Halloween in Florida

It is still hot in Florida but its beginning to look a little more like Fall with long shadows and shorter days. . . and Halloween decorations are appearing.  This year we stuck with a college sports fan theme as all of the characters are sporting their favorite team's shirts.

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I love rhymeswithorange.com comicsb (above).

By night the main display is lit.  So far it hasn't scared away any of the local bears, rather they've come closer curiously inspecting everything and smelling the hay.

This Jayhawks fan is stuff with hay and wearing a scary clown mask.  I constructed the characters and then gradually added them to the outdoor display.  The heat and dry of October 2021 has been epic in Florida, so this has been a slow process.

Some other ghouls are hung around to add to the Halloween Party atmosphere.

Each character's head is stitched to its shirt using a really big needle and carpet thread.  Then the head is stuffed, followed by the shirt.  The pants are stuffed with hay separately then sewn to the shirts making for one cohesive character.  From there I work with them.  Above, I'm braiding the hair on one of the Wolfman characters so that people can see his face better.

The entry gate is 9 feet tall so a tall ladder and some patience is required hoisting the characters up.  They weigh about 50 pounds each fully stuffed with hay.  If it were to rain they would be much heavier.  Rain, however, has been very elusive this October.

Taking a break I put some of the characters in chairs on the front porch.  I have two jesters that didn't make it to the front gate (no room).  One of those jesters (headless in this photo) is sitting in the background.

The Kansas Jayhawks fans sat in a broken bail of hay for about a week.  They looked pretty comfortable there.  I bought these t-shirts in Salt Lake City at a Big 10? game some years ago.

Here I'm sewing the zombie head to the Jayhawks body. . . and tiny Weebles-the-cat looks on.

That is a massive needle but I need one that large to go through plastic, denim, and multiple layers of shirts.  It all holds together well with carpet thread.

At the beginning (and end) of the Halloween process the characters and all their stuff ride from storage in the truck.  I like this photo as I'm unloading some of the boxes from 2020 in the garage.  They will go back to storage the first weekend of November.

More treasured Halloween decorations are kept on the front porch, out of the sun.  These have been around for many years.  The Jack o' Lantern is ~20 years old this year.

And the finished product makes me smile, and hopefully makes some others happy too.  But you do have to get up close to see all the details.

I stuffed the green zombie's head with bubble wrap this year and it is melting in the heat. . . so I will climb up this weekend and cut a hole in the back of his head to stuff something else in there.  I don't think he'll mind.

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