Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 127 Entries. Tuesday, February 19 View Page This is the first venture into the blog/diary thing for us. We've attempted to grow giant pumpkins for 3 previous seasons with some success but mostly failure. This year we're going to read up on what we were supposed to do the last time and see if that helps(couldn't hurt). We had no idea what we were doing before(still don't), but will try again. Our goal is to have 2 plants and hopefully have 1 fruit over 1000lbs. Attainable, yes, likely--who knows. I do know, I'll have help from my MVPS...Morgan, Victoria, Piper and Zane. I'll try and post what is going on with the pumpkins about once a week or more until I plant, then I'll post more often. Wish us luck! ksmvpz p.s. The picture is last year getting one of the two areas ready for planting. Monday, February 25 View Page This are the first pumpkins I attempted to grow. This was 2004. We didn't grow any pumpkins in 2005. If I remember right, the pumpkin on the left was 254lbs and the one on the right was 276lbs. Hhmmmm? That doesn't sound quite right but they're close to those weights. I didn't do much to take care of those plants. They were at my mothers house and didn't get the care needed to grow big. I realize now just how much care they need! LOTS!!! Tuesday, February 26 View Page I hope these two scary pumpkin growers don't scare away all of our good luck for this coming year. Saturday, March 1 View Page I didn't prepare my small plot last fall, so I got 5 yards of, "certified organic material". I talked the guy into giving me 5 yards for the price of 4. I guess this place is only the 3rd place to get this organic certification in the state of Oregon. I'll put about 4 yards here and 1 yard on my other plot. Saturday, March 1 View Page Another picture of the compost I'll be putting on my pumpkin area. Sunday, March 2 View Page I've put a little bit of the compost on my area. I know my area isn't big and others have 10 plants or more but I just don't have the area. I will only be planting 2 plants and will do my best with what I have. I hope this compost stuff works well?????????? I'm going to put some ironite on the top and rototill it all into the existing soil. Thursday, March 6 View Page This is our pumpkin in Oct 2006. It was our biggest yet at 674 pounds. Made a few mistakes on it and thought I'd fixed them only to get a smaller pumpkin in 2007? Fixed an error in growing and made many more the next time...darn, hopefully this year will be different. Monday, March 10 View Page I just received the book on how to grow world class pumpkins. Now I just have to understand what it says and apply that to my patch. The problem now is I have no excuses to not grow a giant pumpkin. Except of course, I'll have to learn to read. I know, I'll just ask one of my kids to read it and tell me what to do. Monday, March 31 View Page Yesterday added a yard or so of horse manure. It was a few years old and had like a bazillion worms in it. This is my area where I'll put 1 plant. Monday, March 31 View Page This is my other pumpkin patch. I rototilled the soil a few times first with the organic stuff I already had on there, along with the lime and ironite. I added a few yards of old horse manure. It also had the bazillion worms. I'll till this in by hand because I don't want to kill all of the worms. I might put 2 pumpkin plants in here or 1. I have to do a little research first to see if I have room for 2 plants. Maybe I'll just try and grow 2 pumpkins on 1 plant if I only have room for the 1 plant??? Monday, March 31 View Page My seeds I'm going to use are Agrichards 1159/'07 and Agrichards 1468/'07. If I grow 1 more I will probably go with(I'm not sure how to write this one) Don Langevin's pumpkin cross 1450 x 1502. In fact, maybe I'll just grow that one and not one of the others???? Aaaarrggg! I don't know which one to grow and which to not grow! Monday, April 28 View Page One of my seeds. Monday, April 28 View Page Another one of my seeds. Monday, April 28 View Page I think I'll plant 3. This will be my 3rd plant. Monday, April 28 View Page 2 of my helpers planting the seeds. Monday, April 28 View Page They seemed to want to show off their messy hands. Monday, April 28 View Page My daughter Morgan designed a shelf for the top of her dresser. I told her she could design whatever she wanted and I would build it for her. Good idea on using the tape I thought. Monday, April 28 View Page After she picked the colors, we were all done. Now to check and see how close I was. Monday, April 28 View Page I think I was pretty close. I