Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 144 Entries. Friday, January 1 View Page Testing... Friday, January 1 View Page Here piggy piggy... Friday, January 1 View Page Cross section of my soil. Monday, January 25 View Page Our new Case IH 6088 Combine was delivered to the house last week. We've had plenty of company stop by to visit the new toy. Monday, January 25 View Page Shot from the operator's seat. Look at all those buttons to push. Wednesday, January 27 View Page New pumpkin grower Barbee attempts to make a simple germination station. Pink, of course. Wednesday, January 27 View Page Inside of station. Silver reflective stuff nabbed from the workshop and a heat mat. The pots have been filled with germinating mix and put in station to warm up. Starting temperature on thermometer is 68 degrees @ 11:00 am. Saturday, January 30 View Page Yesterday evening, I noticed cracked soil and the baby pumpkins starting to push their little heads up. About 50 hours for all 3 seeds to germinate, so I'm calling this practice run a success. I plan to do another practice run tonight or in the morning. Monday, March 8 View Page I got to tour a bulk worm farm today. Here is a shot of the windrows. It's down in a big pit. Monday, March 8 View Page Here's a shot of the red wigglers up close working the windrows. Monday, March 8 View Page Here's a shot of the red wigglers up close working the windrows. Monday, March 8 View Page I bought a bulk order of the poo today. Here is a shot of the finished product. Sunday, April 11 View Page Time for an update. Today I tilled in amendments to get the patch ready to plant. The sun is setting, so the pic is dark. I'll try to take a better pic in the morning. Sunday, April 11 View Page This photo shows the tomato patch in front and the pumpkin patch in back. Again, the sun was setting so the pic is dark. Better pics in the morning. Played taps for the 32 year old tiller, which is pretty much toast. Will have to get a new one this week. Sunday, April 11 View Page Here is a shot of the inside of my potting shed/greenhouse. I still have about 100 tomatoes to put in there so I'll be adding another temporary table to the blank wall opposite side. Check out the concrete blocks holding the tables up. Will be adding real wood/mesh tables once things settle down here. Sunday, April 11 View Page This photo shows my tank I use to water plants. The water also heats up nicely during the day and helps heat the greenhouse thru the night. Sunday, April 11 View Page Side 3 of the greenhouse/potting shed will one day be my nice fancy potting bench. For now, it is a sick bay area (on the wire shelving), and I will be sticking another table over on this side to hold more maters.Also have an overwintered houseplant and white habanero on the floor. They are greening up nice since I added a top dressing of worm poo. You can barely see my fancy automatic fan up toward the top of the wall. Sunday, April 11 View Page Last shot is a photo of the outside of my greenhouse/potting shed. The long side of the roof is that Sun Tuff stuff, and the rest of the roof is metal. Monday, April 12 View Page As promised, better photo of the patches. Tomato patch in front, and pumpkin patch in back. Monday, April 12 View Page Big shout out to John Van Hook for the Black Brandywine mater seeds. Tomatoes will be going in ground in a couple of weeks. Yahoo! Monday, April 12 View Page Here's Cherokee Purple(on right) with PL version called Spudakee on the left. Sunday, April 18 View Page Things are really starting to get big in the greenhouse. Just the same basic shot as earlier, showing the difference in growth. Sunday, April 18 View Page Close up of the foliage on the black brandywines from John Van Hook. Please excuse the white specks. Not a disease, simply a filthy camera lens. Didn't notice that until I downloaded the photos on the computer. You will see the same white specs on all the photos. Sunday, April 18 View Page Up close and personal with a Cherokee Purple plant. Sunday, April 18 View Page Shot of the stem on the Cherokee Purples. My hand in there for a bit of scale. Sunday, April 18 View Page The watermelons have germed. 2 175 Van Hooks and 2 239 Leonards. One of the 239's is struggling to break the seed coat and the other one has some cot issues. Big shout out to John Van Hook and Curt Saxton (hope I spelled that right Curt) for the melon seeds. Sunday, April 18 View Page Last shot of the day is a closer look at the 239 Leonard cot leaves. You can see the splits going on in this picture. It doesn't seem to be hurting the plant, just something I've never seen before. I guess I will need to take a wait and see attitude with this plant. Wednesday, April 21 View Page The new tiller purchased Sunday. Wednesday, April 21 View Page It did a nice job on the tomato patch. Sunday, April 25 View Page Here's a photo of the melon babies. Growing at a decent pace and one week later. 