The Great Pumpkin Catapult, The Lee Roberts Farm, Grantsburg, Wisconsin, October 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Yesterday Liz and I traveled out to Siren, Wisconsin with friends to check out Verne Peterson’s lifelong rock and mineral collection. It was a beautiful Fall day and the almost two hour drive flew by like a breeze. Founded in 1895, Siren used to be Syren, the Swedish word for lilac. But the Postal Department later changed it to Siren.
It took us several hours of talking rocks with Verne and perusing his vast collection before the four of us decided on the day’s catch. I ended up with a Zen piece of black and white Calcite from Busse, Iowa and a piece of Kona Dolomite so heavy I can’t lift it with one hand. When we left, the trunk was two boxes deep in rocks and minerals.
On the way home, Liz spotted The Great Pumpkin Catapult along Highway 70 near Grantsburg and the four of us stopped to check it out. For $5 you could take your shot at hitting the barrel castle in the distance with a medieval sling designed by farmer, Lee Roberts.
Lee hopped on to his rusty tractor while his son, Duane, and middle school grandson hooked up a chain to hoist the pumpkin counterweight, an old backhoe bucket full of rocks.
When the catapult was set, I braced to pull the string while my friends chanted and cheered: P-U-MP-K-I-N, P-U-MP-K-I-N, complete with hand gestures and acrobatic bends. All at once, I yanked the white string, everyone held their breath, and the great pumpkin went flying out of the cloth sling and landed about 19 feet away from the castle, a solid miss!
It was great fun. And as we were carefully choosing and buying our Halloween pumpkins at the end, Liz kept saying how Letterman should cover Lee’s Great Pumpkin Catapult on Halloween.
I can see it now, live remote from Grantsburg, Wisconsin. With the P-U-MP-K-I-N cheerleaders dancing in the wings.
Note: the battery died on my camera about this time (after taking over 100 photos at Verne’s), so I took these 3 photographs with Liz’s Canon. Liz took more photos and detail shots of The Great Pumpkin Catapult, along with a few of Lee and Duane. If she ends up posting them on her Flickr account, I’ll add the link.
Have a great Halloween!
-posted on red Ravine, Sunday, October 14th, 2007
Wow…. that is seriously awesome! A pumpkin catapult! I can’t imagine anything more seasonal and fun.
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Looks like a fun time, QM. The rocks sound fabulous. I can’t wait to see photos.
I just had this related yet unrelated thought having to do with the smell of pumpkin innards. Does anyone else dislike that smell? Ah, but very worth dealing with in order to get the seeds (to roast) and to carve the pumpkin.
Hey, do you ever use those fancy pumpkin carving kits that you can get these days?
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Halloween rituals: I think the Statute of Limitations has run on this conduct in 1964. When I was in High School in Carmel, California, we rolled pumpkins down Ocean Avenue from the top of the hill to the ocean (they never got there, old tourists got in the way).
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This looks like a lot of fun and has inspired me to check out the pumpkin catapult near us. I might even give the maize maze a go.
🙂
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*laughs* That’s wonderful.
I wish I could sling a pumpkin.
Wait a sec…
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Two weeks ago, I had never heard of Siren, Wisconsin.
One week ago, I was there.
The world, she gets smaller and smaller.
Your visit was more interesting and eventful than our drive through. But I can say that, back at the grind here, I miss the tranquility already.
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That is AWESOME!! 🙂
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Good wholesome fun, Quoinmonkey, as my 17-year-old son would say. I like how you describe the day with your friends, as well as the description of where you went.
What will you do with the stone?
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Thanks, pmousse. It was great fun. I laughed a lot over the weekend and I sure needed it!
ybonesy, I don’t like that smell either, of pumpkin innards. It’s my least favorite part of carving. Smells yeasty to me. Real salt of the earth stuff. But, yeah, I think it’s worth it to get to the buried treasure.
I never tried the pumpkin carving kit. I do it the old fashioned way. I was never that great at carving pumpkins. But I like it all the same. Mine tend to look all lopsided with crooked grins. I guess there could be worse on All Hallow’s Eve!
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Franny, you went to High School in Carmel, California? 8) Somehow, I can picture you rolling pumpkins down Ocean Avenue. It sounds a lot like bowling for tourists!
