Safety – An Unorthodox Halloween

Catching up on some of the excitements that’s been going on here.

Couple new items I don’t fully know what I’m going to do with:

First, are the rose cages from my parents.

I can see them eventually becoming stone pillars, totem poles, obelisks, ‘witches’, an arched entrance, a gate, and lord only knows what else I may come up with.

Second is this partition I found at the swap meet.

From Halloween buildup '08

Really have no idea on this one. It was just so pretty and exotic, I couldn’t just leave it there.

Next, some have wondered where I get all these bamboo poles.

Well, last year, I used some gift cards obtained from work to purchase them individually from Home Depot. And, yes, they were pricey, and wouldn’t have happened were it not for the gift cards.

HOWEVER. The Bamboo Fencer is the solution. Their fencing, individual poles, and all other Bamboo accessories prove to be cheaper than anywhere else I can find locally, or on the net. Even factoring in shipping. Where Home Depot had the poles for $1.20 ea, I’m spending less than $0.50 ea on the new ones from Bamboo Fencer.

Finally, I had to remove the Nightmare Before Christmas widget. I noticed this morning it had changed and was doing a strobe-like animation flipping between christmas and halloween decoration. Strobe effects are not used in my haunt, neither will they be on the site.

We have a lot of fun here. And, if you’ve noticed, I like to test things out ALL THE TIME prior to the times I need them.

Most the time, that’s just me playing around with stuff for fun. But, there is always a practical reason to testing things out in a more controlled environment than when you have several hundred people requiring your attention.

We bought some new Tiki Torches this year. A Wal-Mart “Mainstays Garden” Brand name torch:

From Halloween buildup '08

And, while I was INTENDING to come here this evening and share all the fun we had testing out Fred, THAT will have to wait till tomorrow night. Tonight, we’re going to talk about the Mainstays torch.

See…It’s not so much a torch as it is kindling…

From Halloween buildup '08

I had Fred all set up, a few torches lit, including 2 of the Mainstays versions, and a make-shift spotlight (still waiting for the real spotlight to come in) to see how Fred is going to look. Testing Fred, but at the same time, testing these torches, that looked a little different than my normal ones.

I had it all set up, came in to grab Jen and the kids to come take a look before shutting it all down, and got to see on the way back out, one of the Mainstays torches go into it’s death throws.

The “flame guard” um…caught flame.

This, in turn, caught the bamboo on fire. This melted the plastic fuel canister, which spilt oil, and then we were cooking.

Meanwhile, I was trying to wrest the hose out from under the tire of my car.

The flame guard, and what remains of the fuel canister:

From Halloween buildup '08

The remains of the pole, and a nice burn in my lawn:

From Halloween buildup '08

Yes. Most of the time, testing is for fun. But then, there are these times. Right now, it’s an annoyance. It would have been disastrous with a bunch of trick or treaters around.

So, if you bought some of these…be very wary. I’ll be returning mine. And, come back tomorrow night for nice pictures of Fred.

Category: Safety

Odds and ends.

Safety First