think this was the first piece of furniture she has designed. She has designed bird houses and I've built those and other misc. things. But it's nice to have something of your own that you've designed and built. Monday, April 28 View Page A picture without the tape. Looks pretty good. Monday, April 28 View Page My pumpkin helper. The seeds have sprouted and are doing great so far. I'll take pictures and plant them in 5-7 days probably. Saturday, May 10 View Page I'm running a bit late for planting but better late than never. Getting ready to plant 2 of 3 plants. Saturday, May 10 View Page Hhhmmmm, could I get some more help? Saturday, May 10 View Page My 8 year old is filling in the hole. She's doing a good job not getting the dirt on the plant. Saturday, May 10 View Page Our third site for a pumpkin. Saturday, May 10 View Page The 8 and 4 year old are planting this one all by themselves. They were watching me on the first 2 and they asked to plant this one. Saturday, May 10 View Page Another picture. Saturday, May 10 View Page The proud(although it doesn't look it) planters. I hope these things produce some big pumpkins!!! Monday, May 26 View Page Here is my new compost tea brewer, big bag of worm castings and fish/kelp stuff. I just built the tea brewer and will read up on what to put in it and give it a try. I've never done this before but will give it a shot. I found some great directions on how to make my own and will let others in on the directions if it works as well as advertised. Monday, May 26 View Page Here's a bigger picture of the compost tea maker. I sure hope it works. Although, if it doesn't I think it'll be my fault and not the bucket, air hoses, compost, etc. Monday, May 26 View Page A picture of 1 of 3 plants. They aren't doing great but not too bad. I wish they were doing better but they are about to make a break for it and start growning like mad(I think). Monday, May 26 View Page My best plant. I gave all 3 a quick spray with miracle grow last night. I will do this once a week but might stop if I get the compost tea figured out. Monday, May 26 View Page Third plant. No kids modeling this one. I think they were bored with the picture thing and wanted to climb on rocks instead. The 2 girls were mine and the boy was a Beane boy. Monday, May 26 View Page My petunias are doing good. Pretty color too. Saturday, May 31 View Page My tea brewing. Saturday, May 31 View Page Looking good. I think I had enough oxygen(bubles) to help the bacteria grow. Saturday, May 31 View Page I'm all done and about to pour it into the sprayer. It smells fine. Hope it works. Saturday, May 31 View Page New sprayer I purchased a few months ago just for the compost tea. Saturday, May 31 View Page Residual compost after pouring out tea. The bag I used worked great. I think the biggest problem was a poor job on getting the compost into the bag. I'll have to figure out better way to do this. I think this is where the residual compost came from. Also, after spraying my pumpkins and everything else with my 4 gallons of compost I realized I forgot to add my fish and kelp concentrate like I had planned. Oh well, I'll have to just do that next time. I plan on making more tea this week. I don't know if I'll do this every week but time permitting will determine this. Monday, June 2 View Page Update on what the pumpkins are looking like. Monday, June 2 View Page Pumpkin plant. Getting bigger every day. Monday, June 2 View Page Last pumpkin plant. We could use more sun though and a little less rain. Monday, June 2 View Page The roses like the rain and not so much sun unlike the pumpkin plants. I'm going to need to trim some of the roses soon. The rest of the courtyard is coming along nicely. Thursday, June 5 View Page This is how I've tracked my pumpkin sizes in the past. I have to say I got tired of making a drawing for each pumpkin each day. I would make a weeks worth if I had time but still was a pain. Thursday, June 5 View Page I decided to use the Microsoft Paint program and make one I could copy and then just print. Thus, saving me time. I think I'll just use a clip board to save them on. Thursday, June 5 View Page I'm not sure which one I'll use. The vertical or horizontal one. I think I'll make something to put the logs in and leave them by the 2 pumpkin patches. I'll post a picture after I make them. If anybody wants a copy of these(I don't know why, they're pretty crude) send me an email and I'll email them to you. It'll take me a few days as they're saved on a computer at work and I won't be at work until 6-9-08. Sunday, June 8 View Page This weeks picture of the