Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 38 Entries. Sunday, June 19 View Page Happy Fathers Day! Currently 106° in the patch. Double shade cloth over the entire plant seems to be working. So far no leaves have been burned...yet. Tomorrow is now forecast to be 109°. We'll see.   Saturday, June 25 View Page After hitting temps up to 109° I thought the worst was over. The 2230 Wallace didn't loose any leaves to burning up in the sun so I thought I had avoided any heat related injury to the plant, BUT...now almost every pumpkin on the main vine and secondaries are shriveling up and dying like the one in this picture. Also, plant growth was doing well right up until the heat hit but now the plant growth has slowed way down. I will give the plant every chance to recover but time is running out to start over if I have to so I started a few backup seeds just in case. I started this late once before and did OK but our September heat is brutal. On a side note, Jim's plant is still too young for females to develop but some of his male flowers are shriveling up and dying too. This is the first time I have seen heat do this to the plants.   Monday, July 4 View Page It's been about a week and a half since the really high temps had hit here. The weather has been perfect since then and has really helped the 2230 to recover from the heat. I really thought I was going to have to pull the plant since the heat had just about halted more than half the vines and was still too small to support a pumpkin of any size. Several vine tips were cooked beyond recovery but all the others that had slowed way down are now starting to grow normally once again and filling in the area. One interesting thing I noticed is that the side vines before the heat hit were thick, but after the heat they became skinny up toward the tips and now that the plant growth is recovering the vines are once again growing thick except the skinny areas still remain skinny. So my secondaries coming off the main vine are thick, then skinny and then thick again. My small patch area should be filled within a week and then I'll try to get the plant to cover the whole driveway to gain a few hundred more square feet. Weather forecast has temps in the low to mid 80's for at least a week out.   Monday, July 4 View Page I started a few of my 912's from a couple years back thinking I was going to be starting my season over. since the 2230 is recovering I am thinking I will grow one of these in a different area to make some genetic crosses.   Monday, July 4 View Page The first three pumpkins on the main vine cooked. This is the fourth one on the main, pollinated on 6/30. 4 lobes. Cross is 2230 Wallace X 1947 Clements.   Monday, July 4 View Page Fifth pumpkin on the main pollinated on 7/3. 5 Lobes. cross is 2230 Wallace X 1947 Clements. I have to drive across town each time to get flowers from my friends 1947.   Monday, July 4 View Page 55 gallons of goodies to going down the lines to help the 2230 to recover.   Monday, July 4 View Page Speaking of heat. This is one of my Ghost pepper plants. It is a cross between a peach Bhut Jolokia and a Trinidad scorpion. Trust me, these things a miserably hot!   Wednesday, July 13 View Page Well, there goes the driveway again. This gives meaning to the saying about some soils being hard as concrete. Half my patch is concrete. Wish it wasn't but this is better than nothing. Growing on the concrete as opposed to terminating the vines at the concrete has helped in years past to significantly increase the size pumpkin I can grow.   Wednesday, July 13 View Page Looks like this will be "the one". It was somewhat of a slow starter but starting to pick up the pace now.   Monday, August 8 View Page Here's Wide Wilma. She should be in the 600's at day 40 (tomorrow)...about half the size of your monster Chris!   Monday, August 8 View Page Chris this picture is for you. If we have an ugly contest its the only way I will be able to beat you this year!   Saturday, September 10 View Page OK Chris, I may have a little something for you...unless I'm competing with your monster.   Monday, September 12 View Page ...Chris, are you sure that your pumpkin is real? I think someone has played a dirty trick on you and put a large plastic pumpkin in your patch! LOL ...She look awesome Chris!   Saturday, September 24 View Page Weigh-off day is here! All loaded up and ready to take the trip up north. I dont remember my other pumpkins being quite so hard to move around. This could be a good sign!   Sunday, September 25 View Page First order of business was to check out Chris's pumpkin and get a picture together with him and his beast. She's massive!   