Pumpkin Cemetery Set Up - 2012

Yesterday, we spent a few hours in the morning getting some of our Halloween decorations up in the yard and around the house.  Still plenty more hours left until we get our stuff set up.

For the "Pumpkin Cemetery", I grabbed a few pieces of tongue-and-groove boards from the remnant rack at Menards and printed out the letters in a funky font.  Then I traced them on with pencil and painted the letters in black.  I threw on a few coats of polyurethane to seal it in and provide a little bit of weather-proofing.

I picked up a little bit of edging fencing from Menards, too.  And stuck that in the ground.

For the pumpkins, we debated between real and fake.  We ended up going with real.  Not sure if that is going to end up being wise in the long run, but only time will tell.  I painted on the eyes and mouths and then painted (with a pastry brush) a slurry of red pepper flakes and water all over them.  Before that water dried, I also sprinkled on a bunch of chili powder.

You see...we have a squirrel problem.  We have a funky pumpkin up on our porch that has a bunch of it eaten away.  In fact, I caught a squirrel up on the porch one day, so I know who's inflicting the damage.  A bit of research offered two options:  try coating them in hairspray or with something spicy.

If you look closely at the middle pumpkin, you can see the red pepper flakes at the top of it - near the stem.

I put them up last night and this morning there were no chew marks.  So...either the critters haven't found 'em yet, or they aren't interested in the spicy stuff!