Carrying around a 60lb pumpkin is hard, but carving it is somewhat harder. Luckily I had a suitable assistant in Pete and soon we had a hollowed and carved squash of unfeasible proportions, with room for 22 bottles of beer.
The final touch was the cooling system: dry ice. It turns out you can just buy the stuff from our local beer shop, although there are various kill-joy warnings on the pack like "never put dry ice in your mouth". Whatever.
We transported the various elements down to the Muckers and I set up while Thanksgiving lunch was cooking, feeling like a real scientist as I handled the smoking ice with oven gloves. The end result was not entirely unlike the picture I'd seen online all those weeks ago. Even Vince said he was impressed, and that's when I know I've achieved something.
The first cut is the deepest.
Peter Peter pumpkin diver.
And that's why it's always best to buy tinned pumpkin.
Hannah finally got bored of hearing about how great my pumpkin was.
The empty vessel.
Adding the frozen CO2.
Adding some water for that smoking effect. Note my defensive pose and general fear in proximity to anything that could be described as scientific.
The end result! I've never had as many compliments about something I created (apart from Pete).