Sunday, September 25 View Page Kevin D. and Kevin S. doing some measurements on my pumpkin.   Sunday, September 25 View Page ...filling out some paper work for the GPC. So cool that we finally have a GPC weigh-off here in Southern California!   Sunday, September 25 View Page Chris was doing all he could to get every last bit of weight out of his pumpkin.   Sunday, September 25 View Page My lovely assistant pollinator who always does a great job securing that special cross when I can't be there to do it myself. She does a great job cooling down my plant on those really hot days too!   Sunday, September 25 View Page The crowd was starting to gather for the event.   Sunday, September 25 View Page The band started cranking it up. The live band was a great touch and they were really good too!   Sunday, September 25 View Page Everyone's favorite grower showed up too. Mae Powell!!! Going strong at 97 years young, we can boast that we have the most senior pumpkin grower in the whole country.   Sunday, September 25 View Page Mae took one look at my pumpkin and said "that looks like a nice seat. I think I will sit down".   Sunday, September 25 View Page As the time approached to weigh the pumpkins I think someone was getting a little excited ;-) Chris never gets excited does he???   Sunday, September 25 View Page So here we go! If I can just go a few hundred pounds heavy maybe I can beat Chris! They taped her at 361 OTT which was larger than I taped her at home. She must have grown on the trip up to the weigh-off! More likely having 3 people taping it instead of me by myself trying to get a good measurement was the difference. I'll take it...even bigger than I thought! I am just hoping to best my PB of 912 and break through the 1000 pound barrier. I really want to break 1000...please please please! And the scale says....1082! Finally I broke through!!! And she went heavy too. Even with all the high temps we had this year. I may not beat Chris...but I am so happy I feel like I just did. LOL   Sunday, September 25 View Page I think Chris's wife Wendy was saying, "what do yo think honey, can we beat him?"   Sunday, September 25 View Page And then, up went Goliath.   Sunday, September 25 View Page Tipping the scale at 1452 pounds for a new Southern California state record! Congrats Chris!!!   Sunday, September 25 View Page Chris took 1st and I took 2nd place! The local weatherman Henry DiCarlo from KTLA was the MC for our event and did a great job and made it a lot of fun too.   Sunday, September 25 View Page Our group of happy growers. Mae Powell is so funny, she not only took the oldest grower award but won the ugliest pumpkin award too. But she wasn't having any part of that ugliest pumpkin award so she stuck her award plaque out in front of me instead. Congrats Chris, John, Kevin and Tom and Mae.   Saturday, December 10 View Page Pearl Harbor remembrance ceremony on the deck of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Midway. We were honored to have 4 Pearl Harbor survivors in attendance. If you look close you can see all 4 of them sitting up in the front row.   Saturday, December 10 View Page I had the privilege of getting to meet the gentleman closest in this picture and thank him for serving our country and fighting to protect our nation. It was an honor to speak with one of the members from the greatest generation.   Saturday, December 10 View Page This is Woody Darby. 98 years old and he can still tell some incredible stories. He was stationed on the U.S.S. Nevada. Incredibly,the U.S.S. Nevada was able to get under way within 15 minutes of the Japanese initial attack. Once under way, it became the focus of the full brunt of the Japanese attack because if they could sink her it would have blocked the harbor for months. The men of the Nevada were able to beach the ship instead. It was a great day and I felt honored to be there with them to remember.   Saturday, December 10 View Page After the Pearl Harbor ceremony we found out that the Chinese had a couple warships in port on a good will trip and just for that day you could board their ship for a guided tour. We jumped the chance. Not to many people can say they have been on a Chinese warship. These ships were only 2 years old.   Saturday, December 10 View Page We didn't get to see very much of the inside of the ship but what we did see looked very clean inside.   Saturday, December 10 View Page Gun turret in the front of the ship. Missile silos were just behind the gun.   Saturday, December 10 View Page Hanging out with one of the Chinese soldiers. He actually did speak a little English.