Hand Saw and Pumpkins - Why?

For about the last week, every time I see the 2 pie pumpkins on my front step, I've been thinking about cooking them up to make pumpkin puree. My mom always says that it's so much better than the canned stuff and I figure it would be something the kids and I could do together. So, for whatever reason, tonight was The Night for cooking the pumpkins. I bring the pumpkins in from outside and the tirade of questions from Payton starts,

'What are you going to do with those?
'We are going to cook them.
'Why?'
You have to cook the pumpkin in order to use it to make pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread and other recipes.
'Why?'
Because mommy wants to make yummy things with the pumpkins.
'Why?'

I know that this is normal for this age, but sometimes the questions are too much.

I grab the biggest, heaviest knife I own to try to cut the pumpkins in half. The blade barely scratches the surface. Then I think, maybe I can use our electric knife. Yeah, no. That doesn't any better than the first knife. Then I try to hack it a couple of times with the biggest, heaviest knife. It works, kinda. But I keep thinking, I wish I had a hatchet.

During this whole process, Miss Questions continues:

'Mom, what are you doing?'
I'm trying to cut open the pumpkin.
'Why?'
To get the seeds out.
'Why?'
So I can cook the pumpkin. I can't cook it with the seeds in.
'Why?'
Because you can't! Payton, stand back! (As I begin the hacking.)
'I want to see.'
Payton, I don't want you to get hurt in case this knife goes flying.
'Why?'

Ian, in the meantime, is playing with his trains.

I give up on the knives, but don't want to give up on the project (that would be sending the wrong message to Payton). So I call my parents because they always seem to have good practical advice in these types of situations. It doesn't take long for them to assess the situation and Dad had the idea of using a hand saw. He said it works well when he saws turkeys in half when he wants to smoke them. If the saw is good enough for turkeys, why not a pumpkin or two.

I get the kids to follow me to the garage, pumpkins in had. The kids are a little confused, especially Payton, but she drops the questions for a while while she rides her bicycle around the garage. Ian is equally entertained by a tricycle, so I lay out some paper towels and start sawing away. This method actually works quite well (don't worry Scott, I washed the saw when I was done).

The rest of the preparations for cooking the pumpkin are pretty easy: scrape out the seeds and pumpkin guts and then roast on a cookie sheet, with a little water, covered in Al foil. This sounds easy and I know it is, but it always takes longer than you anticipate. Pumpkin guts are sometimes not so easy to remove and somehow I always forget this from one year to the next. Of course, the kids had lost all interest in anything I was doing at this point. Daddy was on-call this evening and didn't get to help with any of the festivities. Therefore, they wanted me to them entertained which made things take a bit longer.

Oh well, the pumpkins are cooked and pureed. I have 6 cups of beautiful yellow, pumpkin puree that I will make a yummy pumpkin pie with and maybe some pumpkin bars :)