Pumpkin Chucking!

When you live miles and miles from civilization, you tend to get creative with your down time.  Here in Machias where summers are short and winters are long, we try to cram as much community activity into the few months of warmth as we can.  Today, for instance, people from miles around came out to watch local schools compete in the pumpkin chucking contest.

Here was the winning team with their homemade contraption (catapult? trebuchet?).  They placed a huge barrel weighted down with concrete in the middle of the weapon.  When they cranked the barrell up toward the top of their contraption, the arm of the sling was pushed down to the ground.

They loaded the pumpkin and dropped the weight, which unleashed the sling.

The pumpkin goes flying through the air...

...and makes a huge splash as it plummets into the river.

Voila!  Instant red neck fun.