Season of Shadows Blog » Pumpkins

Growing Pumpkin Time-Lapse

John Wolfe — Fri, 21 May 2010 19:27:30 +0000

With my tomatoes doing well and the corn sprouting up to a couple of inches high now, I’m eagerly anticipating that my pumpkins will start breaking ground any day, but as of right now they’re still in hiding. Maybe watching this vid will help get my gourd-growing mojo working.

Source: YT user, wneily

That’s what I’ll do–I’ll sing Sweet’s “Little Willy” to them during watering tonight. That must be the missing ingredient for growth.

How To Grow Pumpkins

John Wolfe — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:16:33 +0000

With pumpkin seed planting weather almost upon us, I found a few tips for growing pumpkins that will be fit to grace your Halloween display. If you’re a newbie at growing your own gourds, don’t feel bad–I’m right there with you. However, I am making a commitment this year to starting my own pumpkin patch with seeds I saved from 2008′s Halloween jack-o-lanterns.

It should be a lot of fun to finally grow my own, plus it’ll keep me motivated to deweed the yard more often.

Source: YT user, ehowgarden

For more tips on growing pumpkins for Halloween, you might want to checkout this article at Gardening Know How and also this one at Informed Democracy.

Great Jack-O-Lantern Blaze

John Wolfe — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:27:13 +0000

The Great Jack-O-Lantern Blaze is an incredible display in New York’s Hudson Valley, containing thousands of carved pumpkins and “Funkins” (synthetic carvable pumpkins).

Source: YT user, tattooloo

Man, they have some cool Halloween attractions throughout the Northeast! I used to live back there as a kid, but as an adult who’s lived in the Desert Southwest for almost twenty-years, I’ve forgotten just how gussied up that region gets for fall.

Pumpkin Carving, 1967

John Wolfe — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:52:21 +0000

The more old Halloween home movies I watch on YT, the more I see families grow and change right before my eyes. Many of these movies include Halloween and Christmas together, and they cover several years in a matter of minutes, as is the case with today’s entry. The little boy helping his mom carve the pumpkin in 1967, appears to be the same boy (seven years older) during the additional 1974 Christmas footage.

Source: YT user, thetransferplace

This particular film took me back to my own memories of carving one of my first jack-o-lanterns with my grandpa in 1977 or ’78. Is it just me, or did pumpkins (the gourds themselves, not the style of carving) look different in the ’60s and ’70s? Something about them seems different than the typical pumpkins we find for sale today.

Jack-O-Lantern Log Sculpture

John Wolfe — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:36:29 +0000

The extremely talented chainsaw artist, Michael Higgins is featured in this video sculpting an awesome jack-o-lantern from an old log. The video has been broken into four parts. I’ve included Part 1 and Part 4. If you’re interested in seeing the entire creative process, you can catch it all on TheHalloweenOutlet’s You Tube Page.

For a video featuring even more of Michael’s awesome Halloween wood creations, check out michaelhigginsart on You Tube.

Video Source: You Tube user, TheHalloweenOutlet

Speaking of Halloween Outlet, I can’t say enough nice things about the owner, Janice Arvanigian. She came through in a big way for me this Halloween season (regarding several Halloween CDs) and I can’t thank her enough.

While Halloween Outlet (link takes you to their website) doesn’t provide mail-order for their items, if you’re ever in Worcester, Massachusetts, I highly recommend checking out their gigantic year round shop.

Halloween Pumpkin Cookie Jar

John Wolfe — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:33:07 +0000

A few days ago, I stopped by my parents’ house to replace a bathroom faucet and my mom surprised me with this glass, Halloween pumpkin full of chocolate chip and black cat sugar cookies! However, this isn’t any ol’ ordinary glass pumpkin. When I was a kid, I bugged my parents to buy me this thing at Dunkin Donuts. If I remember correctly, the pumpkin came full of Halloween Munchkins (DD’s name for donut holes) during the 80′s.

After a few Halloweens of the pumpkin being loaded with all sorts of goodies, someone broke it (probably me, but I’ve conveniently blocked that event from my memory). I hadn’t seen a glass pumpkin donut/cookie jar in over twenty-years, until my grandma found this one. She had a yard sale; my mom bought it from her and gave it to me, and ta-dah I have my pumpkin back.

While I was adjusting it for the photo, all I could smell was the cookie scent wafting out the top. I know what I’m having for lunch… well, make that after lunch. Thanks, Mom!

Pumpkin Glow

John Wolfe — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:20:20 +0000

Update: 12/7/09 Congratulations to Annamarie D. of Rio Rancho, NM, Joe Fishel of Chicago, IL, and Jayson Nickols of Rowlett, TX. They each won a SkulBone Tribal Skull tee (not pictured) in place of the original Pumpkin Glow tee. Update: 11/9/09 This giveaway has closed early. Unfortunately, the supplier I ordered the shirts from did not come through. I placed the order weeks ago, they charged my card, but never shipped the items and they won’t return my e-mail inquiries about the order’s status. For the three people who entered: I promise that all three of you guys will be getting a Skulbone shirt, however, I don’t think I can find another supplier who carries the Pumpkin Glow tee. I sincerely apologize for this, and will be in touch via e-mail as soon as I know which shirt I will giving as a replacement.

