Another of my favourite photo ops at Vala’s Pumpkin Patch is this little flatbed truck with a giant pumpkin on the back deck. Like the little red truck I posted a couple of days ago, it is all steel construction. The pumpkin is made from hand-sculpted fibreglass-reinforced concrete. The duelly truck has a hidden frame underneath to keep the front wheels suspended in the air, supposedly because of the heavy pumpkin on the deck. This feature was a lot of fun to imagine and build!
Harvest barn sign in place
When we started designing and fabricating the signs for Vala’s Pumpkin Patch, our goal was to tell their story and enhance the work they had been doing for many years. There were not many trees on the property when they bought it. Each year, Tim Vala planted scores of trees. Through the decades, the paths became beautifully tree-shaded, and in the fall the colours are fabulous. Many of the signs we’ve designed have a tree structure as a base. Because they are sculpted from steel and concrete, they will never rot. The colours were carefully chosen to mimic the historical wood structures and fences that abound at every turn. We even made sure some of the metal on the brackets was exposed and allowed to develop surface rust to look as old as the rest of the farm. The decorating crew will surround the giant stump with pumpkins just before the fall season opens. And Jack, the farm mascot, sits atop, perfectly balancing a stack of the delicious apple donuts they are famous for.
Stefan's truck
Decades ago, when I was in grade school, I filled the margins of my notebooks with little drawings of antique cars and trucks. As I grew into my older teens and twenties, I was always into cars, especially older ones with the fenders outside the bodies. As we began to build photo ops for numerous themed attractions, a small-scale antique truck or car was often included in the design package and through the years we have built many such vehicles. At Vala’s Pumpkin Patch, we’ve built two so far. This little red beauty sits outside Stefan’s Country Drive, a Model ‘T’ driving experience which is next to the Cider Mill.
