Day 89, Time to go home and carve pumpkins

Fall color heading up the Santiam

Friday was the last day of the conference and there were two speakers and the Annual Meeting.  The morning went pretty quick and by noon the conference was over.



I started the drive back over the mountain heading east towards the Santiam Pass.  The fall colors were beautiful and the drive was very nice.  The weather had improved during the week and the snow was off the road, so the driving was much smoother and faster.  On the top of the pass the roads were back to bare pavement and I didn't even have to put the truck into four wheel drive.



Lost Lake



The total driving time was just about 2 hours and 20 minutes, so it was about 3 o'clock when I pulled back into Redmond.  I stopped at the office to sign paychecks and to check emails.  The office had ran smoothly while I was gone and everyone was glad to get paid.  Something about a paycheck just before a weekend makes the weekend seem all that much better.

 I left the office at 4pm, went to the bank, stopped off at the store and then at Papa Murphy to pick up two take and bake pizza's.  Tonight I was having a pumpkin carving party with a few friends and pizza sounded good.


Just a few of the pumpkins carved



The party was at 6 and I hadn't been home in four days.  The first thing I wanted to do was let the chickens out and see how they were doing.  They were excited to be let free and quickly went about rooting up food in the yard.  Their food bowl was empty and there were two eggs in the box.  I quickly refilled their food bowl and tossed lots of scratch on the ground.  They didn't seem to be concerned and were busy running around the yard.

 My friends Tracy, Bruce, Mary Ann, Wanda and Connon all arrived close to 6pm and the pumpkin carving commenced, pizza's were baked and Tracy made cookies.  Wanda was the supervisor and chief wine taster.  Mary Ann and Connon used a pattern and Bruce and I free handed our pumpkins.  Bruce was much more creative and I stuck to the traditional pumpkins.  Tracy scooped out the insides of pumpkins but didn't carve; she did however buy some very neat face parts, like a Mr. Potato Head that you could just stick on a pumpkin.


The Great Pumpkin or Beagle


Of course no Halloween pumpkin party would be complete without Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin, so that was playing on the TV.  I have probably seen the Great Pumpkin every year since I was 5 years old, so that is 40 years that this classic has made it apart of my Halloween.

With 11 pumpkins carved, two family sized pizza eaten, two bottles of wince consumed and a dozen or so chocolate chip cookies eaten the nigh was pretty much finished.

My own bed was going to feel great.