00:10 - The oldest marker in the old public graveyard in carlisle goes back to

00:15 - seventeen fifty seven

00:17 - just a few years after carlisle was f founded.

00:21 - The name doesn't suggest that prominent figures have their final resting place there

00:26 - but don't let the plane anonymous name mislead you.

00:30 - In addition to important citizens from carlisle

00:33 - and veterans that go all the way back to the birth of our nation

00:36 - there's a woman there with a special monument that pays tribute

00:40 - to her bravery.

00:42 - Molly pitcher is a

00:43 - fascinating topic because.

00:46 - It is one of those stories that mixes fact.

00:50 - With

00:51 - legend or myth.

00:53 - She was.

00:54 - A woman who

00:56 - would have done what they called follow the drum.

00:58 - She was a camp follower

01:00 - her husband

01:01 - william iam.

01:03 - Hayes was a member of proctors artillery.

01:07 - And on his way to the battle of monmouth and seventeen seventy eight.

01:12 - She follows him

01:13 - she ends up on a battlefield which would have been extremely rare at the time.

01:18 - What she does on the battlefield we aren't quite sure of.

01:22 - Where legend says she had been taking pictures of water to

01:27 - the the wounded in the dying.

01:29 - And when her husband gets wounded she

01:31 - takes over his role and man's a candidate.

01:35 - Modern historians.

01:38 - Pretty much agree that that's

01:39 - not likely the case

01:41 - but she was on the battlefield

01:44 - and we know that through a couple of bits of evidence.

01:47 - One she gets a pension.

01:49 - Which will be very rare for a woman.

01:52 - Now even in the pension paperwork it says.

01:55 - This is for the relief of molly

01:57 - molly pitcher

01:59 - for what she did on the battlefield.

02:01 - They do not go into any detail about what she did on the battlefield.

02:06 - There's also some.

02:07 - Soldiers writings.

02:09 - A diary by a man named

02:11 - joseph plum martin

02:13 - and is published book

02:14 - private yankee doodle.

02:16 - Mentions watching this woman on the battlefield.

02:19 - During the battle.

02:21 - With the.

02:22 - Balls headed right at.

02:24 - The very interesting take on it.

02:26 - I wonder how molly pictures husband felt about her following him on the battlefield

02:30 - since it was such a rare occurrence

02:32 - for a fiend now to be on the battlefield.

02:35 - From all accounts she was.

02:37 - A very tough woman

02:39 - local reports have her as

02:41 - she could

02:42 - swear like a trooper.

02:44 - Had a fondness for drinking whiskey

02:46 - and occasionally would chew tobacco so.

02:49 - She was probably tougher than you know a lot of people might imagine the a woman.

02:54 - The lead seventeen hundreds would have been.

02:56 - So here we are still talking about one hundreds of years later and yet I understand

03:00 - her name is invoked during

03:02 - as recently as world war two

03:03 - which is still eighty years ago

03:05 - but we still have this consciousness about or don't wait

03:07 - yes

03:08 - and

03:09 - you know I would argue that.

03:11 - She really becomes a representative of.

03:13 - Of the women's role during the american revolution.

03:18 - You know there were many women following the army.

03:21 - I've seen estimates as high as you know twenty twenty five thousand women following

03:26 - the continental army doing these

03:28 - vital support roles.

03:30 - Molly pitcher yourself doesn't really even become famous so after the civil.

03:34 - When we're trying to kind of

03:35 - reframe the story of america

03:38 - and a lot of wise people are realizing.

03:41 - Our women are left out of those stories.

03:44 - And I would argue she becomes a representative.

03:46 - Of those women.

03:48 - Earlier you made the important distinction between establishing what is fact and what

03:52 - is fiction and of course a legend

03:54 - a molly pitcher

03:55 - and I wonder if their stories out there that maybe there very entertaining but

03:59 - historians find them dubious.

04:01 - Yes.

04:02 - Even the simple fact of manning a canon.

