If you can get a few more of the only-slightly-soft ones, grab 'em and feed those ones first, keeping the good ones a bit longer. Pumpkins don't like cold storage, but you can freeze them if they start to go soft before your use them up.
I had hundreds of pumpkins this year and that made me "relax my standards" a bit and feed spotty ones. I had to go through my pile every day and look for spots and get them out first. The animals all seemed to like the soft spots the best. Not moldy or black, just mushy.
The pigs preferred the ones that were actually smelly, and would ignore the good ones I gave them until they'd flattened out into a stinky pile.
Another thing you can do if you really have no pride (like me! ) is go back with a knife or a machete (it is fun to whack pumpkins!) and a pail and grab the seeds out of the slightly softening ones. That is the part they like best. You can freeze them in portions if you get a lot, or dry them, but for me drying them would be too much work for the chickens.
Great score! Now you know to ask earlier next year....Nov 1 is the date for asking around here. No one sells pumpkins after Halloween, since hardly anyone cooks them anymore, just decorates with them.
I am so excited. I am going to look at Nigerian Dwarf goaties tomorrow morning. (Well, that is if the weather lets me). I talked to the guy on the phone yesterday afternoon. Found them on Craigslist. Anyway, everyone keep your fingers crossed. They are babies, not sure exactly how old but I don't care. They are within my price range and I don't mind raising babies.
And, they're so tiny! Gidget is a cross, but she was only about as big as a cat when she was born. Her mother wouldn't let her nurse, so I brought her home for awhile. Much to my surprise, my husband didn't mind having a goat in the kitchen.
Noobie - no ice right now. Last night was crazy. People in this neck of the woods just don't get it when it comes to ice and driving.
I have been reading all morning trying to refresh my memory on goats. I have not had any for....well, lets just say a long time.
Praying for clear roads in the morning so I can make the drive. They are only about 30 miles from me but its all on back roads that see little travel, and I am sure the county won't bother to put sand down.