Marley and Aubrey are choosing their pumpkins for Halloween

October 14, 2015 - Wednesday

30 degrees/clear skies/calm winds

Pentoga Road

This is a bird morning, one of those where, twenty-five years ago, the boys and I would have been up early, wandering the back roads of interior northern Maine, looking for partridge. These calm, clear, crisp, mornings bring back a lot of good memories.

Tuesday wasn't so calm or clear, but was definitely crisp and wet. I spent all morning and part of the early afternoon taking the top off the giant pumpkin so I might extract the seeds. It was quite the process.

A reciprocating saw was used to cut through the thick flesh, then a long knife to sever the insides, and finally, a flat pry bar was needed to loosen the lid.

I attempted to lift the lid off, but could barely budge the thing. In the end, Neighbor Mike helped me wrestle it to the ground. We both agreed that the top, alone, weighed in excess of a hundred pounds.

It would have taken all day, rather than just half, to empty the pumpkin had I used only my hands. An ice scoop, generally utilized to skim off the hole when ice fishing, was used instead. It worked well.

Hundreds of seeds lay imbedded in the goo, but only a third were viable seed stock. Many were too immature.

After an hour of digging and sorting, I reached the bottom. It was rotten and had the consistency of fish guts. My timing was good for removing the seeds.

That's the ground under the pumpkin. It had rotten completely through.

Eventually, I brought the seeds inside, washed all in a colander, then lay them on waxed paper to dry.

The rest of the afternoon was spent moving Sargie's outdoor flowers into totes that were partially filled with sand and carrying each down the basement. They, along with the Boston ferns, will be spending the winter under grow lights.

Mike helped and we loaded the Halloween pumpkins into the Blazer so they might distributed to the nieces in Iron Mountain. After, I dashed through the shower, threw on some clean clothes, and drove over to meet Sargie as she finished work for the day.

I used to be able to do that... many many years ago.

We had good visits with Holly and Ross, Jeanne and Boyd, Marley and Aubrey, and after, made our way to a local Chinese buffet to culminate our evening.

Sargie closes tonight. I'll be riding with her to get the Blazer this morning, then will come back to the lumber yard to pick up the polycarbonate panels for the solar heater. 

I'm not sure I'll install them today as I'm scheduled to have a colonoscopy Thursday morning at 9 AM. What that means is that beginning at 2 PM this afternoon, I'll drink the first of two bottles of stuff. It's not ordinary stuff, it's the kind of nasty liquid that makes one clean from the inside out. Needless to say, I won't be wandering far from the reading room. 

It's time to get the day started and pour another cup of coffee. After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Tools that are unique for cleaning out a giant pumpkin