04:06 - Canon crew was many soldiers

04:09 - to operate a cannon

04:10 - efficiently and accurately.

04:12 - One person is not going to be able to

04:15 - step into that role

04:17 - and.

04:18 - Say save the day as the story would go.

04:21 - Now eventually she collected a pension that sounds like

04:23 - from the government then which legitimize is her involvement doesn't it

04:27 - yes and.

04:28 - That was after her second husband.

04:31 - Had passed away

04:32 - on this was.

04:34 - A relief act

04:35 - for.

04:36 - Her name of the time would have been

04:38 - met mary mccauley.

04:40 - And how did her first husband the one she followed into battle

04:43 - how did he fair that he come out of life.

04:45 - He comes out alive but he does pass away soon after the war.

04:50 - They returned to carlisle where he was employed as a barber.

04:54 - But then of course.

04:55 - Not a lot is written about

04:57 - hardworking people of the time

04:59 - so we don't really know how he passes away.

05:02 - Molly pitcher is buried in carlisle and she has in the old public graveyard.

05:07 - Of

05:07 - pretty formidable monument and I wonder what forces made that possible when

05:12 - the that go up and how much thought was put

05:16 - into the design the monument can you tell us.

05:17 - The kind of the f effort for a monument starts so around eighteen seventy six.

05:23 - And will last all the way through world war one.

05:26 - There was a very involved.

05:28 - Effort to get a

05:30 - very real likeness

05:32 - of molly pitcher.

05:33 - And from my understanding and some photos I've seen.

05:37 - They

05:38 - have had photos of several generation of the haze women

05:42 - her birth name would have been married ludwig.

05:44 - As far as we know.

05:46 - When she married william h she becomes

05:48 - mary hayes.

05:49 - Then she will be eventually become.

05:51 - Mary mccauley.

05:53 - And in there are descendants from the haze family still

05:56 - in this area.

05:58 - And so around the turn of the century they are compiling these for generations of

06:03 - hayes women photographs.

06:06 - And

06:07 - that is the likeness they come up with molly pitcher

06:10 - and what kind of significance do you suppose the named molly

06:13 - pitcher.

06:14 - Creates in someone's mind when they hear that name and

06:17 - and obviously it's the impression of a strong female.

06:20 - Definitely.

06:21 - Even.

06:22 - The united states army has an award

06:24 - for molly pitcher.

06:26 - And it

06:27 - goes to the very root of

06:29 - volunteerism

06:30 - for the armed services

06:32 - and I believe that has to be involved with the artillery school.

06:36 - On so if you do what they deem to be

06:39 - very very consequent

06:40 - consequential volunteerism

06:42 - you can earn.

06:44 - A modeling picture award.

06:46 - We have a

06:47 - portrait from

06:48 - one of our local artists in the nineteen thirties.

06:51 - When I give.

06:53 - Tours to

06:54 - our local students.

06:56 - It's one of those teaching moments where you can say a lot of what's

06:59 - in this painting is not accurate with

07:02 - soldiers fighting beside a.

07:05 - Scalding hot canon

07:07 - with their shirts off.

07:09 - And

07:09 - it really plays up to the the legend aspect of.

07:13 - The picture.

07:14 - Let's talk about another prominent person who's buried in the old public graveyard

07:18 - and that would be

07:19 - general

07:20 - john armstrong who was say.

07:22 - General john armstrong.

07:24 - Would be considered the first citizen of carlisle

07:28 - he

07:29 - had many rules over his lifetime.

07:32 - He was deputy surveyor of cumberland county.

07:35 - From its founding and seventeen fifty.

07:38 - He lays out the town of carlisle and seventeen

07:42 - fifty one and fifty two.

07:44 - Which actually gives us

07:45 - a kind of a a unique

07:47 - architecture I guess would be.

07:49 - We don't know if he kind of misunderstood the

07:54 - instructions or just plainly disobeyed them.

07:55 - But he was supposed to lay out a town green in the center of carlisle.

