THE FRONT PORCH — Trick-or-treaters will get a special “treat” when they walk up to the Barker family’s front porch Halloween night and see not a zombie nor a ghost, but a homemade candy dispensary.

Brent and Marsha Barker, of Sandy, were looking for a way to take their children out trick-or-treating without having to leave a bucket of candy out on their porch.

“You didn't want to just like leave a bowl of candy because, you know, more often than not, kids are going to come, they're going to take more than one piece of candy, and the candy is gone very quickly,” Marsha said.

Brent has a computer science background and Marsha is in engineering. They decided to find a more creative way to stay out with their kids while keeping the integrity of the “one piece per person” candy rule.

They built a machine that, with the push of a button, automatically pops one piece of candy out per person without being overstimulated.

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While not everyone is on board with the untimely cold (these low temperatures across Utah are breaking nearly 50-year-old records after all) some are excited for the snow and welcome it with open arms, or should I say paws.

The approximately $100 two-month-long project took more time than the couple originally anticipated, but their 14-minute long YouTube video documents every step along the way.

“(We thought) we probably are going to just make it real quickly and we'd be done. . . but it took three revisions of creating the thing, doing a lot of research and a lot of trial and error,” Brent Barker said.

With plans on how to improve their dispensary already on their mind for next year, it’s safe to say that the Barker family will be spending the next few Halloweens with their children instead of waiting by the front door handing out candy.

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