Lots of Fun Yesterday-Harvest Days (long post)

I've been a busy gal the past two days. We were prepping for the Harvest Days held on Saturday (26th). I spent Friday helping my oldest daughter, Valerie, finish a scarecrow for the Scarecrows on the Pond. She was making it for her boyfriend's mother's company. Alot of businesses in town create a scarecrow and they have a People's choice and a Judge's choice with 3 places in both. Did that make sense? Valerie created "James the Crow" (James is her boyfriend's name) and here's a picture of him. Isn't he handsome?!

Here's a close up of the face:

You're probably wondering what all the 'do-dads" are on him. The company makes circuit boards for an assortment of electrical devices using these computer components. That's my explanation to the best of my knowledge anyway. The hair is made from tubing that houses wire but the wires were removed. The eyes are round circuit boards. The eyebrows are rubber tubing cut in half. The torso was created using two large spools that was decorated with an assortment of components. All participants were given a 6 foot wooden skeleton to create their scarecrow on. Val and I cut out holes in the spools (and it wasn't easy!) in order for the wooden upright piece to fit through. Valerie actually spent 5 hours in the ER on Tuesday after she sliced her thumb trying to make this scarecrow. She only needed two stitches, but she was scared at first--looked alot worse than it was. So, because of this injury, I was so hoping James the Crow would win, but it didn't.
Valerie working on her scarecrow:

Here's Valerie and James with the scarecrow:

The biggest highlight of the day is the Pumpkin Drop. This is the 4th year of the Harvest Days festival and each year it gets bigger and more popular. The Pumpkin Drop is unusual in that the pumpkins are dropped from WW2 bomber planes! Yes, these planes and pilots come from all over the country! Each plane has a volunteer from town that sits in the body of the plane. The pilot flies about 500 feet above the pond (No. 1 Pond) and has the volunteer drop the pumpkin on his cue when he feels he's close to the target. It's not a big target and No.1 Pond is not a large body of water! This is how bombadier pilots trained to hit targets before going over to Germany. The operation has to be approved by the FAA and last we heard, Sanford Maine is the only place in the country where this is done. I think there were 16 planes this year. Here's a pic of some of the planes flying over just before the Pumpkin Drop began.



Here's a plane trying to hit the target but missed. If you look closely, you can see the target on the bottom near center of the photo. This target is only about 6 feet tall. It's not a large target when you're 300 or 500 feet in the air!!





And the newest event was the Pumpkin Regatta! Companies from around town sponsored an employee to sit in a carved out, decorated and painted pumpkin and race around a ski jump in the pond and back to the starting point. It was hilarious! Two pumpkins tipped over and nearly sunk. One contestant showed sheer determination and swam from where he flipped over at the ski jump, pulling his pumpkin behind him. He came in last but he got a standing ovation! He was only about 15 years old! I was routing for the Pirate (manager of a local restaurant). He came in 2nd in the race but one first for best decorated 'boat'. Here are some pics of that hilarious race!

And they're off!:

Heading towards the ski jump. They have to round that and head back to the dock.

First and Second place winners:


And last but not least, Jackie won First Place for her pumpkin pie! She was so excited!

She made the pumpkin from scratch-meaning she cooked the meat of a pumpkin (like cooking potatoes/squash). From there she added the spices and other ingredients. At first, it looked horrible and we almost threw it out thinking it just wasn't going to work. Thank goodness we decided to follow through and enter it. We're picking up a placque this week. She also won a gift card to a local grocery store. Below is a pic of Jackie with her gift card from the presenter. Last year she won 2nd place.
Here are some additional pics of Harvest Days:
Below is a man who gave a demo on carving pumpkins. He does beautiful work.


More Scarecrows on the Pond:




All in all it was a FUN day!