Lighting Recommendations

After years of resisting LED lighting, this was the first year where every ounce of Haunt illumination was done by LED tealights and LED flood lamps.  Not sure if my eyes are just becoming less sensitive (and old) or if the technology is becoming less harsh, but I used to have visual discomfort in the presence of too many LEDs.  Well, we ordered six LED floods and these things are amazing.  In the past, I dreaded getting burned on (or breaking) giant old delicate bulbs or electrocuted by ancient light fixtures if they got wet.  A considerable amount of Haunt anxiety has been removed as a result of these purchases.  More important than my nerves, however, is the fact that we can now enhance the atmosphere of the Haunt in a major way.  These things have the option of providing literally any color in the spectrum, and any level of brightness.  Operated from a cell phone, you can make decisions without having to move the fixture around.  

I'm sure I'm just late to this LED lighting party, but in the event you're tired of wrangling old light fixtures with sensitive bulbs, you might want to give these a try.  We went for a bold and bright theme this year, but we're looking very forward to next year's "darker" atmosphere to experiment with lighting choices and levels.  

Here's an amazon link to the floods we used:

I've also solved a lot of my lighting issues using small and bright LED tealights.  I used to stress about running cords into the heads of my scarecrows or pumpkin-headed creatures, but if you use three or four of these little guys it's a pretty significant source of light. 

Click below for the link (I used them in my candelabras and the Pumpkin Ghost this year [and in all of the scarecrows from last year's display]):

Chimneys And Charlatans

Here's a weird non-Halloween topic I've wanted to share for a while, but just didn't know how to weave it into a blog post. So I'm displaying a photo from last year's mantel to make a connection and force the issue: How to fix a leaking chimney.



In my time on this earth, I've lived in two homes with fireplaces - both of them leaked when it rained. Now when I say it leaked, I mean that we had to put containers in to catch the drips of dark brown liquid which was streaming down the inside of the chimney. And empty them at least once every time it rained heavily. And before you ask - yep, we had a chimney cover.

So the first time this happened, I foolishly called a local chimney company and listened to their professional advice that my entire chimney needed to be repointed...$7,000 estimate. Being untrusting of most specialized professions, I researched online to find an alternative. I almost gave up when I stumbled upon someone praising a product called Chimney Saver. I figured $200 was better than $7,000 and ordered it. I sprayed it on the chimney with a pump sprayer from Home Depot and waited for it to rain.

After one spray, the leaking stopped. Completely.
When we moved in here, same problem. Same instant cure.

So I'm passing on a product recommendation...
Because a leaking fireplace just might ruin your Halloween.
Well, I guess a heavy rain would ruin Halloween, but you know what I mean.

Click Here if you collect brown hickory-smoked rain water from your chimney.

Brown Sugar

Autumn Ice cream. From Häagen-Dazs.
Tried it last night and loved it.


Brown Sugar Ice Cream