08:01 - Much like a around about in some of our smaller towns would have.

08:05 - A.

08:06 - Oddly he laid out an intersection.

08:09 - So the responsibility for having a public green and carlisle laid on the two churches

08:14 - that were built on our square that they had to reserve.

08:17 - They're.

08:18 - Of their churchyards as a public space as as well.

08:22 - He was

08:23 - one of these guys that when anything important what's happening he was there.

08:28 - During the french and indian war time period.

08:31 - He is on

08:32 - the braddock expedition to.

08:35 - Kick the french out of forty ten.

08:37 - For the

08:38 - that ends up in you know tragedy.

08:41 - But then the kind of.

08:42 - Second attempt

08:44 - to kick out the french the forbes campaign he has also along with

08:48 - that one was successful in

08:50 - uprooting the french from western pennsylvania.

08:53 - Once the.

08:55 - Revolutionary wars on the horizon he is one of

08:58 - cumberland counties.

09:00 - Constitutional representatives center philadelphia.

09:04 - When we're forming an army he becomes a brigadier general.

09:07 - In the continental army

09:09 - he was the major general of the pennsylvania militia.

09:13 - He was a local judge

09:15 - that he had many.

09:16 - Many roles.

09:18 - Or.

09:18 - Let's talk about someone else that buried in the old public graveyard and that would

09:22 - be frederick what's what is the as significance.

09:25 - He's he's fascinated.

09:27 - He was a lawyer.

09:29 - A judge.

09:31 - He was also an entrepreneur he was responsible for

09:35 - bringing the cumberland valley railroad.

09:37 - Through this area.

09:39 - He was the founder of the carlyle gasworks

09:42 - to provide lighting.

09:44 - But perhaps where he really becomes notable is in the field of agriculture.

09:49 - He was an experimental farmer.

09:53 - What we might consider like a gentleman farmer.

09:56 - And he is one of these.

09:58 - Visionaries that realizes that

10:00 - farmers are going to need to upgrade

10:03 - their technology.

10:05 - Or you're not going to be able to be a successful farmer

10:07 - like your grandfather was

10:09 - I wonder what was considered revolutionary

10:13 - agricultural process in those days trying to.

10:14 - Of

10:14 - chemical fertilizers.

10:16 - And

10:17 - even just innovations in the machinery itself.

10:21 - Where he really becomes known as.

10:26 - With the invention of what's known as the mccormick reaper.

10:30 - My name's cyrus mccormick.

10:32 - Invents this machine.

10:33 - That would harvest green.

10:37 - Doing about the work of five men.

10:40 - So needing to men in a horse to do the work of five men

10:44 - and it's first ever testing was here.

10:47 - Right outside of carlisle on.

10:49 - What's experimental farm.

10:51 - Known as creekside.

10:53 - He built it with some really innovative practices he

10:56 - he faced the farmhouse south so that it would have

11:00 - passive solar heating

11:02 - and.

11:02 - He had

11:03 - arguably the largest born in pennsylvania at the time.

11:08 - He also realize that we needed to set up a system to educate young men

11:13 - in these new ways

11:15 - of farming.

11:16 - And so he advocates for what was known as the farmers high school.

11:20 - Which will.

11:22 - Eventually due to the

11:24 - real act of eighteen sixty to.

11:26 - Become known as.

11:28 - The pencil of.

11:29 - State university.

11:35 - A gourd is a hard shelled fruit that can be made into a variety of useful objects

11:40 - cups bottles and bird houses are just a few

11:44 - but here are some unusual gourd applications you can add here wealth of gordon trivia

11:48 - like for instance gorge were used as currency

11:51 - in haiti in the eighteen hundreds.

11:54 - Even today their unit of currency is caught a gourd

11:57 - spelled with and e at the end

11:59 - and the next time you see ricky ricardo pounding his

12:02 - congo drama the tv sitcom I love lucy.

12:05 - That's right

12:06 - it was made from a gourd.

