Could someone shed light on the red granite marker at their feet? What’s with the man on the bench sporting a Hawaiian shirt, a blond Fu Manchu beard and mustache, and a bouquet of silk flowers?

Welcome to Brent and Staci Hackbarth’s year-round front-yard tableaux. It started about three years ago, Staci says, when “we wanted to make a big zombie scene for Halloween, and we were coming across mannequins in stores going out of business and on Craigslist.” After the holiday, “we decided to just leave a few out, and we just kind of decided to change them up to go with the seasons.”

Why Batman? “I just love Batman!” she exclaims. “I’m a Batman fanatic. And when we put Batman out for Halloween, we remembered we had a Batgirl outfit so decided to give him a girlfriend.” At Halloween, there’s also a Bruce Wayne memorial among the plastic tombstones in their make-believe cemetery–as well as an eighteen-foot-tall Grim Reaper hanging from their flagpole, his thirteen-foot cape billowing in the wind. There’s also a mock guillotine, faux ravens and crows in the trees, and “more lights and blowups than you can imagine.”

Staci says that they don’t get many trick-or-treaters because of their location on a main road. To make sure everyone knows about their month-long celebration and goodies, she spreads the word on Facebook and Nextdoor.

At Christmastime the gent on the bench wears a Santa suit. Come spring, he’ll be the Easter Bunny.

The couple are currently paying a summer homage to their granddaughter with a little girl mannequin in a colorful dress, black straw hat, and Mary Jane shoes. The two-foot-tall vintage chalk piggy bank next to her was Staci’s mother’s. There’s a big plastic wicker chair with an oversized teddy bear in front of Mr. and Ms. Bat–a perfect spot for a photo op for the many passersby asking to take pictures.

What about the granite stone in front of them that reads Mary Jo Hackbarth–does a relative rest there or is it holding a place for one? Staci says that her mother-in-law is not buried there, nor are there plans for any other Hackbarth to fill the space.

“My in-laws were big Harley fans, so much so that the American Harley-‘Davidson dealership on Jackson Rd. put an engraved marker in her honor by a big tree on their property,” she explains. “When the dealership closed, the ‘Weingartz lawn and snow equipment company [bought the building and] gave us the headstone.”

The couple still dream of a Walking Dead zombie army but need more

mannequins to fully realize their vision. With new mannequins running around $475-$500 and used ones $300-400, though, the cost is prohibitive. They encourage anyone interested

in donating mannequins for the project to stop by.