Pumpkin plop

George and I wandered down to Blue Hill this past weekend for some boat maintenance.  We stopped first in Bucksport ("Ghostport" on signs) for breakfast  at the Harbor View Grille.   Great food, and we had the extra treat of being able to watch through a window as a lot of kids in Halloween costumes walked past towards a small fair on the waterfront. 

We stopped by Ghostport again on the way home, because I wanted to get a last ice cream of the season from a shop on Main Street.   George got French Vanilla and I got Pumpkin.  We sat with our ice creams on a bench by the water, enjoying the fall-flavored view of the river, bridges and Fort Knox.   The people walking by smiled at us. 

Someone at the fair had brought a large, home-made catapult and was putting it to good use.   It took three or so people to "set" the catapult and load it with a pumpkin. Then, a small child was invited to pull the string.   This released the catapult's arm, tossing the pumping up and out over the river.   It landed hard in the water with a satisfying plop, splitting on impact, and causing the eruption of a small fountain of orange water.

It took awhile to load the catapult between shots, and no one hurried.    There was a lovely leisure to all of this.

• "Oh, wow, that one went really far out".   
• Wonder if those seagulls will eat the seeds......no."    
• "Highest one so far!"   

Occasionally there was an appreciative "Ahhhhhhh" from the on-lookers, for a particularly good shot.   One green pumpkin went relatively far.   Nice to know there is a good way to use a green pumpkin.

I was skyping with one of my sisters in California, wondering if this was only a Maine thing, or if people enjoyed pumpkin catapults elsewhere.   She said "Maine".   Well, I guess people in California have something new to enjoy, if they want.

Turkeys and other things

 The picture at left is from a few days ago, when it was mizzling, as Nancy said - a fine, misty rain.  For shelter, some wild turkeys hung out under a small oak tree on the front lawn.

The rest of the pictures are from today, which was one of those gray sky fall days, which often show colors the best.  This picture is looking down part of the hayfield, toward the woods in back.  The grass is short in places because of the extra mowing we did this year, in order to knock back the weeds a bit.

 This is a picture of some green pumpkins, under pumpkin vine leaves, under pine trees.  The pumpkin vine decided to come up in the middle of the "no good hay" pile.  The leaves are just showing the beginning of a mildew, which isn't surprising this late in the year.

George and I cleared some old ply wood out of the basement.  I just painted part of a bed frame, and sanded a bookshelf to clean it up.  Two new lamps came in the mail.  One of the two unused bedrooms is almost set to be used, and a contractor is helping us with the other one.

Little Pumpkins

I imagine that having way too many little pumpkins, and far too few potatoes, is one of those learning curve things about starting up a small, family farm.   Still....having far too many little pumpkins feels like having a big stainless steel bowl of those chocolate coins covered with gold paper.

But, we don't need so many of them.   So, I took fifty of them down to Bangor and dropped them off at a non-profit involved with kids.

Pumpkins

I didn't expect to be writing about pumpkins in August, but Hurricane Irene pushed things ahead a bit.  We've started bringing the pie pumpkins in.    Most are still out in the garden, but I put a few in the old wooden garage, with a lot of drying onions.   The first and the last pumpkins always seem to be the prettiest.

The plan is to cook and freeze pumpkin puree this year.   Yum ... pumpkin pie.