The Great Pumpkin Massacre

Season 2: Appologies

2009-01-12T10:21:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody, I'm really sorry about this season and I'm sorry that it took me so long to get around to commenting on what happened.

Around Halloween I ended up being obscenely busy and as a result I only got to carve one pumpkin. I started carving that mammoth, but it was taking too long due solely to it's size (the thing took me almost 2 hours just to clean...) so I took a break for the night. When I returned to it the next day, it had already keeled over on itself and I chalked it up as a failure.

Hopefully this year will end up being better. Thank you for your time.

-b

Season 2: Prologue

2008-10-06T19:08:00.000-07:00

it's pumpkin carving season again, but while i'm raring to get going i've got a lot on my plate this year. so instead of one a day, i'm just going to slaughter as many as i see fit. i also have a little plan in action for a fun little pumpkin side project that we'll see if i can get in gear later on this month.

i'm looking for a good way to preserve pumpkins this year, so if you know of something other than vaselining them, lemon juicing them, varnishing them, bleaching the bujezus out of them, keeping them wet 24/7, or shrink wrapping them, let me know. i've tried all of those things to no avail.... for my first one this year i'm going to try bleaching the bujezus out of it, then coating the whole thing with parafin wax. i think the bleach will kill any bacteria, then the wax will seal in everything... i think rot will be my enemy on this one...

in the meantime, i bought Number 1 today and man is he a beast. this miraculous bastard is easily the biggest pumpkin i've ever carved, and i just weighed it in at 53 lbs.... i'll weigh it again after i get a chance to gut and cut him. i chucked a stella in the picture just for scale...

-b

The Final Countdown

2007-10-31T14:27:00.001-07:00

well... here they all are in order. pick your favorite for the votes!!

enjoy
-b

Pumpkin # 1:

Pumpkin # 2:

Pumpkin # 3:

Pumpkin # 4:

Pumpkin # 5:

Pumpkin # 6:

Pumpkin # 7:

Pumpkin # 8:

Pumpkin # 9:

Pumpkin # 10:

Pumpkin # 11:

Pumpkin # 12:

Pumpkin # 13:

Pumpkin # 14:

Pumpkin # 15:

Pumpkin # 16:

Pumpkin # 17:

Pumpkin # 18:

Pumpkin # 19:

Pumpkin # 20:

Pumpkin # 21:

Pumpkin # 22:

Pumpkin # 23:

Pumpkin # 24:

Pumpkin # 25:

Pumpkin # 26:

Pumpkin # 27:

Pumpkin # 28:

Pumpkin # 29:

Pumpkin # 30:

Pumpkin # 31:

Kelly's Pumpkin:

Johnny's Pumpkin:

Chrispy's Pumpkin:

Marnie's Pumpkins:

Vote-o-meter

2007-10-31T12:40:00.000-07:00

hey everybody, i've added a vote thing on the right hand side, so vote for your favorite pumpkins. my sister had a pumpkin carving party on the weekend, and she sent me these pics of the ones that she did. if you've done a wicked pumpkin that you're proud of, sendem to me and i'll post them too.

enjoy
-b

Pumpkin #31

2007-10-31T03:56:00.001-07:00

well... i made it. 31 in 31 days. it's been a crazy experience, and i'm extremely tired... but it's also been fun and rewarding. i can't guarantee that i'll do it in this same format next year, but i'll definitely be doing some more pumpkins as soon as i can.

this pumpkin was the third time i tried to do a POV video recording of myself carving. the first time i strapped the camera to my head, and recorded the cupboards and fridge above where i was actually working. the second time i tried it, my camera ran out of juice about 2 minutes in, but didn't make any noise or anything to alert me to the fact that it was shutting off.... so i recorded two awesome minutes of pumpkin gutting, and 2 hours of nothing. for this guy, i managed to capture pretty decent footage, but it's all a little too close, so i spend a lot of time working just off frame... i'll double check and see if it's worth posting in the morning. here he is though,

see ya next year.
-b

Pumpkin #30

2007-10-31T03:53:00.000-07:00

so i've got to do two tonight, so this ones a little simple, but still fun. i'll post again in a while with the final punkin!!

