Before and after

I've always enjoyed carving pumpkins, but I've never had the patience or the talent to complete intricate designs like this one at our local pumpkin lot. My pumpkins usually have simple faces with either circular or triangular openings. If they're lucky, they even have a couple of teeth.

But the real challenge, for me, is after they're all carved. One year, my jack-o-lanterns exploded all over the front porch on Halloween night, leaving bits of pumpkin filling all over the walls. The next year, they all melted into piles of goo that ran down the furniture they were displayed on.

Next month, I'll show you my solution to this problem.