Posted by maggie hall | Posted in family | Posted on 17-11-2011
Tags: food outdoors sports
After you are reclined in your easy chair wearing your loose fitting buffet pants on Thanksgiving eve and have had enough football and turkey for a day, turn the TV to the Discovery or Science channels at 8 p.m.
‘With a slogan of “We’re Gonna Hurl” you know it is going to be one epic post –dinner event. This strange salute to pumpkins, physics and engineering began in 1986 between a few guys on the east coast, apparently with time to kill.
Punkin’ Chunkin’ is now an annual extravaganza where teams (and more than 30 thousand fans) gather in a Delaware cornfield to see whose homemade contraptions can propel a pumpkin the farthest. This year’s event takes viewers behind the firing line, getting up close and personal with the explosive contraptions and personalities that make PUNKIN’ CHUNKIN’ so exciting. This year the hosts of Mythbusters are goin’ punkin’ chunkin’. It has been named one of the top 100 events in North America. So what does that say about it?!
Over 30,000 fans show up for this 13 category event which was actually held this year on Nov. 3-6 in Bridgeville, Del. 8-10 pound pumpkins are launched with catapults, air cannons, motorized centrifugal spinners and trebuchets. It isn’t just a smashing good time but a fundraiser for various charities like Childhelp, Austism Delaware, St. Jude’s Hospital, Home of the Brave and also asking guests to bring food shelf items. The ‘chunkers’ are full of personality and add another element to the show and come from all over the U.S.
The record distance so far is 4,483 feet, approximately 800 feet short of a mile. Ka-boom! That is indeed epic. I have been in the landing zone (behind a protective pole, ya’ know, just in case my bro likes me less than I think he does) of my brother’s trebuchet and the incoming pumpkins sound like a missile coming at you and the explosion can spray the pumpkin about 30 feet in each direction. His trebuchet is a home-designed machine but it hurls pumpkins about 8-900 feet and a vertical height of at least 150’. The counterweight alone weights over 1000 pounds. Next year I think we are going to hold a fundraiser and you can bring your post-Halloween pumpkin out and get it launched for charity – and a few good chuckles. And maybe we’ll serve pumpkin pie!
So tune in on Thanksgiving night and get ready to “Hurl”. Have a great Thanksgiving and enjoy the show!
You can watch a video of this trebuchet on Youtube under; trebuchet, Hudson, WI. Enjoy!
