Pumpkin harvest day 1

 Went out to the patch today and harvested some of the pumpkins.

there are still about 6 or so left still growing on the vines which will have to wait a few more weeks.

Pumpkin progress

 Been a pretty good year for the pumpkin patch. Weather has been good and the vine borers have not caused too much damage yet.

The plants have pretty much grew out of control and I just let them. These are probably the biggest plants that I have ever grown, although the pumpkins themselves are not all that big, about basketball size and it looks like we have at least 16 so far!

Lots of carving this fall.

A different year....

Well, I usually post my pumpkin patch update at this time of year.

Its usually a lot more fun than this year as the future is a little uncertain to say the least.

Everyone seems to be adapting and handling things as best as can be.

First off, we had Pumpkinrot drop off the radar last June. Always enjoyed his almost daily posts

and considered him the ambassador of Halloween. Sure miss him.

And to add to my disappointment, Victor at Halloween Hot Sauce had to close shop in order to take care of family. Sure miss him as he made the best hot sauce around!

So the whole Halloween vibe has a different feel to it this year. We had decided last January to go ahead and plan for one of our "big" parties this year. A dark carnival theme and I was excited to get going planning and prop building...well we all know what happened after January.

But there were a couple of bright spots,

I was happy to see Mark from Shingle Creek Manor return to his blog. I missed Marks creative builds and advice. Good to see him posting again.

Shelly over at Shellhawks nest has been an inspiration and is turning out some very fine pottery for the upcoming fall season.

So in closing, I just wanted to wish all well in these crazy times and we will keep looking for the light at the end of the tunnel....maybe it will be orange and flickering!

Happy Halloween!

Wishing everyone a safe and fun Halloween!

Snow here today so more like Christmas......

Eastern fall trip

I can't believe this month is just flying by. Had a shop accident a few weeks ago (hand into the table saw) I won't post any pictures of that, but it was pretty horrific. But I was good enough to make our fall trip last week to some of the best Halloween places on earth. I had contacted author JW Ocker who lives in New Hampshire for some tips and ideas. He had some great suggestions and and we took his advice. First was Glouceter Massachucetts and a visit to Hammond castle for the haunted tour. Castle was beautiful but the haunt was a bit short. Next it was on to Haunted Overload in Lee, New Hampshire for the self guided day walk through. I can't even begin to say how incredible this place is. We probably spent a good 90 minutes on the walk through. We met up with a couple of workers finalizing some props and chatted for a while. Even though it was sold out for the night, they said to come back and they would get us in but unfortunatley our schedule did not allow that. Even got to see owner Eric Lowther running around. Would have loved to say hello and talk with him but he looked way too busy and I didn't want to completely geek out on him.

 

Finally it was on to Salem for two days and Salem always delivers.

 The atmosphere in the town drips of Halloween.

Now that we are home, it is time to get started on the yard set up which has been put on the back burner and time is running out!

 

final pumpkin harvest

Well, the final harvest is in for 2019 and ended up being better than first thought.

there are still a few new ones hanging on to the vines trying to make it to jack status.

Always greatfull for what the earth gives up to us, which means its time to start decorating!

happy autumn all!

Tis the season

Well, its getting to be that time again! Pumpkin crop was doing well this year with all the rain we got in the spring...until the vine borers infested the patch and slowly began killing the plants.

I was able to kill a few of them but there are just too many of the pesky critters this year.

We managed to get a few good pumpkins, one of which I had to harvest already since the vine was infested right at the stem. Kind of frustrating but at least we will get 6 or 7 jacks out of the patch this year!