Gentry Gourds

What a great weekend at the Feast!

After a little rain on Friday, the sun came out Saturday morning and dried up the mud, and the temps were in the 60s both days. Plenty of sunshine helped keep everyone warm (and gave both of us sunburns!).  Only worrisome part of the weather was the strong wind gusts on Saturday.  As you can imagine, gourds that weigh next to nothing tend to fly all over the place when a gust blows through.  People walking by were happy to help us collect the strays, and closing up the sides of the tent helped keep things in place.

And there were a lot of people.  I heard second hand that the estimated number of visitors was the highest in several years, but I can’t find a news story to confirm it.  However, I can say that the walkways were pretty crowded both days, and we had many visitors watching Kelly’s demonstrations, asking questions, and even buying some gourds.

As usual, we enjoyed the food options.  Kelly enjoyed the herb roasted pork chop, while I was very happy with my sausage on a stick.  There is also this great deep fried, cinnamon sugar coated dessert with a French name I can’t spell.  Good stuff all around.

One thing we didn’t do too much of was take pictures.  In addition to the few I took (included above), there was one photo in the local paper that included part of our tent.

Here are a few shots of this year’s gourd designs.

The wax really brings out the designs on the gourds

Not yet cleaned

Natural stains, wood burning, and wax.
(sorry for the blurry pic)

Impromptu drying rack

It was a little wet at the Feast of the Hunters’ Moon, but we still had a great time. Plenty of people came by our tent and browsed the merchandise, and asked some great questions.

The rain on Saturday morning, and especially on Saturday night/Sunday morning made for soggy conditions in the park. Tow trucks were called in on Sunday to pull vehicles out of the mud in the pasture parking lot. The Sunday crowds were much smaller than Saturday’s.

Our new tent worked wonderfully! With the detachable sides, it was easy to open and close, and to change the configuration. Plus, it looked pretty sharp. With the rain keeping the canvas pretty damp, we have setup the tent in our front yard to dry.

Here are a few photos from the weekend.

Hope to see you all next year!

Did I mention that we have a new tent for this year’s Feast? After several years of using the rectangular marquee model, we ordered a new square marquee from Tentsmiths. The only problem we had with the old tent was that the sides are attached. This means we had to wrangle a large and heavy roll of canvas during setup and tear down. It weighs 90 lbs! Detachable sides will make setup easier, and allow more options in the configuration. As a bonus, it comes with fancy scalloping along the top edge.

Unfortunately, our existing tent poles are not tall enough for the new tent. So we have spent much time and effort making new ones. We are not woodworkers, so there has been a lot of learning along the way. As shown here, the poles ended up with a very nice octagonal profile.

Come see our new setup at the Feast this weekend!

Kelly has been busy in her workshop getting ready for this year’s Feast.

My new Feast dress arrived the other day. Can’t wait to show it off!

We had a great time at the Feast this year, and we’re already looking forward to 2011.

Little gourd ornaments – varnished and drying.