Gobs of Gourds!

The weather is not cooperating with the gardens at all right now. It is still very hot and unbelievably dry. I will just have to wait until we get a rain before planting my fall garden. This is not all bad though as right now the rogue watermelon is still rampantly taking over the entire garden area. There are seven more melons on this single vine and hundreds of new blossoms each day. Since gardening is out of the question at the moment, it is time to work on some craft projects. With Halloween just around the corner, I thought making Jack-O-Lantern gourds would be a fun idea. I had no idea just how many gourds might be in my stash since I sort of "hid" them from view. My gourds are stored in my living room..I know most people would use a garage or shed for this purpose but the fact is..I have neither. Now the gourds that I use can be as small as a golf ball or as large as a basketball or any size in between, so you can imagine the difficulty in storing any number of them. I try to keep most out of sight so creativity is a necessity. I have gourds stashed in baskets under tables, in a wooden box used as a coffee table and as decorations. I like to say they are "hidden in plain sight"! As I said, I had not idea just how many I had accumulated over this past year. My brother grew a bunch for me and I did order some "specialty" sizes and shapes. As I gathered them, I simply stored them for future use. I do most of my "gourd work" in Fall and Winter when there is not a lot of outside work to be done. Today when I went to examine the gourds to find the perfect one to create a Halloween ornament, I was almost overwhelmed..literally. This last time my brother brought me a truckload of gourds, I had asked my son's help in "storing" them. He told me not to worry..he would take care of it. I should have worried. Standing diagonally in the corner of the room is a large cedar wardrobe. This thing must be at least six feet tall and a good three feet wide..the perfect place to store gourds..only he did not store them inside the closet. He stored them behind the closet! He merely dropped the gourds one by one behind the wardrobe! I tugged on the huge piece of furniture only to have an avalanche of gourds tumble out from behind and on top of me! It is a good thing that gourds are almost feather-light when they are dry! Now, I have plenty of shapes and sizes to choose from for my Jack-O-Lanterns! Everywhere! Gobs of Gourds!

This is a picture of last years' attempts at Halloween gourds!