2 175 Van Hooks in the front and the 239 Leonard in the back. Sunday, April 25 View Page Seeds were filed and soaked Saturday morning. Sunday, April 25 View Page After 6 hours of soaking, they were placed into the pots and set in the germination station. Let's hope they germ. Friday, April 30 View Page Super Windy today, so I installed one of my new pumpkin huts to see if it will stand up to our sometimes heavy winds. No pumpkins were sacrificed for this experiment. If the hut can stand the wind test, then I will start planting tomorrow morning. Friday, April 30 View Page The little gable ends on the pumpkin huts drop down on each side for releasing heat out of the hut. I installed the hinges all on my own. Barbee the Builder :) Friday, April 30 View Page To work on the pumpkins, I can release this clip attached to a dog tie out thingy and lift off the whole hut. I have been thinking about whether I'll remove the tie out stakes once I don't need the huts anymore. My gut instinct tells me it's best to leave them in place so I don't disturb any roots of the pumpkins. If you know the answer to this, feel free to let me know. Friday, April 30 View Page Incoming pumpkin photos. the 1058 Ghaye. Friday, April 30 View Page 1452 Ghaye. Note these 2 pumpkins are planted in 8 inch extra deep pots. They will be the first pumpkins to be planted. Friday, April 30 View Page Forgot to add in a note of thanks to Jos for the seeds. So Thanks :) Friday, April 30 View Page 1178 Lovelace. Thanks Sam for the seeds. I will post photos of the 1175 on the next photo posting round. Friday, April 30 View Page 1173 Macari. Thanks to Marty Schnicker for this seed. I wond it in his raffle and a won seed will hopefully have a bit of good luck to go along with it. Also a big thanks to Curt Saxton for the backup Macari which is not looking the best right now. It seems to have a bit of cot damage. I don't know if I'll be using it or not. I'll make that call at plant out. Friday, April 30 View Page The Van Hook watermelon. Awesome plant. Thanks John :) Friday, April 30 View Page The Leonard watermelon. Pretty bad cot leaf damage when it broke the seed coat, but it's coming along nicely. Thanks to Curt for this seed. Friday, April 30 View Page The 208 and 517 Andrews squashes are just recently germed. I will post pics of them once they green up. Thanks Glenn for the seed. Sunday, May 2 View Page The first spring flood of 2010 has arrived. Sunday, May 2 View Page The grading and ditching around the patch we did this spring seems to have helped keep the water off the patch. Thursday, May 6 View Page Despite the flooding, I was able to get my plants out yesterday. Here is a shot of the snow fence my hubby is installing. Thursday, May 6 View Page Inside hut #1 is the 1173 Macari and the 1112 Williams. This is the 1173 Macari. Thursday, May 6 View Page The 1112 Williams was started as a backup to the backup Macari, which has some pretty bad damage to the cot leaves. The damage seems to be affecting the 2nd true leaf coming out so I decided to scrap it altogether. Thursday, May 6 View Page Hut #2 is the squash hut. Here is the 208 Andrews squash, which was the last of my first round of seeds to germ. It's coming along nice. Thursday, May 6 View Page Also in the squash hut is the 517 Andrews. I have a backup 208 started that has not put on its first true leaf yet, so if these guys meet with an unforseen accident, I have plan C in place. I really want to grow a squash this year. Thursday, May 6 View Page Hut #3 holds the Ghaye pumpkins. This is the 1058. Thursday, May 6 View Page Here is the 1452 Ghaye Pumpkin. It's been agressive from the get go. I'm really liking it. Thursday, May 6 View Page Hut #4 is the Lovelace pumpkins. Here is the 1175. A nice plant for sure. Thursday, May 6 View Page Here's the 1178 Lovelace. Sam tells me this pumpkin grows well for women. He might be pulling my leg, but, it is growing well so... I have decided to name this pumpkin Linda. Thursday, May 6 View Page It's been a wet early spring. Moving those boards around to till has been not so much fun. I jumped in the shop this and made a pair of patch shoes so I could put the boards away for good. Not the prettiest things in the world, or even the most comfortable, but they are much nicer than moving those heavy boards around. Thursday, May 13 View Page Time for an update. Here is a shot of the 1452 Ghaye pumpkin. Thursday, May 13 View Page Here is a shot of Linda. The 1178 Lovelace. Thursday, May 13 View Page The 