On a whim, Jamie put his giant 1,220-pound pumpkin up for sale on Craigslist a couple of weeks ago. He never really expected to sell it. His asking price was high and not too many people have their own forklift and flatbed required to haul it away.
But he did get an interesting response from Michelle Barnett: she was dying to carve it. For free!
And so she drove down from Fort Collins every day this week (about an hour drive) and worked in the cold, rain, sun and even snow flurries. She was so patient, passionate and probably spent 20 hours carving the beast.
Before:
The very beginning
After:
The (mostly) finished pumpkin
Michelle was a hit with our neighbors who were constantly stopping to watch her work and someone on the next street even invited her for coffee.
Ask me if a neighbor has ever invited me over for coffee (never mind that I don’t touch the stuff).
But if I want to ante up on my popularity, it would appear I need to grow…and carve a giant pumpkin.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 