BTW, I thought of you and your client a lot today. Sent warm energy. Though it’s hard to know what to say, my thoughts and prayers were with you.
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Robin, the maize maze – amazing. Is there really a pumpkin catapult near you? And here I thought this might be one of a kind.
There’s a haunted house set up on another farm not far from here. Very elaborate. I always wanted to do that one. There is so much open space out on these farms. Really sets the scene for a scary Halloween.
Has anyone ever visited a graveyard on Halloween?
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amuirin, right-o – you CAN sling a pumpkin. Let me know how far….
LB, glad you liked the makeshift sling. I see your Haunted House is coming along (I just tried to leave a comment but it said your network was currently unavailable. I’ll try again later). How are the beaded ghosts?
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ben, can’t believe we were in the same town of Siren (or is it Syren?) Wisconsin within a week of each other. So sorry you missed the great pumpkin catapult. It sure is wide open and tranquil out in the rural areas of the state. And those blue skies….it was the bluest, most beautiful Fall day we’ve had all season. It’s rained again the last two. I’m so glad I got outside!
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mariacristina, the stone…hmmmm. I’m not sure. Right now, the black and white Zen stone is beside my laptop stand near the couch. I just beam when I look at it. Very grounding. It’s long, kind of flat, and jagged…well, I’ll just have to post a photo at some point as ybonesy suggested.
I’ve got rocks I’ve collected from all over the country. I did get rid of quite a few when I moved last December. Most of the rest are outside in the gardens. But this one is special. And as Verne says, you don’t want to put the special ones outside – the unique, one-of-a-kind specimens…you want to live with them.
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Hi QM. Got the message about being out all day with the gato. Pobrecito. (Poor baby.) I hope he has a speedy recovery!
I’ve not visited a graveyard for Halloween, but on my list of things to do before I die (I have to update the list I posted on this blog way back when) is to participate in Day of the Dead.
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yb, great news….Mr. Stripeypants finally ate a few nibbles tonight. Liz and I gave him his medicine from the vet – two kinds, pills and liquid, one for fever, one for infection. He’s sleeping. And that’s what I’m about to do!
Hey, one question…didn’t you go somewhere with your Dad for Day of the Dead last year? I thought that was something you mentioned doing every year. I was trying to remember. Maybe I have it mixed up with something else…
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Yeah!
I’m about to turn in, too.
Re: last year with my dad, that was the annual Memorial Day cleaning of his parents’ graves.
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unbelievable! this is the first time i’ve ever seen or heard of such a thing!
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That pumpkin catapult is saweet!
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dogslol, me, too!
Thanks, jason.
yb, ah, I remember now, the annual Memorial cleaning. I’ve only read about Day of the Dead. It seems like the veil between the worlds is very thin during that time.
Yes, those lists of things we want to do before we die. I wonder if mine has changed any since I posted it. It might have been almost a year.
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Fun Post. Loved Franny’s story and QM, your dubbing it, “Bowling for Tourists.”
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ybonesy, just a note to say we were at Byerly’s today for groceries and when we passed the pumpkin carving kits, Liz ran back to get one. She just opened it up and there are 5 stencils inside: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. And are they cool! I smell some pumpkin carving. We’ll keep you posted. 8)
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Cool! We’ve used those kits for several years now. I’ve gone back to the old-fashioned approach, but if you follow the stencil patiently, you can come out with some awesome jack-o-lanterns.
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It’s almost Halloween. I have to come back to this pumpkin catapult post every year and check out the work at the Lee Roberts Farm in Grantsburg, Wisconsin. I wonder if they are still doing the pumpkin catapult this year?
It was so much fun when we stopped there with our friends a few years ago and actually tried the pumpkin catapult. I don’t think we even got close to the target though. It makes me want to head back out there this year and see what’s going on. But I might be traveling at the end of October. We’ll have to see what develops!
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Another year has gone by and it’s almost All Hallows Eve again! I am searching for more pumpkin catapults, maybe a bit closer. Or maybe we’ll visit this one again this year. I just said, “Liz, let’s go back to the pumpkin catapult.” She said, “Oh, that was fun!” Will we squeeze it in? It’s tempting to take a Fall Sunday drive to Grantsburg, Wisconsin. I was in Sheboygan County, WI last week for a writing retreat. I have a fondness for Wisconsin. 8)
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