enjoy
-b

Pumpkin #29

2007-10-30T00:34:00.001-07:00

wow.... 2 more to go. october has flown past, but it's definitely been a lot of work.

enjoy
-b

Pumpkin #26, 27, 28

2007-10-29T00:05:00.000-07:00

ok, so heres this weekends works.... had a busy day, so voila.
enjoy,
-b

Pumpkin #25

2007-10-27T02:59:00.000-07:00

since the day i started this, i've been trying to get my wife to carve one with me... well, today was the day, and i think hers looks awesome. i tried out a gum thing on mine that i'm not so fond of, but i am happy with the eyes. anyways, here they are.
enjoy
-b

Pumpkin #24

2007-10-26T01:27:00.000-07:00

today my buddy chrispy came to visit and he did a pumpkin with me. i like having guest stars, the only problem is that i kind of zone out while i carve (my wife is going to be glad to have october over) so i can't guarantee he had a great time, but i did and his pumpkin came out really cool.

enjoy
-b

Pumpkin #23

2007-10-25T01:12:00.000-07:00

sorry there hasn't been one a day, i'm saving some for next week so they'll last right up to all hallows eve. thanks to everyone who's commented, i love to hear what you're thinkin. a few people have asked what song i used in my timelapse video, it's "Mad About You" by Hooverphonic.

anyways, heres 23, enjoy.
-b

Pumpkin #22

2007-10-23T00:45:00.000-07:00

here's #22... this pumpkin was going mushy and bad, so much so that the top fell apart when i tried to put it back on the thing. from here on out, i'm lookin for quality punkins.
enjoy
-b

Pumpkin #21

2007-10-21T22:16:00.000-07:00

heres 21, only 10 left to go!!! this little guy didn't photograph very well because his teeth go a full 180 around his noggin... but the lit pic looks pretty cool.

enjoy
-b

Pumpkin #20

2007-10-21T11:25:00.000-07:00

heres #20, i'll add more later today. got some fun shaped pumpkins from this awesome little pumpkin patch/grocery store down the road from us called the Richmond Country Market. be sure that if you go there, and you don't have kids, you don't want to go into the patch to pick your own gourds... if you do, you have to take a 10 minute hay ride, whether you're 10 years old or not. pretty much sucks if you just want to go in and get the biggest, best punkins you want.

enjoy
-b

Pumpkin #19

2007-10-21T00:30:00.000-07:00

jeez... the end has never been more in sight.... i'm looking forward to next week when i get to seriously kick into gear for the big day...

enjoy
-b

Pumpkin #18

2007-10-18T23:28:00.001-07:00

alot of people have recently asked me what tools i use to do these and i usually say that i use whatever's handy... but since i did this pumpkin at a friends and used primarily a knife, i realized how much i really do rely on my trusty canadian tire toolkit. i'd highly reccommend them to anyone. anyways, heres todays, sorry the picture's not great, i took it with my friends camera with which i'm not familiar.... i was in some bizzarre macro mode or somethin...

enjoy
-b

Pumpkin #17

2007-10-17T09:18:00.000-07:00

since my wife is an nanny, occasionally we house/babysit while they're both tied up in business trips or the like. the older of the two kids that she looks after really likes my pumpkins, but she always asks me to do a girl pumpkin. or rather, a princess pumpkin. hence the tiara.

enjoy,
-b

Pumpkin # 12, 13, 14, 15 & 16

2007-10-15T03:20:00.000-07:00

so i had a pretty productive pumpkiny weekend, i started by carving up a pumpkin with my buddy jonny, (sorry theres no lit picture, didn't have a ton of time...)

so then, on sunday, i went to a local pumpkin patch and snagged these little beautys to make up for not doing one on thursday.

enjoy
-b

Pumpkin #11

2007-10-13T01:54:00.000-07:00

here's number 11, sorry it's late, i was really wiped out yesterday. i'll do 3 this weekend to make up for it.

