Can’t a unicorn just enjoy his evening walk?
It’s time for The Nest to unveil this year’s official squirrel o’lantern that will sit on my porch tonight and puzzle the neighbors. It’s a tradition I have done almost every year 
since 2009 because I have always enjoyed carving a pumpkin for Halloween, and I seem to have something resembling an above average talent at it. You can see how this year’s punkin stacks up with its predecessors on my squirrel o’lantern page…
Like the last several carvings, this year’s design was a spur of the moment idea thought up as I sat at the table with pumpkin, Sharpie, and enough knives to gut an entire garbage can full of possums. I’d included Rainbow Donkey in my 2013 design, and decided that despite unicorns having zero to do with Halloween, he would make a nice patsy for my “being stalked by evil squirrels” inspiration. I can’t draw a horse worth a diddly damn, but apparently I can carve a mean equine. The squirrels leave a little to be desired, but I’m lucky they’re even there at all since I managed to break the lot of them in three different places… lucky not enough for the pieces to fall off, or really even be noticed…
Alternate shot from my old camera. The extra fiery glow from this camera offsets the lack of focus…
I bought a much bigger pumpkin this year than I usually do, and while that theoretically gave me a bigger canvas to work with (at least, it would have had the non-deformed side of the pumpkin not been the tall, narrow side), it also presented problems with getting the pieces cut out since the shell was pretty thick. The very fine carving saw I use for the intricate parts of the design was barely longer than the thickness of the shell, and quite often I had to fight to get the cut out pieces dislodged. Still…. it seems to have turned out to be another success. We’ll see if it draws any comments from anyone who dares come by The Nest tonight…
So, Happy Halloween from me and all the critters at Evil Squirrel’s Nest! I’ll end this post with a few extras….. first, by request of Marilyn, a repost of last year’s drawing of the three witches creating some nasty ass potion out of Buster:
And for those of you trick or treat Scrooges out there….. this retro comic from 2012 is just for you!
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
uoh what a bad night for the two trickn’treaters..but it’s an idea… I only need a magic wand… Your pumpkin is an artpiece… it should replace theat boring mona lisa in the louvre…
Happy Howl-o-ween and a big bowl with buster-soup please :o)
Da Vinci was a hack… I’ll bet he couldn’t carve a pumpkin or draw a unicorn!
I like your jack-o-lantern. You have a gift. Our jack-o-lantern looks like a primitive wall drawing in comparison to yours.
Not that primitive wall drawings aren’t elegant on their own merits. Showing off one’s fine carving skills isn’t necessarily the way to win the affection of your neighbors either….
You do not need another voice of praise, do you?
Because sure as hell you won’t get it from me – the donkey looks nothing like a donkey – a donkey’s tail is more like a thin piece of string … *grumbles away*
Rainbow Donkey is what they like to call a mutt. His Pa was a donkey, but his Ma was a unicorn. He definitely got his mother’s fluffy tail….
*grumbles something about excuses excuses*
Snorts and rolls with piggy laughter – we love it my evil friend!! Happy Halloween. XOXO – Bacon
Thank you! Nothing scary about unicorns and squirrels, right?
Well I did see some scary unicorns last night. Shivers to murgatroid! XOXO – Bacon
Pawsome craving-well done. As for chasing off the trick-or-treaters…wanna come to Denver? No doubt the doorbell will be going off like crazy tonight driving the dogs to rant on about the noise cutting into their evening naps and how they have to defund the house from all serial killers and not just the mail lady. Happy Howliween 🎃
Thanks! I don’t think I’ll have to worry about my cats barking their heads off at anyone who comes to the door at least…. though it would truly be in the spirit of the holiday if they did!
👻
Much better than my Yoda Cat…
I wouldn’t say that… I’ve never tried to do a double decker punkin before… let alone attach other pumpkin parts onto it. I’m just a knife man…
Well done with the punkin’ carving. Should we be concerned that you are so – um – GOOD with a knife?????? EEEEEEK!
Pam and Teddy-o-ween
The fact that I’m so skilled with a knife and have expert knowledge of every prison in the world is just a coincidence, I assure you. Hobbies of mine……. yeah………. (evil laugh)
EEEEEEEEK!
Nothing says Halloween like squirrels and unicorns! Come to think of it, what do Darth Vader, Barney the Dinosaur, or Elvis have to do with Halloween, either? So I guess this means Halloween is about whatever the heck each individual wants it to be. 😝
Halloween can be about everything! Well, except Santa Claus. Nobody ever dresses up as Santa. I can’t imagine why since the stores are always full of Santa suits and beards this time of the year!
ody N biskit…dadz pumpkin total lee rockz …..N We gotta hand frum copee N paste heer two day …coz we canna sneek round on line… like we want… sew we R stopping bye ta say…. happee howl o ween…. N heerz ta treetz outta pumpkinz wazoo ♥♥♥
Thank you, and happee howl o ween to you all as well!!!
Happy Halloween! I like your pumpkin carving! Very cool! 🙂
Thanks!
Love your pumpkin! I wasn’t bad at carving either, but we live so far from everything, it seems to be a waste, so I quit. But yours is great and it looks just like your critters. Thank you for another run of the witches. They are favorites of mine. And I love you Halloween cartoon too.
Looking like the Dodger’s are gonna take this … and we’re on the way to game 7 … I think.
I leave for work, and a 1-0 lead turns into a 3-1 deficit. It never fails. But Game 7 should be good, and just like last year, I’ll probably get up around the late innings. Hopefully it’s still close by then…
I love your jack-o-lantern! All the little squirrels peeking out everywhere are so cute. You do have a talent for pumpkin carving! I didn’t have the courage to apply knife to pumpkin this year after cutting my thumb while trying to slice an apple a few weeks ago.
Thank you! And it got two compliments almost right away last night by trick or treat chaperones. If it wouldn’t have been in the mid 40’s and most of the rest of my street been dark, it might have gotten some more admirers. I think I had fewer visitors this year than I did the year it rained on Halloween…
Very cool! I love the upside-down squirrel.
A tribute to the bat squirrel I photographed back in August!
Yay! It was nice to see Rainbow Donkey return to the ol’ Jack-o-lantern. Btw, you’re getting really good at these carvings. I can hardly wait to see what’s in store for next year! Hope you had a fabulous Halloween.
Thank you Jennifer, and hope you and the gang had a Happy Halloween as well! I gotta keep the critters alive somehow now that my strip seems to be DOA…
Very impressive pumpkin! I went to the dermatologist on Halloween and the receptionist was wearing a unicorn horn then I went to the psychiatrist where the receptionist was wearing a scary bear outfit. It felt surreal.🐻
I spent the last few minutes that morning helping a witch stock the cosmetics aisle at work, so I know that feeling…
LOL!
Not sure which I like more, your comic or the pumpkin! Well done on the carving again.
Thank you!