Although we are often asked, "How do you do this?", we are almost as often asked "Why do you do this?"

"Isn't it setting all this stuff up a pain?"

Yes, it is.

"Doesn't it get expensive?"

Sometimes, yes.

"After over twenty years, isn't this getting harder to do as you get older?"

Actually, that's a question that we ask ourselves quite frequently, but the answer there is also "Yes".

"So, why the heck do you keep doing it?"

That's a totally reasonable question. Let us explain why we keep doing it.

During set up this year, a near-disaster occurred. Like last year, we had a tableau scene set up in the big living room window. During a dry run of the lighting and sound system on October 30th, a faulty lighting fixture shorted out, sparked, and set the living room drapes on fire.

Although no one was injured and the homeowner's insurance covered the cost of the damage (which exceeded $20,000), it was still a major bummer and we considered just cancelling Halloween for that year. However, after thinking it over, we decided to go on with the show because having a house fire AND cancelling Halloween would just have been way too depressing. Evidently, we made the right choice because a few days after Halloween, we recieved the following card in the mail:

Who knew that putting a casket in the front yard, hanging rubber spiders from the trees, and dressing up as a witch would earn us praise as being "giving and wonderful"? But the point is that although it's a pain, an expense, and every year we question whether we are enthusiastic or merely suffering from early senility, our visitors enjoy themselves and appreciate whatever it is that we're trying to do. Mostly, we're trying to have fun. And knowing that people enjoy our work is a large part of what makes it fun. So the Witch and the Castle Crew say a big Thank You to the McLinn family - and we'll see you next year!

Anyhow - here are the photos from Witch's Castle 2005!

Our "Welcome" pumpkin glows eerily from it's position in the cemetery....

View from across the street. The Witch's Lair is set up on the front porch -
you can just see the flames underneath the bubbling cauldron.

Daytime test of the improved fog chiller. Looked pretty good!

The Castle Witch awaits victims....er, visitors.

Just another night in the Castle cemetery.

The spirits waft up the walk to visit the Witch...aren't long exposures fun?

Ruh roh, Raggy! Rook out for the Ritch!

The visitors keep coming, and coming, and coming...

Our partner in crime, Creepygirl, haunting the Castle cemetery.

A small crowd admires the cemetery.