Omnium-gatherum
Matt Hanson’s Brain Archive
November 4, 2008
I have never met a pumpkin I didn’t like
Happy Halloween! Vote for your favorite, and least favorite pumpkins for the 8th annual Pumpkin-Fest. While it was cold the sun was out and the weather a great improvement over the last two years of rain. This year, 15 pumpkins - less then in previous years but this year seemed more baby convention then pumpkin festival due to the abundance of babies born over the past year.
My pictures of the pumpkins seem to get worse and worse every year! This year they are quite bad. There are even a few pumpkins that I didn’t even take unlit pictures of.
See the pictures of Pumpkin-Fest day.
Sorry in advance about the pumpkin names. I didn’t write any of them down and forgot nearly all of them.
Email me at matt at omnium-gatherum dot org and let me know.
Vote here!
You must all be out of your gourds!
2008 saw another Pumpkin-Fest chez Crouses in Newburgh ME. Good times once again although I seriously slacked at taking pics this year. After a few hours I stopped snapping other then when someone was done with their pumpkin. Sigh. I will make a conscious effort next year to improve my performance.
October 31, 2007
Ask not what your Pumpkin can do for you, ask what you can do for your pumpkin!
Happy Halloween! Vote for your favorite, and least favorite pumpkins for the 7th annual Pumpkin-Fest. We had a respectable 18 pumpkins to choose from despite the rainy weather.
See the pictures of Pumpkin-Fest day.
If you participated and I got the name of your pumpkin wrong, sorry. I ended up missing some of the names. Email me at matt at omnium-gatherum dot org and let me know.
Continue reading Ask not what your Pumpkin can do for you, ask what you can do for your pumpkin!
This is one small step for pumpkins and one giant leap for pumpkin-kind
Much like last year’s P-fest, the clouds rolled in and the rain fell. The pumpkins were thankful for the mostly dry interior of the garage, unaware they would soon be stabbed, gutted, and then put on display. The humans brandished fire and grinned at them, chewing the lightly salted and roasted seeds of the orange gourds and washing it down with the Pumpkin-Ale. Soon the pumpkins were aware it was not just the humans that grinned at them - they were grinning at each other with their newly gifted mouths. The glowing eerie faces filled the room for another year, and another party amidst the pumpkins.
October 31, 2006
A Pumpkin by any other name is still a Pumpkin
Happy Halloween! Vote for your favorite, and least favorite pumpkins for the 6th annual Pumpkin-Fest. This year there are 21 gourds to choose from. Unfortunately, the pictures are even more sloppy then in past years as it was a bit of a rush job (we were short on candles due to loss of electricity).
See the pictures of Pumpkin-Fest day.
UPDATE: Congratulations to Martha Crouse and her pumpkin Hagatha for winning Pumpkin-Master with 19% of the vote. And to Sara Mahoney for getting a whopping 26% of the vote for Pumpkin-Head with “Van Gogh” - A truly inspired bad pumpkin.
Continue reading A Pumpkin by any other name is still a Pumpkin
It started as a hobby, descended into a sport, and then … into madness
The 6th annual Pumpkin-Fest, as it is now referred to, was held in the metropolis of Newburgh, ME, where it had been in two previous years. For 5 years we have had decent weather, if not warm at least not rainy…until this year. The winds raged over the old farmhouse and when it blew the right direction one of the large roof tiles on the barn would clatter sounding as if the entire roof was falling in. Tucked in the large garage, safe from the biting winds, this years Pumpkin Carvers worked diligently. It would be several hours before the last of the tired butchers stumbled out and the last pumpkin had felt it’s last cut. But this year there would be an additional complication for those later arrivers. The storm eventually took our electricity. Working by candlelights and flashlights, we finished and lit all the pumpkins.
Come see pictures of Pumpkin-Fest 2006. Voting will be up soon.
