TIME TO CARVE THAT PUMPKIN!

I couldn't resist leading with this picture by commenter Joel Brinkerhoff. The baby is Joel's granddaughter and the picture was taken by the baby's aunt, Joanne Zarana, kittens by Joel. Man, Joanne and Joel make a great team. Imagine how this would sell if it was a Halloween poster!

Now, to get down to the business of carving...how did the carver do this (above)!? I doubt that he did smooth, rounded lines like that with a knife  Maybe he used an electric hand saw, but then how did he do the teeth? I'm guessing it was done by hand with an X-acto and a file.

It seems like every year there's a new fashion in pumpkin carving. This year it's gotta be the Aztec head (above), replete with face tattoos. I saw a bunch on the net.

Niiiice (above)!

A variation on the Aztec pumpkin...the Tiki mask!

Ah, the perennial favorite (above), the psycho midget pumpkin!

Lotsa good designs here (above)!

Here's (above) a nice variant on the pumpkin-eating-pumpkin motiff. 

A black scarecrow (right) with black clothes, backlit here by the sky... but an electric light and fog machine would do a good job, too.

Some squashes (above) are red, right? And you gotta love the Super Big Mac pumpkin.

Excellent, excellent!!! The horns really make it!

Haw! Fire pumpkins! Who wouda' thought!?

Above, a pumpkin scarecrow. I put up one of these on my lawn for three years in a row, and kids loved it. I used torn white rags. big black gloves, and a really wide pumpkin with the hole cut on the bottom, just like you see here. I got the design from an old-time greeting card similar to this one.