12:07 - Here at medical records and carlisle

12:10 - they turned gourds into handcraft

12:11 - the decorations.

12:14 - So a gourd

12:15 - is

12:16 - very much like a pumpkin or squash it's

12:19 - in the same type of family with than.

12:21 - The differences I had their cousins kind of

12:24 - and.

12:25 - Because a pumpkin or squash when it is past its prime will.

12:30 - Just.

12:31 - Like.

12:32 - Shrivel up and die.

12:34 - Were as a hard shell gourd will actually harden over winter

12:38 - and epic their skin and the shell of the gourd actually

12:41 - becomes very much like would.

12:44 - I picked up one of the raw gordon's here in your shop

12:47 - and I was shocked at how light it was I expected it to be three or five pounds

12:51 - but it was featherlight.

12:52 - It is.

12:53 - Now if you are go out into the field right now.

12:57 - They almost there are very heavy because they are filled with water my almost like a

13:01 - watermelon.

13:03 - So it takes all winter long for that water and everything inside of the gourd

13:08 - to kind of dry up and

13:10 - and.

13:11 - Absorb.

13:13 - And then as soon as all that drying.

13:16 - Is finished we can.

13:19 - Bring them inside and there are much lighter.

13:21 - So that is why.

13:23 - Right now they're actually.

13:24 - Cutting the gorge off the vine.

13:27 - Because we're in fall so everything has pretty much died away.

13:31 - But we just line them up because the bring him and now it would be very heavy for

13:35 - us to bring them in.

13:36 - So we wait on the to they're completely dry to bring the man which is normally like.

13:41 - February or march when we can get back into the field.

13:44 - Now my understanding about a gourd is that

13:46 - it's a hard

13:47 - shelled fruits and want to hear the word fruit

13:49 - it sounds like it's edible

13:51 - but I'm not convinced you do not want to do that.

13:53 - Yeah

13:54 - and

13:55 - I didn't do some research cause I get this question a lot

13:58 - so I get do some research and in some indian cultures

14:02 - they do make teas and soups out of them

14:05 - they make them out of bottle gourd when they are fresh

14:08 - and but it is so there is stuff inside the gourd that can be scooped out

14:11 - then you

14:12 - get there is.

14:13 - It is more or less like the flesh just like a pumpkin if you would think about a

14:17 - pumpkin that's exactly how it is.

14:19 - But it's very very better

14:22 - and so in fact sometimes if you would eat too much of it it could become fatal.

14:28 - So and therefore that's why I think it's bitter because they don't want people to to

14:32 - eat it.

14:33 - Too it really he has no purpose except for decoration.

14:37 - But now back in many many many years ago with native americans.

14:41 - They use them as spoons they use them as dishes.

14:45 - So how did you get started here at meadow brook gourds it just strikes me as a fairly

14:49 - unorthodox business the been.

14:52 - So my brother-in-law is a farmer by to right he has farmed his entire life his name

14:56 - is ben.

14:57 - And.

14:58 - So he used to grow everything like tomatoes green beans peas blueberries strawberries

15:03 - you know the whole produce line.

15:05 - He made a trip to new england and brought back what some people would know what a

15:10 - gooseneck gourd is.

15:12 - It's a gourd that actually has like a neck on it and then kind of a bulb at the end

15:16 - to it looks like a goose

15:18 - and he bought a couple of then brought them back.

15:21 - Planted them and he sold them fresh in the fall.

15:25 - And because people would decorate with gorge in the fall which is what

15:29 - a lot of people still do today.

15:32 - And.

15:33 - He happened to have some that did not sell so they dried over the winter because he

15:37 - left them out.

15:38 - He's also a carpenter so he took.

15:41 - These dry gorge into his shop in his garage at home.

15:46 - And started playing around with them

15:49 - I wonder what attracted him in the first place to.

15:52 - Kind of extrapolate the whole idea of working with a gore yeah he is an inventor he

15:57 - and his mind does not stop it's always going.

16:01 - So

16:02 - one time we had a customer come in and they called him a tinker pinot noir.

