Aa a dentist with a farmstand, Steven Siegars of Greenfield is plenty busy. But a few years ago he picked up an unusual pastime: competitive pumpkin throwing. Since 2004, he and his homemade trebuchet, nicknamed "Yankee Siege," have won the annual Punkin Chunkin contest held each fall in Delaware. Siegars tells us more:

Where did you get the idea to build a trebuchet? About 10 years ago I saw a program on NOVA. They built a full-size trebuchet. I thought that would be a good promotional thing for the farmstand. I thought we could throw pumpkins, giant pumpkins, and draw a crowd.

How did it turn into a competitive thing? Someone told us about the competition. We looked it up and saw how far they were throwing. At Punkin Chunkin, they only throw 8- to 10-pound pumpkins. We were throwing a 50-pound pumpkin farther.

Why pumpkins? We sell pumpkins at the farmstand. And I didn't want to throw anything too lethal. Pumpkins are bad enough.

A trebuchet is similar to a catapult, but there are differences. Can you explain them? A trebuchet is a gravity-driven machine. A catapult is a torsion-driven machine, where they twist ropes.

At this year's contest you tossed a pumpkin 1,897 feet, nearly 200 feet farther than the guy in second place. To what do you attribute your success? Brute force. We win just because we're bigger and heavier than the other machines. Our machine is about 65 feet tall and weighs 26 tons.

MEG HECKMAN