plant I'll call p1(otherwise known as Richards 1468). I'll have to compare the growth from last week. Sunday, June 8 View Page Picture of p2(or Richards 1159). Sunday, June 8 View Page Picture of p3(otherwise known as Langeving 1450 X 1502). Sunday, June 8 View Page I made and put in one of my new ideas for this year. A box to put my new sheets I made(check earlier post) to check daily status of pumpkins. I was tired of moving each day the notebook back and forth from one pumpkin patch to the other. Not that's it's far but I was tired of it. So I'll have the tape, pen and paper at each plant. Out of the rain and easily accessible. I think it's a good idea but time will tell. Sunday, June 8 View Page Picture with the box open. Sunday, June 8 View Page The new box at patch 2. Sunday, June 8 View Page Another picture in case you wanted to see inside the box. I have no idea why you'd want to but in case you did then here you go. Also, I made another batch of compost tea but this time I remembered to add my additives at the end before spraying. What I added was 1/2 cup per gallon(I had 4 gallons) of 3-2-2 fish and kelp. Plus I added some, "Bio-Grow" 2-.01-6.6 of some stuff I got as a sample. I have 2 or 3 more samples so I might as well use it. The stuff was very expensive to buy so I think I'll just stick to the couple of samples I have left and leave it at that. Tuesday, June 10 View Page Took a break from pumpkin growing and went to look at a few waterfalls. Tuesday, June 10 View Page Another waterfall. Tuesday, June 10 View Page This water fall is a continous drop of water about 100-150 yards long of many many small waterfalls. The picture doesn't reflect how impressive it really is. The noise if deafening right next to the water. One has to yell he hear a person next to them. Tuesday, June 10 View Page Another part of a water fall. I forgot to take some pictures of 3 other waterfalls we visited and only took them with our other camera. This camera doesn't have as many pixels and I can post these unlike our other camera. Great day for water fall looking! Tuesday, June 10 View Page My kids took pictures of one of them(Victoria) burried in the sand. We have a rather large sand box in our backyard. 30' X 35' isn't too bad for a sand box. The kids make rivers in the sand most summer days. Tuesday, June 17 View Page My weekly picture of p1 taken on Sunday. I sprayed all 3 plants with compost tea on Sunday and did a compost drench on Saturday. I added the fish and kelp each time. I sure hope this stuff is working!!! Time will tell but I'm doing all I can at the moment. Tuesday, June 17 View Page Weekly picture of p2. These pumpkin plants are starting to really grow fast. They need to because I think I'm about 1 week behind where I want to be. Oh well, that's the way the pumpkin grows I suppose. Tuesday, June 17 View Page Last but not least, p3. Starting to really grow. Sunday, June 22 View Page P1 coming along nice. My best plant so far. I haven't measured how far the main vine is but it's really starting to grow fast. I'm getting some nice side vines and need to bury them as soon as I can. Sunday, June 22 View Page P2. Looking alright. My 3rd best plant. It's really trying but I realized too late I put the plant in a bad spot. It's not getting all of the sun it should get. Oh well, another mistake made. Also next year I'll put P1 and P2 in the middle together and that will utilize my space better with the secondary vines. Whoops, oh well, chalk up another mistake made. Sunday, June 22 View Page P3. Not doing too bad. 2nd best plant. Growing fast. Will need to bury vines on this plant as well. Secondary vines coming along nicely. About 1 to 1 1/2 weeks behind where others are when I look at pictures on other diaries but as long as my plants are doing fine, then I'm happy(that's what I keep telling myself). Sunday, June 22 View Page I have to put a picture in of my front yard every once in a while. Why? Because my roses are looking great, that's why. Plus all of the other flowers blooming. I've been spraying the compost tea I've been making on my grapes, strawberries and roses and they are loving it. Most of all the strawberries. I've never seen them look so good. Sunday, June 22 View Page Last week I got a few more yards of blue ridge rock to even out the paths in the courtyard. The rock will look whitish/blue until I wash it off then it will look more blue. The roses are really tall and will need to be trimmed way back soon. I hate to do it as they are looking great but it has to be done I suppose. Sunday, July 6 View Page P1, looking good but for some reason my