Naturally-Carved Jack-O-Lantern

I found this image posted on Facebook in a few places. And I found it wonderfully horrific. Also suitable to my usual laziness. 

So I got a big fat pumpkin and some peanut butter. I found this article about having a naturally-carved pumpkin:
https://flannelandflame.com/2020/10/19/train-squirrels-to-carve-your-pumpkin

Using a drill to make holes in the pumpkin is something I've done before. I like it as a lazy carving technique.

I thought you guys might like to follow along the progress, so I'll take some pictures and we'll see what happens.

It sounds like it could take as few as a couple of days for the squirrels to do their work, and then it'll go bad like a week later. Which means this might be a trial run before Halloween, and we do another later.

DAY ONE - OCT 10

So here's my pumpkin, while it's still whole, ready for drilling. That's Ralph in the background there, supervising my work. He's not very helpful. 

I drilled away, making eyes and mouth. I kept it simple, so the squirrels can focus on the right targets. I did try giving him a bit of a smile, but we'll see if that translates through.

Then I shoved peanut butter in the holes. This part was messy and unpleasant. If I was starting over again, I'd put some peanut butter in a ziploc and squeeze it out, cake-frosting style. But I already had it out in a spoon, so I just used my fingers, and sometimes a chopstick, then wiped down the outside when I was done. 

At this point, the room smelled like peanut butter and pumpkin. A lot. It wasn't an unpleasant combination.

Then I took my pumpkin outside. I didn't want the potential pumpkin-guts mess on my porch or sidewalk, so I nestled him into the mulch around this tree, hoping that the mulch means the lawn-care people or the HOA won't be a problem.

So that's Day One - I did my part, now it's time for the squirrels to do theirs!

DAY TWO - OCTOBER 11

Here he is in the morning light. Doesn't look like the critters found him overnight. I'm a little surprised by that, actually. We have a lot of squirrels and birds and chipmunks around, so I expected some overnight action.

The lawn-care guys came through, and didn't seem to bother him, but also their presence surely discouraged any critters from finding the peanut butter and getting started during the day. We'll see what happens tonight.

DAY THREE - OCTOBER 12

Last night, I checked on the pumpkin as I went out for the evening. We definitely have ants in the peanut butter - and that's why I didn't want him on the porch. But overnight, no visible change. I'm disappointed. And as I was looking out the window checking on progress, a squirrel climbed down the tree the pumpkin's up against, circled it once, and then left. Hateful rodent. Go eat my pumpkin!

DAY FOUR - OCTOBER 13

Still no chewing of my pumpkin, except for the ants. Maybe I cleaned it up too well? So I went out and spread peanut butter, not just in the holes, but over the holes, to see if I can encourage the squirrels to get to work already.

This time, I remembered to use the back of the spoon to gather and spread the peanut butter, instead of the inner curve. And it was much easier.

DAY FIVE - OCTOBER 14

Some of the peanut butter has been eaten off the mouth. SOMEthing found it. But no chewing into the pumpkin so far. Soon, if it remains untouched, I'll move it to a spot where I can't see it, but I know the squirrels are accustomed to finding food.

DAY SIX - OCTOBER 15

Last night I moved the pumpkin around to the back of the house, where I know the squirrels congregate - but where I can't really see it. So when I drive away or come home, I can drive by where it is. All the peanut butter on the outside has been licked/eaten away. But not the peanut butter in the holes. Yet. Maybe I need to make some bigger holes there with fresh peanut-butter?

DAY TEN - OCTOBER 19

So I carried the pumpkin around to the back of the house back on Day Seven. I can see it if I peer over the deck or as I drive up to park. And nothing happened for several days. From where I could see it, the peanut butter just got darker (drying out?). Some of it disappeared, but the pumpkin is unscathed. And last night we had a tiny freeze. So this afternoon I went to visit my pumpkin, taking a knife and more peanut butter with me. There it is, completely uneaten.

I thought maybe I'd use the knife to just maybe open up some of the spaces a bit, put some fresh peanut butter in there, and see if maybe a larger hole would be more tempting to the wildlife. 

So, between sitting for ten days and the freeze last night, the spaces where I drilled holes are completely soft all the way through. Where the 'teeth' were drilled, there's black spots - mold. I ended up barely pushing with the knife to just cut out the eyes and teeth entirely. I can see what might be some webbed white mold inside the pumpkin - or maybe it's just pumpkin guts. But either way, I've removed the drilled-out portions, leaving a bit of the moldy holes in place. I haven't removed any of the guts from inside at all. 

I was kind of afraid to push at the rest of the pumpkin to see how far the softness went, so this one might be just a total write-off.

But I went ahead and added the last of the jar of peanut-butter around the edges of the holes to see if something will chew on it further. I suspect we'll toss the whole thing in a few days.

The original project has failed. Now we're just seeing what else could come of it.

DAY TWELVE - OCTOBER 21

It looks like the peanut butter has all been licked off again, but no chewing is visible on the pumpkin from my view on the deck. Too bad.

DAY FIFTEEN - OCTOBER 24

it looks like the sides of the pumpkin are beginning to cave in a bit. I'm calling this one as a failed experiment, ya'll.

DAY TWENTY - OCTOBER 29

Okay, it has made it into 'gross', at least. Look at that moldy goodness!

And of course, the general slumping is indicative of a truly rotten inside. 

DAY TWENTY-TWO - HALLOWEEN!