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Carhartts and Xtratufs Ball — get tickets here!

The spookiest house on the block

Sabine Poux/KDLL

Trick-or-treaters rounding the corner of Ash Avenue in Kenai oooh and ahhh as a 12-foot skeleton comes into view. On either side of the bony behemoth, inflatable Halloween characters sway in the stormy wind, set against a backdrop of orange and purple lights.

Lupine Orlob is dressed as Maleficent, the witch from Sleeping Beauty. On Sunday night, she’s passing out candy from beneath a small tent outside her house, flanked by what might be the most spirited set of decorations on the block.

"You totally made our Halloween!" yell a gaggle of trick-or-treaters.

"Oh, thank you so much," Orlob shouts back. "That's my favorite part. That's why I do it."

Orlob has been doing Halloween for years.

"And I just get bigger and better every year and I have no intention of stopping," she said.

She said it’s the reactions from trick-or-treaters that keeps her motivated to go all out with the decorations.

"Honestly, when the kids run around the corner and say, ‘This is the one I was telling you about!' That excitement, that's why I'm out here," she said. "That's why I stay out here."

Orlob's yard is covered in inflatable tombstones and jack-o-lanterns, plus larger-than-life versions of characters from her favorite Halloween movies. A blow-up dragon peers down at trick-or-treaters from the roof and blinking, light-up eyes peek out from the car window.

Orlob changes her set-up every year, with the goal of making each year spookier and more festive than the last. 

“My 12-foot skeleton is my favorite this year and he’s actually going to stay up for Christmas and decorate a Christmas tree," she said.

Credit Sabine Poux/KDLL
Her favorite decoration this year is her 12-foot skeleton.

Aside from the skeleton, all good things must come to an end. Orlob doesn’t waste time taking her decorations down. 

“Tomorrow," she said. "Here’s the thing — the snow comes and the ice comes and it will literally ruin everything.”

She’s not messing around with the candy, either. Each trick-or-treater gets a full goody bag.

“When you have this big of a display, you have to come through with the candy, too," she said, laughing. "So you get a full-sized Fun Dip, lollipops and a Sour Patch Kid that’s three times the size of a normal one.”

Now, she can start preparing for next year. Only 364 days left.

Sabine Poux is a producer and reporter for the Brave Little State podcast of Vermont Public. She was formerly news director and evening news host at KDLL in Kenai.

Originally from New York, Sabine has lived and reported in Argentina and Vermont and Kenai.
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