Right now Van Cortlandt Manor is a swirling orange beehive of carving activity. Pumpkins are being eviserated by the dozens. The carvers are showing absoltutely no mercy. Tom Hunt, resident VCM blacksmith by day and carving fiend and pumpkin chandelier genius by...well, day, also I guess, sent along these snapshots. Don't worry, we'll be learning the stories behind all of these folks in our upcoming Meet the Carvers series.

And yes, that's Vern down there on the right.

With Saturday's opening night shadow looming like that of the Great Pumpkin over Linus, the Blaze team is beating frantic double time down the set up home stretch.

What would a large visitor tent *slash* Café Blaze *slash* Blaze shop *slash* carving station be without a lot of hay? Much less interesting, clearly, so this week, the Blaze gurus imported bales upon bales of the straw stuff to give the tent that fall festive mood.