[KwartzLab] pumpkins for Hacky Halloween

[doug moen]

I talked to the guy at Nauman's farm.  Their best offer is this:
 * Early on Saturday Oct 29: get a pickup truck from a rental agency.
 * 9am on Saturday, we show up at the farm with the truck, they load
us up with pumpkins.  We pay for all the pumpkins (half price).
 * After the event, before they close, we bring back any pumpkins we
didn't use, and they dispose of them.  No refunds, but they don't
charge us for accepting waste, either, and they help us unload.

They charge for pumpkins based on size. The smallest pumpkin that is
easy to carve is $4.  The $5 pumpkin looks like a reasonable size (not
too small or large).  So 100 $5 pumpkins will cost $250.  We let them
know in advance how many pumpkins of what size we will need, and they
ensure that those pumpkins are available and waiting for us when we
show up.

That's a completely workable plan. It requires $250 for pumpkins
(unless we get < 100), plus truck rental, plus it's a full day's work
for at least one volunteer.

I'm not sure that we'll find a pumpkin farm desperate enough to
dedicate a truck and a worker to spend a day at our event in exchange
for the opportunity to sell 100 pumpkins, on what is probably a very
busy day for pumpkin sales.  (The dynamics change if we hold the event
at a pumpkin farm, but I'm not pursuing that idea.)

However, I will continue talking to pumpkin farms to see if there is a
better deal out there.

Doug.