Blade-of-the-Moon's Art

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

You sure the foam board will survive the elements?

Probably not. But once it's held up enough to make the outer skin the interior doesn't matter anymore really. I've used this foam board coated with spray foam before  to create all the heads and arms we have on our other creations.

[Tyto_Theropod]

Both your projects are looking really good, Blade! I can't wait to see more from the Masiakasaurus!

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Thanks bud, i'll update again next week. Skinning the Steg is going well, the Masi is waiting for eyes now, so no more progress on the head til then.

[LophoLeeVT]

JAAAAAAAAY more progress!

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Last week :

Hi everyone, we've kept things fairly quiet about a situation we have been dealing with. It turns out we had some issues during our Trick or Treat with the Dinosaurs that lead to an inspection by the Sullivan County Planning and Codes Dept. They claim to have been and still to be receiving complaints about us. This has led us to file for a Special Use permit that will be decided on next Wed. Our goals here have always been to provide an inexpensive and fun place to visit with your whole family, we really hope to be able to continue to do that.

Today :

Well we came back from the meeting, good news and bad news. Good news first eh? The Park will remain open at least for the next 6 months. Bad news. We will have to halt all special events until that time period is over. Good news. We can get them reinstated provided we get some upgrades to the Park here. Bad news. These upgrades will be a bit of work and a little costly. 2 things we need is a dedicated restroom for Park use not only the portable toilets we've been renting from Blountville Septic, the other is a better dedicated parking area. We are going to be finding out specifics in the following days and I will post here as we do. We will be asking for donations to help with these projects, time and/or money would really assist us. If you know anyone that might be able to assist point them our way. We have a paypal account you can use here : PayPal.Me/BackyardTerrors

Paypal.Me info : This is an easy, personal, and secure way to receive money. Whenever you need to collect money from family or friends, type or paste your PayPal.Me link into an email, chat, or post, and you're ready to be paid. Friends or family can click the link on any device, enter an amount, and they're done. The money is sent to you.

Like any PayPal transaction, the connection is secure. You - and your friends or family members - will receive an email receipt. And if your friend or family member isn't a PayPal customer, they can sign up in seconds.

[Meso-Cenozoic]

Wow, that's a lot of stuff coming down on you guys! I would truly love to make a donation right now, but I'm still paying off major credit card bills from our recent move. Ugh! But as soon as I'm more caught up with my bills, I would honestly like to help you out with something. I sure hope everything in the meantime turns out good for you guys. You've done such a great job and don't ask for much in return. Keep up the faith, my friend! All will turn out for the best, and your park will end up being even better than it is now!

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I appreciate it.  Seems all of our supporters are broke or too far away to help. :/ I picked up a list of the requirements from Zoning and Planning today in all honesty I think they want us shut down. There is not one miracle we have to pull off but six.  There are so many ins and outs my head is spinning.  We have 6 months,June 16th is how long we have to comply.  Seems like a lot of time but half of that is winter months here so little can be done.  Unless we can get some major help this may be it.  Then I can sit on the couch and eat til I die I guess as they will have taken everything I care about.

[Dinomike]

Donated a little to help you out! Hopefully I'll be able to visit your awesome park one day!

[Simon]

Blade - Have you contacted the folks from the TV station who did stories on you before?  A little publicity might help get some local support.  I guess the bigger and more popular the attraction got the greater the chance that some neighbors would start complain about traffic.  So if you can't meet their demands - then what?  They can't stop people from visiting just to see the dinosaur sculptures can they?  They can just make you stop advertising and collecting donations?  What else can they do?

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Donated a little to help you out! Hopefully I'll be able to visit your awesome park one day!

Received and thank you. If everyone of our friends could give like that we would be ready to get rolling.

We've received 25.00 in donations so far. Please keep sharing, our goal to build a restroom area, parking lot , paving an area, getting gravel and fencing is roughly going to be in the neighborhood of 10,000.00 . We are trying our best to work that cost down as much as possible. If a land surveyor would donate their time and skill to helping that would remove a good chunk for example. or if a local waste disposal business would donate us the use of a large dumpster to get the restroom area cleared. It doesn't have to be cash we get any help is appreciated. What we had set aside this year for Park improvements is only a drop in the bucket.