16:06 - Because he tinkers.

16:08 - Until he finds something that works

16:11 - and so I can remember the very first time we went to shows one of the first things we

16:16 - made were.

16:17 - A jack-o-lantern baskets.

16:19 - And when we first when.

16:21 - We didn't know how to even make them set so we put stones in the bottom of them to

16:25 - make 'em set.

16:26 - Of course we have learned a lot since then

16:28 - so that has not.

16:30 - You know we no longer happen because these things were so like yeah the anchor him

16:33 - down yeah so we figured out a way to sand

16:38 - them and make them sit flat and so forth but.

16:39 - People love them.

16:41 - We are unique because we actually grow.

16:44 - Craft.

16:45 - Ship.

16:46 - Everything is done here on the farm

16:49 - and and we are also the

16:51 - only company in the world.

16:53 - That crafts as there are major.

16:56 - Business.

16:57 - Now dory try to give us an idea of the scope and the mag the to to the business here

17:02 - I mean the room we're in right now we're we're surrounded by thousands of boards and

17:06 - a feeling

17:06 - that's just the tip of the iceberg yes yeah we actually have two.

17:10 - Very large buildings.

17:13 - That are outside.

17:15 - The kind of like a corn crib but ours is or board

17:18 - cribs them

17:19 - but and they are from floor to ceiling with bins this size bins from floor to ceiling

17:25 - filled with gorge just sitting there waiting for us to wash them to craft them to

17:30 - finish them out to ship

17:32 - and about how long does that take once you take a a raw gourd off the shelf that's

17:36 - been dried sufficiently

17:38 - then you gotta go to work on it what kind of tools is.

17:42 - Most of them are woodworking tools like jigsaw bandsaw a hole saws.

17:47 - Do.

17:48 - Drills.

17:49 - Now it occurs to be walking around your shop yeah.

17:52 - All these different shaped gourd so that's got to bring out.

17:55 - A certain inspiration and whoever's going to decorate that something must come to

17:59 - mind it's almost like

18:00 - an inkblot test you look at a certain shaped gourd

18:03 - and you go I have a good idea for that gourd

18:05 - yeah and we have

18:06 - two main designers are ben who I

18:09 - told you before

18:10 - the founder

18:11 - and his daughter ashley.

18:14 - Who also helps him farm.

18:16 - They are are two main designers so.

18:19 - Since they also do the farming they kind of know what they've grown.

18:22 - So you know as they're picking up in there

18:26 - you know pulling things in and looking at the different gourd that actually grew over

18:30 - the last year

18:31 - and.

18:32 - They start getting ideas

18:34 - and I'm not sure quite how they do it all the time because

18:38 - they.

18:39 - Always have new ideas.

18:41 - After cut faces into these gourds and and draw other decorations on them.

18:46 - It seems like some of them have.

18:48 - A semi.

18:50 - Gloss finish on them so it looks like

18:52 - they're painted with some kind of

18:54 - preservative is that just for the appearance or does that help preserve that the

18:58 - decoration of some of our gore a lot of our boards are died

19:01 - so if you you don't put some kind of a finish on it every time you touch it the die

19:05 - comes off on your fingers.

19:07 - So we do it

19:08 - we do use a satin

19:10 - polyacrylic.

19:11 - On most of our gourds so that it seals the diane

19:15 - and it also just helps her from scratching it and so forth.

19:18 - So once the gourd is finished and it has this

19:22 - code on the outside

19:23 - is this something I can display in my house

19:25 - indefinitely

19:26 - I mean how long does it last cause again it

19:30 - occurs to me going back to our original point

19:31 - that is a hard shell fruit so this is an organic think.

19:34 - It is and I've had some of my gourds for over thirty years

19:38 - so we started the business thirty years ago but ben actually started playing with

19:42 - these about two years before that to some of my gourds.

19:45 - That I have our thirty to thirty two years old.

