Taking aim for Pumpkin Chucking

Mardi Suhs | Cadillac News Above, Mike Felsk has created a new, gigantic trebuchet for chucking huge pumpkins long distances. With a 2,500 concrete cement counter weight and a 30-foot arm, the device can send a 30-pound pumpkin sailing 262 yards.

CADILLAC — For The Felsk family, Barbie and John and his brother Mike, Halloween was a time of celebration and joy.

Every October they raised a huge tent on their Pleasant Lake farm and filled it with pumpkins and freshly baked cinnamon rolls.

The coffee pot was never empty.

A renovated barn served as a quaint gift shop packed with the family’s handcrafted Christmas decorations, Barbie’s hand sewn teddy bears and carved gourds and “Uncle Mike’s” artwork, his furniture crafted of wood.

The Felsk Emporium was a growing and thriving business. And John was the driving force. He lovingly cared for his gardens and sold vegetables in a large cart by the road. After his retirement in 2001 the gardens expanded. He created trails and pathways for people to come and enjoy the surroundings.

Although the October celebration was popular, people flocked to the farm on the first Saturday in November, hauling scorched and tired Jack-O’Lanterns for pumpkin chucking.

This season, the Felsk Emporium will again open Saturday for one day of celebration and pumpkin chucking.

But opening this year has been difficult and heartbreaking for Mike and Barbie.

Last November John suffered a fatal heart attack while deer hunting in the Upper Peninsula.

John’s widow has been engulfed in grief, a grief so deep and painful that she closed up the farm and in a rage, tore the price tags off everything in the shops.

Her dream was over.

“I’ve never felt anything like this in my entire life,” she admitted. “People say to give it a year and that time heals. I don’t feel any different today than the day it happened. I get through by telling myself he’s coming back from hunting.”

It’s not that Barbie doesn’t count her blessings. Her family, her four children and grandchild, her co-workers, friends and neighbors, everyone has been there for her and John’s brother and best friend, Mike.

“Mike and I are busy morning to night,” Barbie explained. “I’m up at 4:30 and I go to bed at 2 a.m. That’s how I cope. I try not to stop moving so when my kids come I look tough for them.”

But Barbie doesn’t look tough. She looks small and vulnerable, and hurting.

But slowly, with encouragement from those who love her, she has started working on her art in the studio John built for her. Now she’s painting and wood burning.

“It’s a lot easier for other people to heal when they see a smile on your face,” Barbie said. “People feel better when they see you feeling better.”

Both Mike and Barbie feel that John would be proud of what they have accomplished on the farm without him — the little jobs he started that they have finished. He would be proud of his son Joshua, who finished the work necessary to have the farm certified by the Michigan Groundwater Stewardship Program. He would be proud of the new sign on the property that states: Felsk Family Farm — Environmentally Verified.” And they think he would be pleased that they are open again.

“People cared about John,” Barbie reflected. “They want to see this place and they don’t want to see it end. We want people to know that Mike and I are doing all right.”

“For us to even open this again,” added Mike, “our neighbors and friends are a huge part of us keeping going. We’ve had tremendous help from everybody.”

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Pumpkin Chucking