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Monday, November 1, 2010

How a Vet Carves a Pumpkin...

In honor of All Hallow's Eve, my family had a pumpkin carving night at my house.  I admit it, I have never carved a pumpkin before, ever.  Because of this, I had never realized how unique the inside of a pumpkin truly is.

I grabbed my scalpel, a paring knife, to begin the task of carving my pumpkin.  The "caps" of our pumpkins were not easily removed as the flesh was too thick for me to incise easily.   There was no delicate surgical incision.  It was more like a Horror Movie attack!  I was waiting for fake blood to spurt in all directions, a lightening strike, and a coyote to howl in the distance!  I held the knife in a tight fist, aggressively stabbing into the flesh and dragging it along our dotted cap line. 
Finally, after much effort, the cap was completed, with the help of my husband, and off it came.


My husband, Justin, dug right into his pumpkin.  No fear!



Miranda also dug into her pumpkin right away.  Surprised at the odd textures within the pumpkin, she made a few squeals, but she was eventually okay with the entire endeavor of pumpkin gutting.




Connor refused to put his hands into the pumpkin.  I reassured him that he had to pull the seeds out of the pumpkin if he wanted to make the face on his pumpkin.  Miranda reassured him that it was okay to reach inside.  I reassured him, but he did not bite.  He was grossed out.




At this point, Justin noticed that I too had not touched my pumpkin.  While I was explaining how it was not icky gross to Connor, the truth is that I was repulsed by the look of the inside of the pumpkin.  The closest I had previously been to pumpkin guts before was pumpkin pie!

The inside of these pumpkins had long, string-like, adhesions of pumpkin flesh extending from top to bottom and side to side.  There were stringy, gooey, lumpy insides, containing moist sticky seeds. 





While the smell emanating from the inside of this giant orange melon was fantastic, the insides were scary looking, scary feeling, and as you scoop, the sound too was...well...scary.  As you scoop inside the pumpkin, grasping the slimy innards, and ripping them out, the long, string-like adhesions make a popping noise as they break. 

Pop, Pop, Pop...ick...




After the lovely insides became lovely outsides, the hollow melon was ours for decorating.  We all used markers to create our faces.  Connor and Miranda created cute simple faces that only gifted artists would create.  I designed a detailed swirly decorative face.  Daddy carved the faces on his own pumpkin, and also carved the faces on Miranda and Connor's pumpkins.  As he carved three, I struggled with my own pumpkin's face.

Stab, jab, drag.  I could barely make straight lines, never mind make intricate curves and curls!  The swirly decorative face I designed suddenly became the simplified, typical, triangular face seen on most jack-o-lanterns.





I have discovered two new things about myself in this new Halloween adventure...

1. My first pumpkin carving...and it is less gross to spay a cat...

2. I have discovered a fondness of the toothy, crooked grins of the typical jack-o-lantern, although I am not sure why...











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1 comment:

Heidi Eckers said...

I LOVE it! :)