#AtoZChallenge - About the Maple Grove Cemetery

My Theme Post

It seems pretty appropriate that my "A" post is the story of how the Maple Grove Cemetery came to be! 

We moved into this house in 2002, but I didn't really decorate much until 2008.  I'm not sure what the inspiration was, but I had the ghost & Jack-o-lantern blowmolds and decided to make some cheesy headstones out of plywood (most of which are still being used!)  

2009 found me researching and building a full-sized toe-pincher coffin.  

2010 was a turning point, I discovered the wondrous wealth of information known as the HalloweenForum!  

2011 finally earned the cemetery an actual name.  

And there have just been tweaks & improvements since then. 

2008 -  It looks so quaint!

I clearly had just set it up, since the leaves are green and still on the trees.  

This would have been taken in very late September / very early October since I won't set up until after my daughter's birthday on 9/28. 

The story behind the name?  When I was a kid, we spent a lot of weekends and some summers up north (I just wrote about it recently) at "The Farm".  It is an 1890-era farmhouse on 120 acres on the edge of the Isabella Indian Reservation (of the Saginaw Chippewa tribe).  There is an old one-room schoolhouse about 1/2 mile away at the corner called Maple Grove so the name carried on to our place, just because that's just what the old timers did.  I was always fascinated with that little place, so when it finally clicked that I have 2 huge maple trees in my front yard here......Maple Grove Cemetery was born!

2011 - the first sign

2015 - with the new sign.  Amazing how good an old bed headboard looks!

These were actually taken at Halloween.
The daytime one was 11/1 and the night one probably a couple days before since it rained on the big day. 

People think I'm odd since Halloween is never far from my thoughts.  

I'm always looking for ideas that would fit in the cemetery.