If you’ve been visiting SOS for a while, you’re probably already very familiar with my SkulBone t-shirt love affair. SkulBone is a division of “The Mountain” – those are the same guys that sold an astronomical amount of Three Wolf Moon shirts on Amazon a few months ago. All of their prints are phenomenal, whether they’re Halloween, horror or nature related. Anyway, I’m once again giving away their awesome Pumpkin Glow Halloween shirts!

I’m giving three Pumpkin Glow tees (pictured) to three separate winners. I own the SkulBone Zombies and Glow Ghosts shirt and the glow in the dark effect continues to last, even a year later – so, they’re definitely on to something with their “glow technology.”

All three shirts in this giveaway are extra large. SkulBone sizes seem to run fairly standard and at times slightly smaller, so an XL really isn’t huge.

Entering this time is a little more involved than my previous giveaways. I’ve added an entry phrase somewhere in my Halloween Haunter’s Reality 3 video. It’s easy to find, but you have to watch this video to locate it. It will appear in quotes in a text box. Once you locate the phrase, just leave it as part of your message under this post. See below for full entry details.

Upon entering, I ask that you take a few moments to recommend this post to others, whether it’s via your own blog, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace account, etc.

If you don’t have a blog or an account with a social networking site, then please consider e-mailing this link to friends or post it on a message board. I would really appreciate the support.

Guidelines for Entering

Please, only one entry per household. Duplicate entries from the same IP will be deleted. This helps to make it fairer for everyone. There’s no catch here, everything is free – including payment of shipping and handling for the Pumpkin Glow shirts – I cover all costs.

To be entered, leave a comment below containing the entry phrase (spelling doesn’t count) found in the Halloween Haunter’s Reality 3 video. Comments which don’t contain the entry phrase will not be approved. Upon approving comments, I will remove the entry phrase, so others, who have yet to watch the video, can’t see the phrase.

When leaving a comment, be sure to enter your correct e-mail address (in the e-mail address box) and be certain to keep track of your spam or bulk folder after the drawing closes. Each winner of the Pumpkin Glow shirts will be contacted through the e-mail address that’s registered with their comment. I will never share addresses, provided by entrants, with any third parties and you’ll never receive unsolicited mail when entering.

The Pumpkin Glow contest will end at 11:59 PM (Eastern Time) on December 10th, 2009. All legitimate entries will then be assigned a number. Three numbers will be randomly drawn to determine the winners.

All winners will then be notified, via the email addresses they provided, no later than December 12th. If one, or all three don’t respond (with their shipping information) within a week, then one (two, or three) more number(s) will be drawn to determine the new winner(s). Upon receiving their permission, the winners’ names will be featured in a future post.

If you would like to see your Halloween or paranormal website or business promoted through SOS and you have some appropriately themed items to distribute, please contact me.

Pumpkin Croc

John Wolfe — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:56:36 +0000

A farmer in southern Germany has created this crocodile made entirely from pumpkins (and squash for the teeth). The crocodile is part of a pumpkin harvest promotion in which the farmer displays several pumpkin themed creations to visitors. This is such an awesome, unique display. A big thanks to Goldie for sending me the link to this great image!

Pumpkin croc photo source: wfaa.com

On another note — Congratulations to Carollynn Hammersmith of Hyattsville, MD and Doug Kelley of Issaquah, WA. They both won A Haunting. The Darklore Manor Giveaway is still open and doesn’t end until October 8th.

Picket Fence Pumpkin

John Wolfe — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:13:58 +0000

I love this photo. The elements are simple, but the image still speaks volumes. It reminds me of carving jack-o-lanterns with my grandfather. Actually, he did the carving and I did the supervising — I was only three. The pumpkins were always scooped out and given facial features on a picnic table in the backyard. Surrounding the property was a fence very much like the one peeking up from the lower portion of this photo. Speaking of which, I saved this image quite some time ago. I even wrote down the name of the site it came from, unfortunately, the site’s no longer there or else I misspelled the address.

If anyone knows the source, please let me know as I’d like to provide proper credit to the owner.

Giant Pumpkin Time-Lapse

John Wolfe — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:51:21 +0000

I love this video… well, up until the September 29th portion that is. But, I won’t ruin it for you. You’ll have to watch it to find out what happens. Let’s just say I would rather have seen the big guy turned into a humongous jack-o-lantern. The growth of these mega-pumpkins never ceases to amaze me. They can put on as many as ten pounds in a single day! And you thought a rottweiler could eat you out of house and home.

This giant pumpkin footage is an excerpt from the film Bill’s Big Pumpkins — a documentary showcasing a farmer’s mission to grow the largest pumpkin in Minnesota history.

The photo in this entry isn’t from Bill’s farm, instead it comes from A Year of Plenty. But I thought it was a great shot and very fitting for a giant pumpkin post.

Video source: You Tube user QuantumPetShop