Blade - Have you contacted the folks from the TV station who did stories on you before?  A little publicity might help get some local support.  I guess the bigger and more popular the attraction got the greater the chance that some neighbors would start complain about traffic.  So if you can't meet their demands - then what?  They can't stop people from visiting just to see the dinosaur sculptures can they?  They can just make you stop advertising and collecting donations?  What else can they do?

A friend has contacted them, but it's up to them whether or not to run a story.   The sad part is it was only two neighbors and they didn't even try to talk to us first. No letters, emails or phone calls just dropped this on us.   It's very odd as well it was only one night that caused the issue. Everything else has been fine for us, no issues parking, or restroom problems.  This woman who happens to be the director of the zoning and planning just wants us closed so she doesn't have to deal with us. She admitted to having to make up a law just do what's been done so far.  She told me at the meeting that if we did not meet these requirements by the date of June 16th we would be asked to close and if we did not a case would be made and it would be turned over to a county attorney to deal with us. They could levy enough fines on us I might be looking at jail time for not being able to afford them or my grandfather would.. I can't allow that. 

I'm flipping back and forth between a drive to get something done and depression, something I've staved off by deciding three years ago to make this Park my life's work. Now that is threatened. Let me apologize ahead of time if I get too worked up.

[Takama]

Wow, this is total utter b*******

I cant believe they want you shut down, all because of two complaints? What has this world come to?


I love to help,   But money is tight for me, plus im too far away to be of assistance .    But it p**** me off that  these things are threatening your park, after all the love and dedication you gave to your wonderful creations and the free will to share your passion with the locals.

[EarthboundEiniosaurus]

Damn, this is crap, no warning or anything and you have to deal with it now I really wish i could be of more help, your park looks like an awesome place, but i'm a bit too far away I'll make a donation as soon as i can get the money together though, hope it can help you get the ball rolling. If this is your life's work, i'd be fighting till the bitter end.

Thanks,

EarthboundEiniosaurus 

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Thank you for your support, means a lot guys.  We're getting some helpful suggestions from the local community and those with an interest in the Park. We found a land surveyor I think will help by doing the surveying and won't charge us 800-1,000.00 for it.  A reporter from the local news we've been on before was here and it will airing in a few minutes. My depression comes and goes but I'm starting the fire again , I'm sort of weak in that I rely on others. They're comments and just " we're with you" lifts me up quite a bit keeps me going.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

video segment : http://m.wcyb.com/news/backyard-terrors-given-6-month-plan-by-sullivan-county/37037172

[Meso-Cenozoic]

Hey, that TV spot was great. The only thing I missed though was the inclusion of where people could donate if they wanted to. Or did I miss that? Or maybe they couldn't put that in? If it's all right with you, I'm going to put that video on my FB Timeline, and include your PayPal link. I have almost 400 friends on there. You never know! In fact, maybe that might be a good way to generate some possible donors, if others on here would put this on their timeline and include a little personal background about you and the park, so there would be no questions if this is bogus or not. Also, I'd like to include one of your longer most recent videos of the park. Could you post a link to which one you think is the best?

BTW, that sounds like some good news about the land surveyor you found. Anywhere you can cut costs is a BIG plus! Hang in there buddy. We're all behind you and trying to think of more ideas!

PS ~ Just wondered... How is paying thru PayPal.Me different from paying thru PayPal's regular transaction?

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Hey, that TV spot was great. The only thing I missed though was the inclusion of where people could donate if they wanted to. Or did I miss that? Or maybe they couldn't put that in? If it's all right with you, I'm going to put that video on my FB Timeline, and include your PayPal link. I have almost 400 friends on there. You never know! In fact, maybe that might be a good way to generate some possible donors, if others on here would put this on their timeline and include a little personal background about you and the park, so there would be no questions if this is bogus or not. Also, I'd like to include one of your longer most recent videos of the park. Could you post a link to which one you think is the best?

BTW, that sounds like some good news about the land surveyor you found. Anywhere you can cut costs is a BIG plus! Hang in there buddy. We're all behind you and trying to think of more ideas!

