It’s what’s for dinner.

A neighbor lost a fence to weather, and I’ve been putting the remnants to good use.

Poor Fred.

From 2010 Buildup

And, the Tzompantli are making a more…rustic…appearance this year.

From 2010 Buildup

Talia is getting in the spirit as well, with a pirate hat.

From 2010 Buildup

“cool pirate boat” (she’s a ‘pirate sword princess’ this year)

From 2010 Buildup

And a “scary monster for daddy”

From 2010 Buildup

Meanwhile, I have a host of scarecrows waiting to be stuffed in the house, and a slew of emt conduit that’s been bent beyond recognition laying around. But, we’ll get more on those things later.

Failure, restart, and an orchard.

I had the panicking realization I had no costume yet….

The first attempt at a mask….well, I got about halfway through, and decided I just wasn’t feeling it.

From 2010 Buildup

Felt too much like I should be dancing around musically pondering the location of my brain.

So, we scrapped that and moved on to attempt #2.

This involved sculpting me a face, and molding the burlap to it, then sewing it all back together.

The mouth will glue onto my own so that it moves…

From 2010 Buildup

And, some donation from the neighbors has led to my creation of ‘The Orchard’ in the back yard. Normally just a big flat lawn, we now have ‘trees’.

From 2010 Buildup
From 2010 Buildup

Trying to twist some of the straighter trees up a bit by binding the ‘green’ branches back onto themselves for a few days.

From 2010 Buildup

We can only hope the leaves all drop in time.

What, exactly, I’ll end up doing with the trees, I’m not entirely sure just yet.

Country Gardens to the rescue.

The great pumpkin search has finally concluded.

After many phone calls, drives, and asking around, Country Gardens once again comes in as by far simply the best.

Yes, there are pumpkin patches elsewhere that may offer a wider variety. But, all you need to do is ASK if you don’t see what you like at Country Gardens. They’ll find it.

As with last year, their service is simply impeccable. We’ll be heading there for flowers next spring.

I stopped in originally about a week ago, explained what I was looking for, and asking if he could acquire it. Not only did he come in with the best quote, he offered multiple ways of completing the order. When I called back, they called in a very specific order in with his growers, specifying the size we had discussed in quantity.

At the end of the day, I got the 50 ‘basketball’ sized I was shooting for and had enough left to buy a couple of the large ones at the same time.

Of course, that brings the “what was I thinking” moment…

From 2010 Buildup

Well. What I’m thinking? I’m hoping I’ll get some help.

From 2010 Buildup

(sorry, no phone numbers on the website. 😉 )

Plenty of child safe carving knives, and lots of hope to get some folks over for a good time and a little help. Figure I’ll have them all cleaned and ready, the kids just have to carve Friday and find theirs when they come trick or treat.

From 2010 Buildup
Published
Categorized as pumpkins

Beginning setup in earnest.

Busy, busy weekend.

Another load of Reed grass reaped on Saturday, along with transporting ole Jack to his new home. The new grass left us with very little in the way of storage room, however, and it was time to just drop all pretenses and begin the setup proper.

With a storm bearing down on us tonight/tomorrow, goal was just to begin getting things UP. We can make them pretty later.

With some out of town obligations this afternoon, I came home to find a present from some mysterious benefactor.

From 2010 Buildup

We needed to get that up and put to use .

Breaking down the previous grass in ‘storage’, we began the final setup this evening.

From 2010 Buildup

(the orange dots on the grass are marks for torches later)

From 2010 Buildup

We still have a heck of a stack of corn left to distribute and probably about that much more grass left as well.

Well, there is the back yard still…

From 2010 Buildup