Hill's 2010 Pumpkin Carving Party

I have some of the best neighbors out here in our little corner of Western Nebraska. Peggy & Calvin Hill live just to the east of us and invited us to their 3rd Annual Pumpkin Carving Party & Contest which was held on Sunday at their farm.

Unfortunately Dan the Man had three semis to load with hay so he wasn't able to go and Skyler had youth group and better things to do so he didn't go either. I ended up going as the lone ranger from our family. I wasn't going to miss it, besides Peggy said there was money involved with the pumpkin carving contest AND that she was making chili and everyone else would bring a side dish. You know what that means... can you say POT LUCK DINNER! You say POT LUCK... I say DINNER... POT LUCK... DINNER!! I love pot luck dinners! Where else can you eat your self silly and have 20 different kinds of dessert? Well I suppose you could at a buffet restaurant, like "Country Buffet" but we don't have one of those around these here parts and besides, that's restaurant food where 90% of it is pre-made, frozen, processed bad-for-you food. At a pot luck here in good ole' Western Nebraska, we are talking HOMEMADE folks! From people who actually know how to cook.

I had to deliver some chickens to Morrill before I could go to the party so I was a little late. Peggy and Calvin had the party in their immaculately clean three car garage/shop. When I opened the door an enormous cloud of pumpkin smell came gushing out along with the sound of a thousand kids and adults all busy carving away at their pumpkins. Well, there really wasn't a thousand, but Peggy said that 52 people came. Now that's a party! Some came as far away as WYOMING! (Actually Wyoming is only 4 miles away, hee, hee, but it adds drama to the story.)

This being the first time I had attended one of these shin-digs, I wasn't prepared for the seriousness of the matter at hand. Peggy said the rules were that you could use anything you want to to carve your pumpkin, patterns were allowed and you had 3 hours to get the job done. THREE HOURS I was thinking... that's plenty of time. It was so full of people and pumpkin guts in there that I had a hard time finding a place to set-up, but Peggy, the great hostess that she is, gather me and my pumpkin under her motherly wings and shuffled me over to a spot where she was working. Everyone was so intent on their carving, that I figured I better get straight to work, no time for visiting now.

There were three divisions: The 5 and under class had 4 entries and everyone in that class got a prize. Then there was the kid's class which had two winners who each received $16 and the Adult Class received 60 smack-a-roos each ($60). One moment I found cute was when the money was passed out, one of the kids from the 5 and under class felt "jipped" because they only got prizes, he wanted the cold hard cash baby! Hee, hee! I heard someone consoling him that NEXT year he could compete for the loot!

Realizing the seriousness of the matter, I took my knife in hand and got busy carving. Guess there wouldn't be any pumpkin carving pictures, there just wasn't time, especially since I had shown up late and had to leave around 5 pm to go home to feed the chickens and cows. Well, 5 pm came and I still was not done with my "sure to win in my mind" masterpiece. I worked for 30 more minutes until I was satisfied with my pumpkin and then ran home to do the chores. As soon as I was done with with my chores I ran back over to the party. I got there just in time for the good eats! Peggy's chili was delicious and so was all the other yummies!

After eating, the voting began. We each were allowed to vote for two pumpkins and we could not vote for our own. Man what a hard decision. There were so many good ones. The pumpkins were all lined up in a row and the lights were dimmed. What a sight. We all walked back and forth in front of the pumpkins trying to decide who was worthy of the title of "winner." People were committing "this is so hard", "they all are good" and "I love that one!"

Finally the votes were cast and collected. It was a tense wait while all the votes were counted and then the winners were announced.

Winners of the Kids Division were
LeAnne Sherrod and Keaton Robb.
Congratulations guys!!

LeAnne Sherrod's Winning Pumpkin

Keaton Robb's Winning Pumkin




Winners of the Adult Division were
Kim Robb and Terry Hill!
Congratulations!

Kim Robb's Winning Pumpkin

Terry Hill's Winning Pumpkin

I'm not positive that I got pictures of all the pumpkins so if I missed yours, I am truly sorry and you can throw pumpkin guts at me next year! Here is a video of the pumpkins.

Here is my pumpkin at the party.
I was sure I had a winner,
but when the lights were dimmed,
my pumpkin did not perform like the rest.

Too bad, so sad for me.

Here are some more shots of my pumpkin that I took later at home.
Looks much better here!
(PS, I did not use a pattern except for the lettering.)












One Final Picture.