WHAT’S THE BUZZ ON HALLOWEEN?

Into The Halloween Spirit

There was certainly a lot of buzz around our house today, both figuratively and literally.

Primarily, because of the intensive weeks I spent meticulously prepping our Halloween decorations. Which were an absolute hit with the neighbours.

I pruned our leaf-less fruit tree weeks ago and left the prunings to use as a ghostly hedge. We dug holes in the front garden bed and installed the spindly prunings, which we decorated in coloured spider webs, plastic spiders and fairy lights.

I transformed my car into a giant redback spider. The legs were thin pvc pipes covered in rubber tubing. Secured to the car by straps that were sandwiched in place by the windows. A red fabric strip for the back, held down by elastic and paper clips (the wind was thine enemy). The look was completed by polystyrene balls cut in half, spray painted black and hot-glued to magnets to sit on the hood of the car.

We brought back last-years’ springing spider that drops from the ceiling by a manual release for trick’or’treaters coming to our door. I hot-glued a plastic spider to the button that activates a talking skull, which served as our door bell.

The Spooktacular Shed

Our showcase this year by far, was our shed. Automatic doors that open and close with a full set of top and bottom saw-blade-like teeth. I added a large tongue that had a pull-string mechanism to add some creepy licking movement. That was our 4yo, Alice’s idea. She’s the creative brains and I’m the engineer that has to figure it all out. The teeth were just manufactured from thick foam, cut into triangles with an electric bread knife. Then hot-glued to a strip of corflute plastic for tops and bottoms. I secured the top teeth to pvc pipe rods and cut holes in the corflute base for the garage door to pick up. I made two cradles for the teeth to set down into so the garage door can close all the way.

I clamped some make-shift hooks to the bottom of the inside of the door. When you open the door, the hooks pick up the top teeth resting in the cradle and lift them up with the door. The added weight may have overloaded the door mechanism, which had to be either helped by hand or manually button-pressed to open to the desired height.

Suspended black fabric from the ceiling to block out the inside of the shed and a red LED snake-light from the roof to cast an eerie red glow on the teeth (which was way not bright enough for the effect I was going for). But did the job.

In the evening, passer-by’s were treated to a holographic window display that always garnishes plenty of car and foot traffic.

We were dressed as witches, zombies and a Ghoul’s best friend to complete the entire look.

The Buzz on the Street and Inside The Home

We had quite a lot of visitors and our efforts generated quite a lot of buzz as I said. But not as much as the actual buzz that was going on inside our kitchen. An infestation of bees climbed in through a hole in the brickwork where the plumbing pipe leads out of the house under the sink. Like the movie, The Killer Bees, they swarmed around against the windows trying to get out. I was trapping them on the glass with a plastic cup and sliding a card underneath to not hurt them, or myself. A B-grade game of whack-a-mole, my hands darted feverishly over the window like a cat pouncing on a laser-pointer, trying to catch the little blighters.

But the show must go on, as they say. So we pulled up chairs outside and greeted merry trick’or’treaters while the bees did they’re thing inside. It took about an hour to catch them all and hustle them outside. No stings to report, thank goodness. And I plugged up the gaps the next day because I woke to a buzzing from under the sink. I opened the cupboard doors to another swarm of bees.

Another hour of labour catching bees with a cup and a card and releasing them outside. Fun way to spend your morning. But after plugging up the gaps, the bees took the hint and buzzed off.

A little side note: This morning, a generous neighbour who attended our Halloween festivities, donated a costume to us for next year. She was really impressed with our efforts and it was a really kind gesture. We get to do it all again next year. Minus the bees, I hope.

Happy Halloween 2019.

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