-b

Pumpkin #10

2007-10-11T04:11:00.000-07:00

here's another, tried somethin different today, i don't know if the video will be worth the effort that went into it, but i hope you enjoy.
-b

Pumpkin #9

2007-10-10T00:42:00.001-07:00

so heres number nine. these things are getting pretty grizzly, i'm going to have to kick the first batch to the curb...

-b

Pumpkin #8

2007-10-09T00:38:00.001-07:00

well... it's thanksgiving, and i'm sick, so sorry if the pictures not great, but i really like this one. looks really cool lit.

enjoy.
-b

Pumpkin #7

2007-10-08T00:55:00.000-07:00

sorry about the past couple days, friday night i just wasn't feeling well, so i did two on saturday... but i did them at a friends house, while i was drinking.... knives, punkins and booze make for a pretty fun combination. anyways, heres #7,

enjoy,
-b

Pumpkin #5 & #6

2007-10-07T03:34:00.000-07:00

sorry... drunk.

Pumpkin #4

2007-10-05T01:37:00.000-07:00

well... i didn't get started till really late, so i kinda phoned this one in.

it was easily the strangest "pumpkin" i've ever encountered... i had thought that it was just a green pumpkin/squash/gourd but when i started cutting into it, it smelled just like a cucumber... very weird because that's almost the exact feel and look of the outer skin. unlike a standard pumpkin where it has wide flat seeds, this one had wide fat seeds, and absolutely tons of them. it was so jam packed that it was almost as hard to get the solid packed seeds as it was to carve out the inside of yesterdays squash.

anyways, here they are.
-b

Pumpkin #3

2007-10-03T23:25:00.001-07:00

...well... i guess it's not a pumpkin, its a butternut squash.... and it was a motherbitch to carve because the thing was solid except for a small lemon-sized hollow right in the bottom. if you look at the candle that's in the pictures, i had to go back and expand that space to fit it.

note to self; "no more butternut squashes..."

in the second picture, you can also see that pumkin #1 is also starting to deteriorate.... this could turn ugly soon.

enjoy
-b

Pumpkin #2

2007-10-02T23:58:00.000-07:00

here's #2
and a shot of them both lit and sitting together... they like to do that you know...

enjoy
-b

Pumpkin #1

2007-10-02T00:14:00.000-07:00

wow, i'm not off to a great start....

i'm 15 minutes late to have the first pumpkin done on the first of october, and i'm not very happy with #1. i tried a different style of teeth than i usually do, and i don't dig them as much, not to mention that it took me way too long. at least i've got 30 pumpkins left to make it up, and a ton of time to rebuild my speed.

enjoy.

-b

Preproduction Pt 2

2007-09-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

so it appears my experiment in the long term preservation of carvings is borderline useless... my test subject seems to be aging as would be expected....

here he is hanging out with some of his pals that are still waiting to get cut....

anyways, as promised, my preproduction sketches...

and some previous sacrifices...

anyways, i'll post more sketches soon, and i'll start crankin out some gourds soon!!

can't wait to get this show on the road...
-b

Preproduction Pt 1

2007-09-26T15:16:00.000-07:00

every year i carve more and more pumpkins, i think i did nine pumpkins, a watermelon and a black squash last year. well... no more. this year i'm going to do 31 pumpkins (squashes, canteloupes, potatoes, or whatevers) in 31 days.

31 punkins.
31 days.

i'm not going to start till october 1st, but later tonight i'll post pics of my first test pumpkin (which i think is actually a decorative squash) that i carved specifically to test out preservation methods before i get started. i'll also post my sketches of my possible ideas for this year, and maybe, if you're lucky, some pictures of previous pumpkins, squashes, gourds and watermelons.

anyways,
hope this works...

-b