The Yankee Siege, the winner of the 2008 'Punkin Chunkin' competition

October 6, 9:38 AMNew Ipswich Community ExaminerJohn Poltrack

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Every weekend in October from 1-5 PM, the Yankee Siege trebuchet located in Greenfield NH hurls 10 pound pumpkins at a castle constructed of discarded oil tanks. Most of the pumpkins fly far past the castle into the woods which is not surprising since the Yankee Siege is the 2008 "Punkin Chunkin" world champion (1897 feet).  This competition is held in Delaware and has been featured on the Discovery channel.

The trebuchet is a medieval siege machine used to hurl rocks at fortified castle walls. It was also creatively used to hurl plague ridden horses, prisoners and manure which must have been rather unpleasant for the castle dwellers. These machines are sometimes confused with the less effective catapults which depend upon the tension of twisted rope. The trebuchet is a lever and uses gravity for it's power. It's basically a seesaw with a VERY heavy weight on one side and a long throwing arm fitted with a sling on the other. The Yankee Siege was constructed by the Seigars family of Yankee Farmer which owns the farm in Greenfield (and provides the pumpkins). The pumpkin of choice for "chunkin" is the ghostly white lumina variety  which tends not to fly apart upon acceleration.

On Sunday  I made an unsuccessful attempt to capture a photo of a hurled pumpkin in flight. I tried to find an online  video link of the Yankee Siege in action, but most were of low quality. Instead I'm including a YouTube video of an episode of the the 1992 television series of "Northern Exposure", in which the character Chris Stevens makes the statement "It's not the thing you fling; it's the fling itself" as they launch an upright piano into the air with a trebuchet. This is nicely done with slow motion photography.

Update: On Monday October 5th, during a demonstration for a science class  the Yankee Siege destroyed it's main axle bearing. The force of the counterweight dropping 12 feet finally took it's toll on the machine. Four new bearings have been ordered and are expected to arrive by Thursday, so I would recommend checking the Yankee Siege blog for updates on the repair before visiting the farm.