plants haven't been growing very well? I have a pumpkin on the main vine 12 feet out. Will keep it if it looks good in a few days. Sunday, July 6 View Page P1 pumpkin. Sunday, July 6 View Page P2 plant. This plant is smaller than p1. I planted this plant in a bad spot. Not sun all day. Whoops! Planted it in the wrong spot--will have to fix that next year. Sunday, July 6 View Page Pumpkin on p2 at 8 feet. Don't know if I'll keep it or not. Sunday, July 6 View Page Forgot to mention the pumpkin on p2 is on main vine---at 8 feet. I'm going to try and have all pumpkins on the main vine this year. This is due to bad pumpkins last year because I had pumpkins on the secondary of a secondary vine--double whoops!! I have now read up on what to do and will now be informed when I make my mistakes. Sunday, July 6 View Page P3. I have no idea what is wrong with this plant. I realize it's a different seed with not as good genetics but it just doesn't want to grow???? I don't understand it. Oh well, we'll see what kind of pumpkin it grows from such a small plant. I have a pumpkin on main vine 8 feet out. Sunday, July 6 View Page P3 pumpkin, main vine 8 feet out. Sunday, July 6 View Page After a hard day, the kids needed to eat some watermelon. They think next year we should grow watermelons instead of pumpkins! I'll have to think about that. Of course we'd have to try and grow a GIGANTIC watermelon. Sunday, July 6 View Page Zane didn't want to participate in the eating contest. The 3 girls ate an entire watermelon!! Hhmmm, maybe I should grow watermelons next year? Monday, July 14 View Page GROW! GROW! GROW! Come on pumpkin, grow!! Pumpkin on my worst plant. Monday, July 14 View Page GROW! GROW! Come on pumpkin, do some growing. Pumpkin on my second best/worst plant. This pumpkin is in the best shape though and looking good. Monday, July 14 View Page My best plant! What's going on??? Why such a small pumpkin? I don't know what's going on with this pumpkin. It better start growing and soon. I think it will take off soon(at least I hope so). I have a few other pumpkins on this plant if this one doesn't take off. Although they're a few days behind this one. GROW! GROW! GROW! GET BIG!!! Wednesday, July 16 View Page I was asked to post a few pictures of the dog houses I built a few years ago. Wednesday, July 16 View Page This dog house is about 9 feet tall I think at the highest peak. There is 2 ways for the dogs(or kids) to get to the top. There is a ramp on the inside and also one on the outside. The windows are plexi-glass and can be opened or shut. There is outdoor carpet on the 2nd and 3rd level. I've never had any leaking from the patio area on the 3rd level to the rest of the dog house. The total square footage is 96sqft for the entire thing. It's big enough I can get inside too. Wednesday, July 16 View Page Picture of my 2 story dog house. This is the second 2 story one I built. The first one is at my moms house. It wasn't big enough for my dogs. I knew that once I started building it but it was a great design I had so now it's a nice yard ornament at my moms. This dog house is near the back door and is where the dogs spend a lot of time. Wednesday, July 16 View Page A picture of a play house I built some time ago. I actually built this with plans I didn't design. Not something I usually do. I usually make up my own designs. The kids don't play in this much as they have so much other stuff to play with in the backyard. Like the sandbox which is 30' X 35'. They make rivers and lakes almost every day in the summer in the sand box. Wednesday, July 16 View Page One of the things I've made this year. It's a TV stand/cabinet for the bedroom. I made the bottom with enough room for the fire safe. The top with a lazy-susan to swivel the tv. A spot under the lazy-susan for a vcr/dvd player which is on pegs or stands or something like that so the dvd/vcr can be changed to whatever direction depending where the cabinet is located. I make this to match the other furniture in the bedroom. It's made from Alder--in case somebody was wondering. Wednesday, July 16 View Page I finished this this year too. The cabinets are built in and work great. Made from Alder to match the mantle I put in a few years ago. In case you're wondering, the fireplace is black because we're not using it right now and the black is chalkboard for the kids to write on. Wednesday, July 16 View Page This is the last big thing I'm making so far this year. I've made numerous small things I imagine, I lose track. This will be a tv stand for the living room. It's made from maple. I'll post a picture when it's finished. It