The Trouble With Pumpkins

Please meet our happy scarecrow, who gets to come out each fall and smile at the world. Next to him is our surviving pumpkin. There was another pumpkin, but it rotted a few days after we set it out! We are a bit frustrated with our annual misfortune with pumpkins. This happened last year too. All our neighbors say, "Oh, our pumpkins last all fall!" Ours rot after a week. Maybe it's because our porch gets full sun and becomes really hot. John says maybe the pumpkins are frightened by the scarecrow. Who knows. I came home from running errands on Saturday and could smell bread baking as I walked up the front sidewalk, since the door was open. That is, I could smell it until I got too close to the pumpkin! Then I decided maybe we should enter a fall decoration contest and submit an entry for "Pumpkin with Greatest Stink."