208* Andrews. This one sorta looks odd to my eye, but I have no clue why. Seems like there are 2 leaves coming out at once possibly. Or maybe it just looks odd because it's more open than the other plants. Glenn, if you're reading this, let me know what you think. Thursday, May 13 View Page 1173 Macari plant. Wednesday, May 19 View Page Time for weekly photos. Here is a tomato shot. Black Brandywine setting fruit in a self watering container. Hooray! Wednesday, May 19 View Page 208* Andrews planted 3 weeks ago. Wednesday, May 19 View Page 1173 Macari planted 3 weeks ago. I will be calling this plant Fred from now on. Wednesday, May 19 View Page Here is Linda at 3 weeks planted. Garden glove thrown on there for scale. Wednesday, May 19 View Page Here is the 1452 Ghaye planted 3 weeks ago. This plant will be called Marvin from now on. Plants seem to be growing every day. I will be having to cull soon as it's getting a little crowded. Photo update next week. Wednesday, May 19 View Page Edit: I just looked at the calendar and I planted the plants on May 4th, so instead of the plants being 3 weeks in ground, they are only 2 weeks. They are growing even faster than I thought! Yahoo! Thursday, May 27 View Page Weekly picture update. Here's Fred. Thursday, May 27 View Page Squash plot. I will need to cull soon. Both look pretty good, but I believe the 208 is winning. Thursday, May 27 View Page Here's the 208 by itself. Thursday, May 27 View Page Linda trying her best to lay down. She's getting there, but it's slow going. Thursday, May 27 View Page Here's Marvin Ghaye. Thursday, May 27 View Page Starting to look like a patch now. Saturday, June 5 View Page Time for a weekly update. This is Fred...the 1173 Macari. Not the most aggressive plant in the patch, but he grows at a nice steady pace. Saturday, June 5 View Page The unnamed 208* Andrews. This plant likes to do things his own way and fights me every day and doesn't like to play nice. Hmm... The tallest plant in the patch by far with huge leaves and big tap roots. Really a nice looking plant. Saturday, June 5 View Page Next we have Linda Lovelace. A delicate, well behaved plant. This plant is a pleasure to work with. Saturday, June 5 View Page Last pumpkin of the day is Marvin Ghaye. The biggest plant in the patch. About 9 ft long now and putting on lots of new growth every day. I will post some melon pics a little later. Gotta finish weeding the melon houses first. Sunday, June 6 View Page 175 Van Hook melon today. The original leaves on the plant had yellowed and I thought it was a goner. Once sprayed with Neem, it is bouncing back and growing again. Thanks to Tina F. for suggesting it could be spider mite damage. Sunday, June 6 View Page This is the 239 Leonard melon. It finally decided to take off and grow just in the last week.And it's really growing fast. Now putting on a 2nd main vine. Friday, June 11 View Page Weekly update. The 239 Leonard melon is outgrowing the melon house. Hoping to remove it tomorrow so it can go where it wants. Friday, June 11 View Page The Van Hook melon is about half as big as it's melon house. I think I stunted it when I let the spider mites get out of control. Hope it comes back. Friday, June 11 View Page Mixing up things tonight with a few mater pics. Here is a beautiful Black Brandywine tomato. Friday, June 11 View Page The unnamed squash now has a name. Meet Booger Andrews. Friday, June 11 View Page Side shot of Fred. Friday, June 11 View Page A shot of the back of my garden. Excuse the weedy areas. These pumpkins are taking up all my weeding time. Friday, June 11 View Page Karina's hot pepper garden. This will be getting moved to my big deck on the side of the house since I keep forgetting to water them where they are now. That's on the list for tomorrow. Friday, June 11 View Page My great nephew Julien. You guys learn this at a young age evidently. :) Friday, June 11 View Page Today's shot of Linda Lovelace. Friday, June 11 View Page Marvin Ghaye is ready to pollinate I think. I have a female in the growing tip so I think I'll give it a try, Friday, June 11 View Page Cluster of Black Cherry tomatoes. I'm really getting mater hungry. Friday, June 11 View Page A young Spudatula. Potato leaf version of Black from Tula. 3 tomatoes fused together. Friday, June 11 View Page A young Speckled Roman tomato. This will eventually grow into a long skinny mater. Perfect for saucing and an excellent tasting tomato. Bright red with yellow speckles all over it. Friday, June 11 View Page That's enough for this week. A big thanks to Norm for suggesting I buy a Wolf Garten push pull weeder. Best hoe I have ever used in my life. I use it every day. Saturday, June 19 View Page Time for a weekly update. Here's