should look very different when finished. The bottom outsides will have doors. The 3 drawers are made from cedar. I made them from normal, crappy fence boards. I just sand or plane the wood and it's a very inexpensive way to build drawers. They're just not as strons as some other options so you have to pick and choose when to use this wood. Wednesday, July 16 View Page Better put a few pictures of the pumpkins. This one is really growing. It must have listened to my instructions to grow. I don't have much hope of a big pumpkin though as this plant is really small for some unknown reason. Wednesday, July 16 View Page This one is growing well too. It also listened to me on the growing part. I've noticed in looking at others diaries they put something under the pumpkins so I will put some sand under the pumpkins this weekend. Wednesday, July 16 View Page My best plant by far. Hhhmmmmm? Wonder what is going on with the pumpkin. Oh, I know, it's not growing that's what's going on. Now listen up pumpkin......GROW, GROW, GROW!!!! Tuesday, July 22 View Page What is wrong with this plant? I think it's dying and don't know why. Tuesday, July 22 View Page I know it looks like lack of water but that isn't the case. I water it as much as my 2 other plants and feed it the same but it's definately dying. Tuesday, July 22 View Page This is the pumpkin on the plant. I think it's rotting from the inside out. There is another good pumpkin which is looking good so maybe the plant will turn around??? Does anybody have any advise? Tuesday, July 22 View Page Morgan doesn't know what's wrong with this poor plant. Tuesday, July 22 View Page The kids were nice enough to gather up and do a study session on the perils of pumpkin plants. I hope they come up with a strategy to keep alive the plant in distress. Come on kids, read up on what to do!!! Tuesday, July 22 View Page Best looking pumpkin so far. Doing good and steady growth for the last 4 days. Tuesday, July 22 View Page Last pumpkin. Haven't named the pumpkins yet. I suppose we'll have to do that. Steady growth so far. Started measuring 4 days ago. Plant is nice and healthy. Hope it stays that way. Monday, July 28 View Page Here is my dying plant. I'm still not sure what is going on but it's hanging on to living. I obviously won't be getting any pumpkins of any size to them but I'm trying to keep the plant alive for the sake of not wanting the poor plant to just die. I think I'll give it a boost of nitrogen and see if that does some good. Monday, July 28 View Page My biggest pumpkin. I forget the size but I'm wondering if the shape is bad. It's a bit doughnut shaped. Like a wheel. I'm wondering if this is good or not or if I should keep another pumpkin 2-3 feet down the main vine which is a better shape. Although the other pumpkin is about 1/3rd the size. Aaarrrgggg, I'm conflicted with keeping the strange shaped pumpkin and keeping one which is better shape but a week behind. They are both growing fast so I don't know. We'll see. I need to cut one though. Monday, July 28 View Page Here is the other pumpkin. Smaller but a better shape. Hhmmm, what to do?? I have no idea. I do know that what ever I do, the other choice would have been better. Oh well, I suppose I'll have the kids decide. Monday, July 28 View Page This is a pathetic pumpkin from my, "best" plant. This pumpkin isn't growing. Hasn't increased measurments in 2 days???????? This happened with the last pumpkin from this plant then the pumpkin sort of rotted or something. Strange. I have another pumpkin on this plant I suppose I'll have to keep an eye on and hope it does something. Monday, July 28 View Page A picture of my plant with the small pumpkin. The plant is doing awesome but not too good with growing a pumpkin. Oh well, we'll see what happens. Monday, July 28 View Page My oldest and youngest look like a big pumpkin. Crazy kids. They're always doing something silly. Monday, August 4 View Page We went to Crater Lake National Park on Saturday August 2nd. Great trip. Crater Lake is one of the most beautiful places. The water is bluer than the sky. In case you don't know, the lake is 1,972 feet deep. The 7th deepest in the world and deepest in U.S.A. It's also the clearest water in the world. You can see an 8inch disc 168 feet below the surface. Pretty amazing. Monday, August 4 View Page Another nice picture. Monday, August 4 View Page A nice picture of the family. We are at the top of Wizard Island. We took a boat ride to there and hiked to the top. Crater Lake is an ancient volcano which blew it's top off and has now filled up with water. Monday, August 4 View Page