Here at Old Macdonalds Farm we are all looking forward to the annual Catapult Pumpkin Competition during our Half Term Halloween Festival. This time last year 4 year old Charlotte’s imaginative, if rather strange, idea for our recycling contest won an annual pass for designing something we can use on the farm using recycled products and devised a Catapult built on a tractor! We expected something to do with homes for our animals, not a weapon of mass vegetable destruction, but loved it and built it.
Now a highlight of our October Half Term Halloween Festival is the Pumpkin firing contest, and to enter you must email us at once with your details and a day between 27th October and 31st when you can come here between 2 and 4 and bring a pumpkin, and a child, and we will fire the pumpkin at our Witchy Target down the farm, the nearest to it qualifying for our grand Halloween Night Final. (When I said we are all looking forward to it, the Witch is not so sure!) There is no charge to enter but you must first book, confirm the date and time with us, then bring along your pumpkin!
Old Macdonald has now turned his thoughts to the 2008 competition for children, and adults too, and has reached his decision. He went to the shops the other day to buy rice, cornflakes and milk, then returned to glance at our website and watch TV. He was amazed at how much the price of food had gone up recently (rice he says has doubled in the local shops, and he would know because he does count the coppers) and saw on TV that in many of the rice growing countries it has gone up by 400%! He read our website story about amphibians losing their homes because of action by humans, and saw on the BBC that Orangutan forests are being cut down to grow Palm Oil Trees. He was also shocked at the fate of the Sumatran Rhino, as there are very few left in the world today.
So he thought he would get you all to send him stories and pictures of animals and creatures around the world that are under threat because of mankind’s desire to grow more food and other products, and also information on countries where rice, wheat, maize and other crops are grown and how much prices are going up in these. By the way, World Orangutan Day is November 14th. (We pass our thanks to the photographers for the images above which we hope help illustrate these magnificent animals)
Old Macdonald will then build a giant map of the world, using recycled products, and put your stories and pictures on it. The pictures can be photos or drawings, and anyone can enter. The person who sends in the best story and illustrations will win an annual pass for their family and all entries will be here on the website with the names of those who sent them in plus we will send a day pass to their family. We also invite schools to take this on as a project, and if any school class sends in a number of entries we will give them a free day out at the farm. We at the farm will then raise money to help with preservation projects for these threatened creatures.
So, why not enter this important contest so that you, and we, can learn about our world and the impact of food agriculture on our fellow creatures? Now read on for the story of the creation and building of the amazing, if slightly silly, device that won last year.
The design was done by 4 year old Charlotte Skinner who combined the two passions in her life, our farm and her desire to squash Vikings with a toy catapult to create the amazing Tractorpult. It was to be honest a clear winner, designed by a four year old and built by idiots it was the perfect example of how imaginative approaches can make recycling and environmental issues fun and challenging. So we had to source the parts, and not to use anything new. Our motto was Something Old, Nothing New Something Borrowed and Something Blue (the language of Old Macdonald when he hurt his thumb fixing the winch).
We found a scrapped 1962 Massey Ferguson Model 65 Tractor, then reconditioned the engine, and were given large tyres waiting to be thrown away by a neighbouring farm. We took an exhausted Bungee Rope to power the firing arm, which came from a disused fairground Jets Ride.
The army helped out with parts of a Chieftain Tank they had lying around somewhere, and we cut the tractor in half, lengthened it and welded a frame using the tank parts on the base. The tank also provided the locking device for the catapult.
We borrowed a winch from a friend’s Landrover, and hope he still has not noticed because we still need it, and ensured that the engine of the Tractor runs on old Cooking Oil from the cafe. To be honest, the nuts and bolts are new as is the Pivot Axle because without these it would fall apart!
So that is the Catapult, and if you are wondering about the pumpkins after they are fired, well rest assured they do not go to waste as our goats, sheep and Kune Kune pigs recycle them. They are looking forward to Halloween and their vegetable feast.
When we tried out the Tractorpult, we found it could fire well over 100 metres but this is a little dangerous so we scaled it down to 30 metres, and place a Witchy Target at the end of the farm, the nearest to the target each day reaching our Grand Final on Halloween.
Old Macdonald’s Farm wishes to state that no witches were hurt in the making of this competition, but the pumpkins did not look too good! If you want more details or wish to enter this year, please email oldmacdonalds@btconnect.com as there are a few places left.
i always buy recycled products to reduce the waste materials on this planet.;~*
it is of course wise to always use recycled products because you can always help the environment ,*;