To cook a large pumpkin, wash it and cut it in half. Remove seeds and bake it skin side up, for about an hour in a slow oven. When it's tender, scrape the meat out of the skin and put through a strainer or food processor. OR cook it in a microwave oven as you would a winter squash. Pumpkins are, after all, members of the squash tribe.
Cooked pumpkins make intriguing serving dishes for a fall stew or soup.
Planting trees, shrubs, perennial flowers, bulbs, and even hardy seeds continues through October, November, December, and even into January in the maritime Pacific Northwest. Fall is the most active planting period. Soils are still warm and conducive to root growth. Plant any time the weather is above freezing. Fall rains can keep plants watered, and cooler temperatures reduce stress from water loss out of the leaves, which normally occurs in hot summer weather.