November 10, 2005
The Pumpkin People
I’m back from another work trip to Port Jefferson, NY. It’s been busy and I hadn’t gotten a chance to post the rest of the Pumpkin day pictures - the pictures of everyone with their pumpkins. Except this year it’s not just the people and their pumpkins, Beady the malformed scarecrow has also gotten involved. These are the important pictures as it helps me keep track of Who’s Who in the land of pumpkin carving.
Who seems most pleased with their pumpkin ? Who seems upset with their performance? Can you see the pure madness on the faces of the practioners of this barbaric ritual?
October 31, 2005
Pumpkin Voting
Happy Halloween! Vote for your favorite, and least favorite pumpkins for the 5th annual Pumpkin-Fest. This year there are 29 gourds to choose from.
See the pictures of Pumpkin-Fest day.
UPDATE (Nov 5, 2005)
Congratulations to Nicky Conner for becoming this years Pumpkin-Master with her pumpkin, Bushman. And a congratulations to Rob and Zola Braswell for their pumpkin, Angry, with which they won the coveted title Pumpkin-Head.
Continue reading to see the voting results.
October 30, 2005
There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin*
The 5th annual Pumpkin-Fest was all about Pumpkins, dangerous tools, and crazy new technology.
Friends, family, and neighbors arrived all day to cut open pumpkins and carve new designs. Unfortunately we had our first pumpkin related ER visit - it involved a sharp knife followed by 5 stiches, but Liam was a trooper. Some of us got to try out the amazing Segway that Sean brought along. We had a record number of pumpkins, 29 entered the contest and even more were carved.
People occasionally ask me about pumpkin carving tips and since I’ve never been a Pumpkin Master I may not be qualified to lend advice. But I will try: Sheet Rock saws work the best for cutting the top (or bottom) hole and are good for making large cuts. Ice cream scoops work the best at scooping out the insides. Scrap away as much as the inside of the pumpkin as you can, you want the walls thin so they are easy to work with but not too thin so they sag. For detail work those small saws in pumpkin carving kits work pretty well. Other then that, have fun carving.
Come back tommorow for pumpkin voting!
* Linus, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)
October 12, 2005
The Pumpkins are Coming!
Grab yer knives, bring yer wives, this year the pumpkins are coming to Dover. Come see the past Pumpkin-Masters and laugh at old Pumpkin-Heads.
The 5th annual Pumpkin-Fest will be held in Dover at our house this year on Saturday, October 29th from Noon-Night. To see pictures of past years have a looks in the Pumpkin category. This year it’s B.Y.O.P., with pot-luck foods (bring somethin’ to eats), and typical barbaric carving activities.
The rules?
- No power tools (for entries, feel free to power one up anyway if you’d like)
- No templates (ditto)
Come back to vote the week starting Oct 31st for the best and worst pumpkins. Hope to see you at Pumpkin-Fest 2005, if you dare… (sorry, absentee pumpkin entries not allowed)
“I laughed, I cried, it was better then Cats” - anonymous attendee at Pumpkin-Fest 2004
November 8, 2004
October 30, 2004
Pumpkin Voting
We had 24 pumpkins this year, and 50 attendees. See the pictures of carving day. This year we are doing a 2-step voting process. Vote for your favorite pumpkin first, you will then be asked to vote for the worst pumpkin. Happy Halloween!
God save the Pumpkin-Heads
Here are the pictures of the 4th annual Pumpkin-Fest (Pumpkin-Carve Off, Pumpkin-Masters, etc.) held at Justin and Jody Crouse’s house in Newburgh, ME. Check out these pictures of everyone carving and group pictures of the pumpkins all lit up. Visit the Pumpkin-Masters page to view the contest results and individual pumpkin pictures.
November 1, 2003
Pumpkin voting
The Pumpkin-Masters contest was even bigger this year, with 16 pumpkins. The two rules of this contest are No Power Tools and No Templates. Vote for your favorite pumpkin!
Another year of weirdos hacking up pumpkins
Here are pictures of the pumpkin carving event, as well as pics of people with their pumpkins and the pumpkins lit up!