PS ~ Just wondered... How is paying thru PayPal.Me different from paying thru PayPal's regular transaction?

That's perfectly fine with me! We also have a GoFundMe page here : https://www.gofundme.com/357zus they didn't show it in the video but I've been sharing it on on fb pages.

Let's see..some of our videos are more centered on what were doing at the time or what we were showing. Here is our youtube page if you want to check it out.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqrg1bQ7zVAPf00Ks6vcHWA/videos  We always have our commercial on there that looks a bit more professional.

Paypal.Me is supposed a new simpler version as I understood it when they made the offer to sign up for it. I figured it couldn't hurt. 

For myself I really appreciate everyone's help and I'm certain the kids that love this place do as well!

[ceratopsian]

I've just made you a small donation.  Good luck.  I'm too far away ever to visit you and see your work properly but I've enjoyed seeing your posts and sharing that way.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I've just made you a small donation.  Good luck.  I'm too far away ever to visit you and see your work properly but I've enjoyed seeing your posts and sharing that way.

Thank you so much! I hope to continue what I love and letting others enjoy it! 

[Tyto_Theropod]

I'm really sorry to hear about this, and I have to say I whole-heartedly agree with Takama's sentiments that this absolutely sucks. In spite of living all the way across the Atlantic, I'd still hoped I might be able to come and see your dinosaurs in future. If I lived closer I would definitely come and provide some manpower, much as I'm generally not a fan of construction/gardening/land clearance type work. I'll see what I can do in the way of donations, though, but I can't guarantee that I'll be able to put anything in other than my sincere hope that this problem is solved.

[Meso-Cenozoic]

Hey, that TV spot was great. The only thing I missed though was the inclusion of where people could donate if they wanted to. Or did I miss that? Or maybe they couldn't put that in? If it's all right with you, I'm going to put that video on my FB Timeline, and include your PayPal link. I have almost 400 friends on there. You never know! In fact, maybe that might be a good way to generate some possible donors, if others on here would put this on their timeline and include a little personal background about you and the park, so there would be no questions if this is bogus or not. Also, I'd like to include one of your longer most recent videos of the park. Could you post a link to which one you think is the best?

BTW, that sounds like some good news about the land surveyor you found. Anywhere you can cut costs is a BIG plus! Hang in there buddy. We're all behind you and trying to think of more ideas!

PS ~ Just wondered... How is paying thru PayPal.Me different from paying thru PayPal's regular transaction?

That's perfectly fine with me! We also have a GoFundMe page here : https://www.gofundme.com/357zus they didn't show it in the video but I've been sharing it on on fb pages.

Let's see..some of our videos are more centered on what were doing at the time or what we were showing. Here is our youtube page if you want to check it out.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqrg1bQ7zVAPf00Ks6vcHWA/videos  We always have our commercial on there that looks a bit more professional.

Paypal.Me is supposed a new simpler version as I understood it when they made the offer to sign up for it. I figured it couldn't hurt. 

For myself I really appreciate everyone's help and I'm certain the kids that love this place do as well!

OK. I've just posted a request on my FB Timeline...

Christmastime is a time for giving and receiving. With this in mind, I have a request for all of my FB friends to consider. Most of you know how much I've loved dinosaurs for as long as my memory goes back. My friend, Chris Kastner, has a dinosaur park called, Backyard Terrors in Bluff City, Tennessee. With the help of a few friends, he has designed and created life-sized dinosaurs for children of all ages. It has been his life-long dream that has now been fully realized. He also only takes donations to keep it running and to create more dinosaurs. He feels this will always allow children of all income brackets to be able to come and enjoy this fantastic magical place.

Well, as of late, he has until June to comply to some very costly upgrades that will run him at least $10,000 or his park will be shut down. This amount is well beyond his means, since he runs his park on donations alone. So, I am asking all of you to take a look at his YouTube page I've posted here, and remember the magic of things like this you experienced in your youth. I've also included a recent local TV spot that was done on his park and its current situation. And below all this, I've included a link where you can make donations. Any amount is welcomed! Please, if you can, help keep his dream alive so it can be shared for generations to come. Thank you and I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas!

I hope it helps!