19:48 - And they still look brand new

19:51 - they

19:52 - as long as you store them properly they will last forever.

19:55 - So it's funny because we have customers now.

19:58 - That started with us at the beginning and then they had children to they passed them

20:03 - down to their children

20:04 - and now they're passing them on to their children.

20:07 - So we have

20:08 - two different kind of sets of of customers

20:11 - we have one set

20:12 - who comes just as this room

20:14 - and in this room is just.

20:16 - Awards and so anybody who likes to craft gourds will come they will buy all of this

20:21 - and and

20:23 - they make whatever they want you with it this you know.

20:26 - It's endless what they can do

20:28 - and then we have people who come and they

20:30 - want nothing to do with this area they're heading strictly to the finished once.

20:35 - And

20:35 - it all depends on this season as to what they gravitate to.

20:39 - So.

20:40 - You know like right now of course

20:41 - in the wintertime

20:43 - snowmen.

20:44 - Our our huge and.

20:46 - We have.

20:47 - Littles that we started making about three years ago and they're are great because

20:52 - you can use them or christmas trees are you can sit them around.

20:55 - In the fall jacqueline ones

20:57 - are are real big.

20:59 - You get to spring and then we have easter bunnies and checks

21:04 - and.

21:04 - It's it's it all really depends on the the year but the more unique the gourd.

21:10 - The more they gravitate to it.

21:12 - And give us an example i'm curious now what might be a more

21:15 - unique gordon maybe it's the shape of the gordon of course he told us about the

21:19 - the goal scored the

21:20 - does resemble a goose right because it has that long it's not a stem exactly it's.

21:24 - Mentioned the gordon

21:25 - exactly

21:26 - I shall issue we came out with bat.

21:29 - And people love the bat

21:32 - and

21:33 - we this

21:34 - this coming year we're going to be doing an elf and they they really gravitate

21:38 - towards the elf they like the else.

21:41 - They we have deer we have moose.

21:44 - We have a hippo.

21:46 - We've had elephants before we have farm animals

21:49 - so you know it it is all kind of whatever

21:55 - people like and how they are home is decorated.

21:56 - Now for the customer the does take a do it yourself approach

21:59 - will they come in this room or and now and get a raw gordon they want to make

22:03 - something out of it

22:04 - do the handcrafting themselves

22:06 - do you

22:06 - teach the techniques that might be involved or or maybe recommend some tools.

22:11 - We can do that a lot of time to if they're already coming into this room they already

22:16 - know what's going on

22:17 - but we also have what we call a crafters corner

22:20 - and that is where we have kids

22:22 - so we have everything to do so all the cutting is done.

22:27 - All they really have to do is is painted it

22:30 - assemble it and accessorize.

22:32 - Let's go back to grow growing these gory

22:34 - gory what what does it take and

22:36 - do you sometimes have a bad guy drop for some year in other words what's ideal

22:39 - growing conditions

22:40 - for gourds and how many of your harvest at a time.

22:43 - We probably grow aren't going to say anywhere from like fifteen to thirty acres every

22:48 - year depending on the year

22:50 - and what the year before did I wonder how many gourds that translates I have no idea.

22:55 - When you plant one gourd

22:57 - a year going to get.

22:58 - Hundreds on one plant

23:00 - but if you're looking at some of the bigger

23:03 - larger one you

23:04 - may only get like five.

23:07 - On one plant but you like big and small anyway oh yeah so we plant all different

23:11 - types of gourds.

23:13 - There are

23:13 - hundreds of different types so we we grow

23:18 - only what we really used to craft are gourds.

23:19 - And.

23:20 - We play we start our gorge in the greenhouse in may.

23:25 - And they do not like cold weather at all so if you try and put them out in cold

23:28 - weather they will die

23:30 - and we let them grow in

23:32 - may and then june we actually start planning them outside.

23:37 - And

23:37 - come july

23:39 - and.

23:40 - They are in the ground and there they've been growing they're going to start

23:43 - flowering now we actually grow.

