Pumpkin Carving Results, Victoria, hive purchase

Yesterday was our 5^th Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest. I have participated in the last three. It is fun, but here’s hoping this one will be my last. Not that I mind the competition. I just hope to be working for my own company this time next year. Anyway, the contest always starts with each designated team selecting from the pumpkins purchased by the company. For some teams the shape is not particularly important, but for my team yesterday we needed a distinctive stem on our pumpkin. One of our members selected the one she thought would serve us best and I was in place to claim it as ours at the appointed time. That time is carefully controlled in order to give each team a shot at the pumpkin they want for the contest.

Next, the time is set for opening and gutting the pumpkin. Only one member is allowed to do this part. That person has to ensure that what they do does not interfere with the carving that will follow. The entire team is encouraged to help with the carving. One hour is allotted to complete the work. We can only use the tools provided by the company to actually carve the pumpkin. Those tools are the store-bought pumpkin carving sets sold at Walmart. They are not precision tools. I did all the carving for our entry. When we were selecting a theme for our pumpkin, I suggested to the team that we go about the work to have fun, produce something we could be pleased with, and enjoy the morning. That is exactly what we did.

We carved a witch with a very ugly stem nose, buggy eyes and missing teeth. It turned out pretty good. We were very pleased with the final product. Some of the other pumpkins were extremely clever.

A barbeque grill complete with dry ice smoke. The house from the movie “UP” complete with balloons coming out of the chimney. An ice cream cone with cherries on top. Oscar the Grouch, in a trash can brimming with trash. I work in a very creative group – and it shows. The barbeque grill won first place. Our witch won second place. I do not remember which pumpkin won third place. It was fun.
One member of our group was ecstatic about placing in the contest. She has competed all five years and never placed. Each member of each winning team got a gift card for one of the eateries in town. I took the Subway card from the four randomly selected by one member of our group. The entire morning off and a Subway gift card as a reward for taking the morning off. Not a bad deal.

Mama and I went to get Victoria at the airport last night. She got in around 7:45. Mama and I left early enough to kill some time at Costco as we waited on her flight to land. DFW is an easy airport to navigate. We were in and out in thirty minutes. We got home a little after 9 pm. Hopefully, Victoria can clear up any residual work issues today. She did not get her paycheck yesterday as she should have. So, something is messed up with her leave of absence. Being there in person should expedite fixing whatever is wrong. With that is mind, she is going to work this morning hoping she can get all the miscommunications resolved. We are certainly praying so.

Kimberlyn spent the day at our farm yesterday. She and Mama got a lot done. I was impressed. Today, Mama is going to her house to complete more projects. I brought a few pieces to work to see if I can generate any interest in their crafts. Some of the prices they have painted are quite clever.

Tonight, Mama and I are driving to Greenville, TX to purchase a top bar hive. The seller is asking only $50 for the hive. I cannot build it for that. The cost of bees to put in the hive will be about $130. Total cost of less than $200 to set up a hive is cheap. the primary product of a top bar hive is honeycomb. We will get honey out of that hive as well, but the way the hive works, it is best for harvesting comb. That will allow me and Mama to extract honey from our other hives and retain the comb in them for next year’s honey production. It saves the bees a lot of time when they do not have to produce the wax for the comb.

It will be another evening of travel for us, but it should be worth it in the long run.