Time to carve the pumpkins

I don't know why I like carving pumpkins, but I do. Traditionally each year I carve a face called "Boofus" into a pumpkin. Between school field trips, travel for work, and my general cheapness (had some opportunities to buy convenient but over priced pumpkins and cheaped out) there will be no Boofus this year. But the kids picked pumpkins and tonight they each came up with their design. First up was Casey's pumpkin. She went with what she called "scary."

The pumpkin she picked out of a patch in Burnt Hills was the hardest pumpkin I have ever carved. This thing was solid. I could not open it with a knife. I ended up using a hacksaw. I had trouble with the hack saw. This thing was an orange rock. The beastly pumpkin broke two carving saws and several times I thought I was going to be in the market for a new paring knife. It became personal. It was me against the pumpkin. In the end, the pumpkin lost.

 

That freakin rock of a pumpkin took well over an hour to carve. Next up was Allison. She did not go the scary route.

I feared having to carve another pumpkin from hell. These came out of the same patch, not too far from each other. Luck was on my side and this pumpkin carved like a non-evil pumpkin. She hasn't seen it yet, I spent so much time on the first pumpkin that bedtime came before I could finish. I think I captured her vision and hope she'll be happy with it.

Happy Halloween!