Wednesday, November 24, 2004
[Editor's note: If you have any banjo music handy, now would be the time to put it on the Victrola. Be sure to turn the volume way up loud.]
Having been denied the opportunity to witness pumpkin chunkin' at a bona fide pumpkin patch this year due to a very long stretch of inclement weather in October, we here at Cheezleton Manor decided to chunk pumpkins right in our very own backyard. What is pumpkin chunking, you ask? It is a proud tradition dating back at least to the proto-rednecks of medieval times and involves a trebuchet, flight-friendly vegetables and - I suspect - heavy amounts of alcohol. In a nutshell, getting sloshed and flinging stuff for distance AND awe-inspiring splatter patterns. Huzzah!
Our backyard pumpkin chunking idea required acquisition of a trebuchet which - as you can imagine - isn't the type of thing that is readily available for purchase through Sears or Wal-Mart. There also isn't a wealth of detailed information out there on how to build one. (Go figure, not a lot of demand for such things these days, what with municipal trash collection being so affordable and all.) Fortunately, Sean was apparently born with a natural instinct for building medieval flinging devices and managed to design and assemble a basic trebuchet in just a couple days' time.
I invited a few friends to come witness our completely unprovoked attacks on unsuspecting vegetables. Beer was most definitely served during the event. Below, photos and video from Backyard Pumpkin Chunking:
Pumpkins whose time had come. They were so scared, they were actually sweating.
Loading up The Beast. Oh looky, there appears to be a bottle of beer in the foreground!
The crowd of rather underwhelmed onlookers, some of whom aren't even facing in the direction of the flinging.
Whee, a movie! See pumkin chunking in action! Hear the crowd go wild with excitement! (The propane tank and decrepit fence in the background of the clip really add to the charm, IMO.) Alternatively, enjoy this photo of the moment of flinging.
So, now we are the proud owners of our very own trebuchet. Probably not too many other American households can say that. I feel quite special.
# posted by Amanda at 9:40 PM |
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