23:46 - Have a.

23:46 - About maybe six to eight high school kid to come in

23:50 - and they actually hand pollinate are gourds.

23:53 - Ham parliament.

23:54 - Hand pollinating means going and

23:57 - finding that bellflower flower.

24:00 - Taking either a paintbrush or a q-tip around the stamen

24:03 - of the mail flour

24:05 - and then going and that one male can do about two to three female flowers so then you

24:10 - take that paintbrush or q-tip

24:12 - and go around.

24:13 - The little they're like little fingers inside the female

24:17 - to pollinate it.

24:19 - You have one chance at this they open up one time the flour

24:23 - and they open up in the evening.

24:25 - So our guys our crew comes in around four

24:29 - and does it for a couple hours each one of them does a call about a thousand go of

24:33 - of thousand flowers a night.

24:36 - And

24:36 - so they.

24:38 - If you don't pollinate that particular flower

24:41 - just frivolous up and it dies.

24:44 - And

24:44 - what a lot of people don't realize is that gorge are pollinated by moths.

24:50 - Which come out in the evening therefore that's why they open up then.

24:53 - Show but the paul

24:54 - they don't actually get to our area until about august.

24:58 - With which

24:59 - makes our growing season a lot shorter and plus we've missed out on all of the gourds

25:03 - that could have been growing from july to august when the moths actually get here.

25:08 - Once we start seeing the moths them we stopped because they do it much faster than

25:12 - what we do.

25:13 - See it didn't occur to me the moths would pollen a gourds.

25:16 - Yeah.

25:17 - It's a

25:18 - a sphinx

25:18 - moth.

25:20 - Specific kind of a specific type of moth

25:24 - and so once they then once they are pollinated then they grow all summer long

25:29 - once the vine dies after the hard frost

25:33 - and

25:33 - the.

25:34 - Vine dies away and that is what they're doing right now cause we are in

25:38 - november

25:39 - at this point.

25:41 - They cut them off the vine

25:42 - and line them up and then they stay out there all winter to dry.

25:46 - Then we have those same crew come back in and

25:49 - like february march

25:51 - and then they start picking them all up and they are picked up according to size and

25:55 - shape and then they're sorted.

25:57 - And then stored in our big buildings.

25:59 - Yeah we started out with five people.

26:01 - Now we have over twenty we started out with about twenty products now we have about

26:06 - two hundred and fifty.

26:07 - So.

26:08 - There is a

26:10 - vast amount of.

26:12 - Knowledge that was gained in those thirty years

26:15 - how we now put gorge together

26:18 - and.

26:19 - You know we we had a lot of to times where.

26:22 - We try things and it was like oh

26:24 - that's just not going to work.

26:26 - You know what you have to experiment I do in the early years

26:30 - that's how it was you kind of tried something if it worked great and if it didn't

26:34 - then you moved onto the next thing

26:37 - and that's that's what it was but

26:39 - yeah there's been a lot of changes.

26:41 - As to how we do everything and a just put things together

26:45 - and then just trying to teach somebody.

26:47 - Cause gourd crafting is not something you normally go to school for.

26:50 - Tell me about

26:51 - tell me about some of the reactions you see on customers'

26:54 - faces

26:54 - especially the ones

26:56 - that are really discovering the gourd

26:58 - for the first time

26:59 - and it's really it's really fun and

27:01 - to have them I sit

27:03 - right inside the front door so

27:05 - I get a lot of

27:06 - oh my I

27:07 - didn't know you could do this many things with gourds

27:10 - like you know they they're thinking bird houses and maybe a jack-o-lantern or snowman

27:16 - but they don't realize the extent of what you can actually do

27:20 - and that is probably the big this.

27:22 - Thing that kind of excites me still.

27:25 - Is just watching the people who and all over arm or

27:29 - try and figure out where they're going to put them in their house or

27:31 - you know who they're going to buy this gift for.

27:35 - It it's just

27:36 - it's a lot of fun to watch.

27:53 - And.