 Hi there, I'm Sandy Olnok and this drawing told me a story while I was working on it, so I thought I would share this story with you as the voiceover to this, and if you would like to purchase this drawing to color up yourself, there's a link in the doobly-doo. Zeke loved gardening. He had a passion to work the land, but his tiny patch of dirt out behind his tiny house in his tiny town was all he had. He always wished that his vegetable garden would feed not only his stomach but his soul, but that never seemed like enough. And one day, as he was turning in the latest number-laden quarterly report at the office, he decided he'd had enough and quit his job to go start the farm of his dreams. For some time, Zeke had been looking in the area for some land that would suit him and had located a few acres on a remote hillside. He bought it because of the tree at the top of the hill. It was big and gnarly with giant roots securing it to the ground. Sitting at the base of the tree to watch the sunset quickly became the highlight of his days. The crops that Zeke wanted to plant weren't just any old farm crops. He'd been working at a seed company for decades where his ideas had been laughed off. You're the numbers, guy. Zeke, stay in your lane, they would say. But now is his chance to see if he could make his idea work. You see, Zeke had always loved pumpkins. Not just regular ones, but carved ones. And he knew there had to be a way to engineer the seeds so they would mature with the faces already on them. His tiny work shed at the bottom of the hill was where he developed his first prototypes. But when a neighbor came by and asked him what he was doing, he started to become a laughing stock to the whole community. The real farmers thought he was completely bonkers and everyone shunned him. That led to Zeke's second invention, though. He wasn't prepared to be made a laughing stock of any further and he began a rather unorthodox lifestyle and farming life. He built a home in his big gnarly tree, as well as planting his new pumpkin seeds up there. The main house, the outhouse, the bathroom, the reading room, each room was built into the strong branches of the tree. And the tree seemed to react by enfolding Zeke's work into its huge strong branches. His home became a natural part of the tree. And his seedlings started to sprout. He was so excited but he knew it was going to take several months before he would know if those seeds would also sprout faces. He'd engineered the enhancements to only appear after the pumpkin turned from green to its glorious orange. So Zeke waited. He watered, fertilized, and cared for his pumpkin sprouts as they grew, entwining their roots with the tree's branches, again becoming one with the old gnarly tree. The neighbors, even the whole tiny town, watched Zeke from a distance all summer. They were certain he was crazy. He'd quit a perfectly fine job to do this, to live in a silly tree house. The man was in his 50s. Didn't he know this was ridiculous? But none of that stopped him. Zeke continued to tweak his home while caring for his pumpkin crop, waiting excitedly for the florets to become tiny green pumpkins and then watch them get bigger and bigger. In the fall his impatience was nearly more than he could stand. One chilly morning as Zeke enjoyed his coffee and looked out the window of the main house, he saw it. It was one of his pumpkins, the orange skin glowing in the dawn sun. But he couldn't tell from the angle of the house he was looking at it. Did it have a face on it? He scrambled to put his work boots on and head out to see. Zeke had to climb over the big north-facing branch, the one that had so many smaller branches sprouting from it that it was always the hardest to climb over. But he knew right where the best footing was and in moments he was standing in front of the orange pumpkin. No face. How could it be? He was sure he had done just what he needed to make his dream come true. What did he do wrong? He bent to sit down next to that plump orange orb and when he did he saw a blemish on the side of it. He reached over to turn it, see what the mark was and that is when he saw it. The face. The face that had been on the side facing the tree branch. Zeke was so excited he started whooping and hollering into the quiet dawn air. He ran around checking each of the pumpkins after that looking for anything that had turned orange and whooped and hollered day by day as his big gnarly tree became filled with the happy faces of pumpkins. The town had been hearing of the noises coming from Zeke's tree. Rumors about just how crazy he'd become were passed around at the diner. People at church wondered if they could locate a relative who might intervene. The only one who showed any real interest in even finding out what was going on was a little girl named Franny. She would go sit in Zeke's field looking up at his tree just watching. He seemed like a nice man. He was busy like her dad and all the other farmers she knew but he was very happy unlike many of them. Grown-ups usually weren't full of smiles like Zeke. One evening after dinner she walked over to Zeke's place and saw his chairs at the base of the tree. She climbed into one even though it was big enough to almost swallow her up. Zeke saw this little girl and he climbed on down. Hi there, I'm Zeke. What's your name? I'm Franny. I hope it's okay if I sit here. You bet said Zeke. Can I join you? The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes until Franny asked the question that had been rumbling around in her head for a while now. Zeke, she asked, is it being crazy that makes you so happy? Because I'd like to be happy but I don't think I'm crazy. A long pause was all Zeke could manage at first but then he thought of the perfect answer. You know Franny, he said slowly. Maybe it's being happy that makes people think you're crazy because they just don't understand it. They forgot how to be happy. The silence fell over them again and they watched the sun get lower in the sky and the colors burst into glorious reds, pinks, and yellows. Franny reached out to hold Zeke's hand and looked up at him and smiled. I hope I grow up to be happy too. I hope you enjoyed my little story. If you would like to download the black and white printable image and color it up yourself, use it for your art projects. Use it to tell your kids the story of Zeke, which happens to be grandpa's nickname. Then please do hit the link in the doobly-doo down below. Subscribe if you haven't yet already. I would love to share more art with you in the future so I will see you again soon. Go out and create something every day. Thanks, bye-bye.