It is always an exciting day when I arrive at Vala’s Pumpkin Patch in Nebraska. The excitement builds as the truck full of features pulls onto the farm. The unloading in the parking lot was smooth and quick and then the task was to plan our routes into the farm with the features in tow. Most of the heavy lifting was done with Vala’s telehandler. This massive machine can reach almost fifty feet with our features dangling precariously from the forks. The challenge is maneuvering the large features down the winding, tree-lined gravel paths barely enough to fit the machine. The pumpkin coach was pulled into the general area using a small four-wheel drive tractor, gently lifted over a large stone planter with the telehandler and then pushed by hand down a winding brick road to its new home in the story land area of the farm. The three-piece dragon was more difficult as the telehandler needed to be jackknifed on the path and then we lifted each section of the dragon over a ten-foot-high fence onto the concrete pads hiding behind. The big machine was too noisy for verbal communication and hand signals from the guiding crew could not be seen through the tall fence. The most effective plan of attack was to move a few inches, run a hundred feet around the fence to check and then move a little more and then repeat the process until the pieces of the dragon had landed perfectly. This was done with each of the three sections to complete the installation. The rest of the pieces were comparatively a breeze to install and by day’s end, the large pieces were safely in place. We are on to the smaller pieces tomorrow and then some planning for the next adventure at the farm.