Myself and Suzanne took a lot of picutres but had to put this one up. Victoria and Piper are too cute. Monday, August 4 View Page According to the table the weight is 144lbs. It's gaining about 15lbs a day. Not very good. Oh well. My 3rd plant is pretty much dead and my best plant isn't producing any pumpkins so this pumpkin is the only one I have. It's not looking too good to beat my personal record of 674lbs. Oh well, there's always next year. I think I've lost my green thumb. My poor tomato plants are doing the worst they've ever done and my flowers aren't exactly doing stellar. Must not be my year. Monday, August 11 View Page A picture of the cabinet I made. Monday, August 11 View Page A look at it in it's spot. It's made of maple. I think it looks pretty good. Monday, August 11 View Page The pumpkin patch. Not doing very well. The plants are doing fine, just not the pumpkins. Oh well, at least the plants look nice. Monday, August 11 View Page Pumpkin #2. Only pumpkin bigger than a basketball. According to the weight table, it's at 196lbs. Not too happy about that. I don't think I'll even beat my personal best this year. Well there's always next year. Wednesday, October 29 View Page Here's the pumpkin just before we loaded it up in the trailer. Morgan, Victoria and I loaded it. Wednesday, October 29 View Page A picture of the kids on the pumpkin. I think we need a bigger pumpkin to fit them all on it. Either that or a smaller kids?? Wednesday, October 29 View Page The weigh-off at Harry and David. Wednesday, October 29 View Page Here it is ready to weigh. It was heavier than I had thought it was going to be. The weight was 461 lbs. The seed was 1159 Richards and self pollinated. I need to pollinate these things myself next year. I'll save some of the seeds and grow the 461 Messer next year. Wednesday, October 29 View Page A cute picture of my crazy kids I thought I'd put in. I don't know how that battery powered 4 wheeler can handle the abuse it gets on a daily basis at our house. Wednesday, October 29 View Page Even though I had a terrible year for my pumpkin growing I still won 8th place and won $100.00 for my efforts. I haven't cashed the check yet. Once I do I'll have to give up my amateur status as a pumpkin grower and can't compete in the pumpkin growing olympics. Alright, I'm just making the above up but I was surprised on winning anything and I think I want to win more next year. Wednesday, October 29 View Page Another picture of the pumpkin in the patch. I had 3 plants to start the year but only had 1 pumpkin at the end of the year. Pretty disappointing but that's the way it goes. I was hoping for 4 pumpkins from the 3 plants but maybe next time. I'm planning on next year already and have planted rye as a cover crop in the above area. It's supposed to help the soil but we'll see. Monday, November 3 View Page I built a new shed. It's called the, "scooter shed" because it was built to store the scooter. Suzanne got a scooter a few months ago and it needed a place to be stored. It's 10 X 10. Just the right size for the scooter. Suzanne painted it--I had to put that in here in case she ever reads this. Monday, November 3 View Page The ribbon I won. Too bad it actually says 8th place on it. I didn't think they made ribbons for a place soooo low as 8th. Monday, November 3 View Page We turned the pumpkin upright. I'm surprised it doesn't fall over. Monday, November 3 View Page Another picture of the pumpkin. Monday, November 3 View Page After cutting off the top. Monday, November 3 View Page Piper in the pumpkin. Monday, November 3 View Page Zane didn't want to get into the pumpkin. I think he thought it would get him dirty. He doesn't like getting messy unless he has a marker in his hand, then he really likes to draw on himself---A LOT! Monday, November 3 View Page Victoria in the pumpkin. Both Piper and Victoria went entirely inside. I put the top on and they tell me it was all dark in there. They would talk and we couldn't hear them. I told them to yell and we could barely hear them. Pumpkins make good insulation. Monday, November 3 View Page Morgan in the pumpkin. I don't think she could have fit entirely inside. Maybe the pumpkin we grow next year will be big enough to fit her inside????? Monday, November 3 View Page Silly kids. As a wrap up. Pumpkin is the 461 Messer. Parents are the 1159 Richards/self. I hope we fare better next year but like everything else, time will tell. We'll do our best as that's all we can do. Wish us luck for next year. We hope you enjoyed our pumpkin diaries this year and will most probably start another one next year.