Yesterday afternoon, we made a family trip to Greenfield, New Hampshire
This is the home of Yankee Siege, also known as a giant trebuchet, also known as Punkin Chunkin.
Here we found a life-size trebuchet. When our friends, the Rogers first told me about this event, I thought it had boy written all over it: 1) giant medieval weapon, 2) it throws things at a castle 3) pumpkins smash. What more could boys want?
That boxy thing on the left of the trebuchet is the counterweight. It weighs 12,000 pounds and is filled with parts of railroad tracks
Last week they put the pumpkins aside and launched a flaming piano. It went straight up and then fell down. It didn't really travel, but they said it made good video footage.
The trebuchet launched pumpkins every half hour between 1:00 and 5:00. After each launch, they'd make some corrections on the machine to get a better aim and trajectory. This was their target, but in the 1500 throws they'd done, they'd only hit it 5 times.
Some of the punkin chunkin technicians.
The trebuchet launched pumpkins every half hour between 1:00 and 5:00. After each launch, they'd make some corrections on the machine to get a better aim and trajectory. This was their target, but in the 1500 throws they'd done, they'd only hit it 5 times.
After the first chunk, we went for a look in the castle. The castle and everything else here is a welder's dream--all made of scrap metal, welded together.
Here's a view from the castle, down to the trebuchet.
Us again. The 2nd pumpkin got chunked clear to the woods, behind us. It was a great throw!
Another welder's dream. They created this giant mace, connected to a crane, just for the fun of it.
Another welder's dream. They created this giant mace, connected to a crane, just for the fun of it.
Our boys had no problem entertaining themselves between throws. Here they look for the perfect "skipping rocks."
Some of the punkin chunkin technicians.
This whole event was FREE. They had a little market across the street that sold a few pumpkins and apples, but this place was REALLy undercommercialized.
The fact that they served breakfast all day just sweetened the deal for all of the boys.
This event will definitely go down in our family as an annual tradition! Diner and all!
5 comments:
We are so doing this this Saturday! Thanks for the info!!
oh no, i can't see most of the pictures... they aren't showing up. this sounds hilarious!
Looks like a great adventure! You do so many great things as a family.
since we are planning a trip there next Fall for Soren's 8th birthday, we hope you will take us along.
I can almost smell pumpkin squish. Great capture! We'll time it better next year. Thanks for the diner tip as well. Serving breakfast all day always gets Mike.
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