heavy little steel frame, welded mostly , bolted together in sections just for sub-assemblys to make building it somewhat easier.
Unless a person has ever built a project that has alot to it they don't realise how many times something like this gets handled, rolled around,lifted, test fit with every working piece, and of course it just keeps getting heavier and harder to lift with every part it acquires until compleation.
I was going to almost automatically paint it hearse/black but then I began considering white...
I do have alot of experience with this design of the little car body, I still have my original such Caddy/Firetruck in my front room,(from my childhood) the one I'm "Hearseing" I bought three summers ago at an antique store, so the chassis parts from the" hearse" will possibly go on my old car if/when needed.
The one really painfull learning experience I had with my Caddy/Firetruck involved the little wooden ladders that hung on it's sides. I would lean the ladder against the wall, and try to climb the ladder, the slick hardwood floor in my parent's house and the slick hardwood ladder feet would slide quickly trapping my fingers under the ladder rung because my own weight was still on top of the ladder as I was screaming in pain! "Duh!?"
I will admit at that tender, young age I had to climb that ladder more than once to sufficiently learn the lesson not to do this. One more time, "DUH!!?"
I was maybe 3, my Dad climbed ladders all day long installing TV antennas and spouting, so why couldn't I?
When my Dad was building his garage people would drive by and honk at him, he didn't know he was so popular! Then he had the crap scared out of him when he happened to turn around and there I was! I had climbed his ladder and was walking around up there where he was nailing down the floor. I would have fallen at least 10 feet to the concrete floor below, I was a climbing fool in my youth beginning at 3! ]]> Gym Whourlfeld http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/268-3-years-planning.html http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/267-4-hr-tour-last-night.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:29:51 GMT For 4 people!
One of them was a newbie, the others have been here before, with the one young woman beginning with her seventh Birthday, now she's almost done with college. (How old am I again?)
Their tour actually became a social visit with my Wife, Jessica adding herself to the fun and interesting conversation.
The two women are cat lovers so some of our feline collection (Or should it be called a "Herd"?) was paraded for them. They were marvelling at Mr. Tuxedo's alertness at his advanced age and declining general health. (16?)
"Gracy" showed off her handprint on her side in orange furr on a white backround, count the fingers , see the palm?
"Emmy", I call her "Cartoon-Kitty" since she is so petite and is cute enough to just be a cartoon drawing.
" Ashes" is Jessica's oldest cat a well-groomed grey Tiger cat from Alabama with the biggest eyes ever seen on a small cat! Almost like those kid's paintings with the accentuated large eyes.
Going through the house the girl who has been coming here since she was seven gave out several very quick, shrill screams or yelps when something scared her! Just like as if she had never ever been here before!??? (People with imaginations are more fun and easy to scare, you know.)
The one young man who had been here before admitted that during my front room routine during his first visit that one of my special effects scared him so much that he wanted to have went out the front door to seek safety in the parking lot!
(I knew I had that big steel bar across that door for some reason!)
Insert evil laugh here~ ]]> Gym Whourlfeld http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/267-4-hr-tour-last-night.html http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/263-weather-getting-nicer.html Tue, 30 Dec 2008 05:38:31 GMT This winter has been pretty cold and miserable with much snow, ice, wind , extremely low wind chills. I have tons of work waiting for me but the... This winter has been pretty cold and miserable with much snow, ice, wind , extremely low wind chills.
I have tons of work waiting for me but the workshop has a minimal heater which costs alot to run(electric). So I am somewhat excited anticipating the freedom awaiting me to get back to working on stuff I want to do, rather than those nasty have to do's!
This winter's have to do list included a new water heater, a new door lock, new door trim, new brickwork in the basement, trying to tighten up the place to make heating this house easier/cheaper.
Then of course the workload of snow moving......not my pleasure, but then in one day, most of all that snow melted, forcing me to mess with two sump pumps for half a day! But tomorrow! Maybe my fantasy Knight/Gnome will stand up on new armour-legs and gain a chest/arms.!!
Second-hand sheet metal, pop rivets and time.....and a little experimentation... ]]> Gym Whourlfeld http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/263-weather-getting-nicer.html http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/262-blog-conjurs-up-visions.html Thu, 25 Dec 2008 15:25:06 GMT Sounds like a blockage in the bowels, doesn't it?
Maybe typing out numerous random thoughts and concerns will help to provide a way to clear it out?
"AAAWW! that feels better now!"
Sorry.
B=Big
L=Long
O=Organic
G=Groan?
Sorry, I can't help myself, nature calls..another aynonmous call? Oh they wanted to sell me aluminun siding? (For my bowels?) I hope they install using user-friendly construction methods!

Remember all those nuisance calls asking "Are you happy with your telephone service provider?"
"Yes, infact I am So Happy with it that your mere call just now questioning my personal happiness concerning this makes me very angry!"

I post on a couple of haunt sites and I used to regularly post a disclaimer and I realise I have failed to do this in quite awhile, so here it is:
Even though I often post, giving some advice to those who ask questions about things in the realm of my life-experiences I do not know it all!
I know enough and have done enough to make happen what I pretty much tried to make happen here in my own haunted house, I can be wrong!!
There. how was that?
Yes I have now owned my haunted, haunted house for 21 years and work on it almost every day and in it almost every night. But I sure don't know it all.
Never will. Too much to know. And guess what? When it comes to Haunted Entertainment, there are usually more than one way to get it right and "Right" is usually defined by those green ballots they slip into our ballot box each year.
Of course I also do all of this for those screams and laughs too.
Maybe it's an Ego-Thing? Feeling like you are important or smart enough to control others (for at least a short time) like puppets on the old string?
We have to watch Mr. Ego, he can make life tougher for us otherwise. ]]> Gym Whourlfeld http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/gym-whourlfeld/262-blog-conjurs-up-visions.html