Boo. I pollinated one this morning. Let's hope it takes. Saturday, June 19 View Page This shot is a female I had to cull on Boo just 3 days ago. No males were available. The very next morning, 4 males opened. Figures. Saturday, June 19 View Page Next up is Linda. I snapped the main on her last week so I pulled the closest 2 secondaries up towards the front. The most aggressive one will win the job of main vine. Saturday, June 19 View Page Here's Marvin. I'll be pollinating him in a few days. Saturday, June 19 View Page No photo of Fred this week. I have pollinated my first pumpkin on the plant and will have another one ready in a few days. I will wait to see if the pollinations take then I'll have something to show you. Monday, July 5 View Page Been awhile since I updated my diary. Here is a small pkn that is set on Linda plant. Busted main vine set me back a week or so, and hoping this one will hang in there and grow a nice pkn for me. Monday, July 5 View Page Small pumpkin pollinated on Fred. Poor Fred has had a rough time since my last diary post. Aborted first pumpkin, aborted 2nd pumpkin, growing tip fell off. This pumpkin is set on a side vine. C'mon Fred! Monday, July 5 View Page Booger Andrews continues to give me fits. This nice squash baby aborted on day 8 and the plant is really struggling. I've got a nice female in a late side vine and I'm hoping I can get that one pollinated and grow some foliage behind it. I've trimmed a bunch of the older bad looking leaves along the main, so Boo looks like he has a reverse mohawk. Monday, July 5 View Page Here is the Baby Marvin day 15. Monday, July 5 View Page 230 Leonard Melon. Open pollinated and I think it's about 8 or 9 days old. It's been chugging along and growing nice and steady. I'm calling it Tank. Saturday, July 17 View Page Time for an update. This is the 1173 Macari pumpkin. AKA Fred Saturday, July 17 View Page Should have added that Fred is 14 days old. Saturday, July 17 View Page 1178 Lovelace. AKA Linda. 20 days old. 62" circumference. Saturday, July 17 View Page 1452 Ghaye. AKA Marvin. 27 days old. Saturday, July 17 View Page The 239 Leonard melon. AKA Tank. Day 19 Saturday, July 17 View Page 175 Van Hook melon. Day 18 Saturday, July 17 View Page Last week's supper which I never got around to posting. BLT, corn on the cob, fried zuchinni. All from my garden. Yum :) Wednesday, July 28 View Page Time for an update. This is Linda 1178 Lovelace. Wednesday, July 28 View Page Stem end on Marvin 1452 Ghaye. Pkn is growing very slow and doesn't look real healthy to me. Wednesday, July 28 View Page Tank the melon. +100 lbs. 30 days old. 72" circumference. Wednesday, July 28 View Page Tomato time! These beauties were picked yesterday morning. Wednesday, July 28 View Page A few tomatoes on the counter ready to eat. JVH if you're looking...the tomato in the front corner is the mystery tomato. Wednesday, July 28 View Page Hot peppers I picked yesterday. Clockwise from 12:00: Congo Trinidad, White Habanero, Ajicito, Trinidad Perfume. Center: Neon Habanero. Wednesday, July 28 View Page Squash update: Have 2 nice squash babies on the 208. No pics until they reach 10 days as they all seem to die on day 8. Stay tuned... Thursday, July 29 View Page When I went out to check on the pumpkins this morning, I noticed a funky smell when I was looking at the stem on Marvin. Grayish streaks were forming ..almost looking like mold. I made the decision to cut the fruit off and sure enough, there was a mushy spot on the bottom about the size of a dinner plate. I have a small baby on a side vine I let the bees pollinate a couple of days ago. I think I'll leave the plant and try one more attempt on this thing. Saturday, August 7 View Page Time for an update. Linda is 40 days old today. Not huge, but a good size and nice shape. Saturday, August 7 View Page Tank the pumpkin is also 40 days today. Still chugging along at a nice pace. Saturday, August 7 View Page Looky here! After 8 attempts for a squash, Booger Andrews is playing nice. I totally ignored the plant, was ready to rip it out, and here is a baby booger growing on a tertiary. Approximately 1 week old. Friday, August 20 View Page Boo. Day 20ish. Still alive! Friday, August 20 View Page For Al. A sneak peek at the famous notebook :) Friday, August 20 View Page New culverts we had delivered last week to fix the bridge. Friday, August 20 View Page Pretty big! Friday, August 20 View Page My new chicken boots! Thursday, August 26 View Page Linda. 59 days Thursday, August 26 View Page For Andy (possum). Batwing mower :) Saturday, August 28 View Page Tank melon. Day 60 Wednesday, September 1 View Page Boo. Day 32. I like the whole stripe thing :) Monday, September 6 View Page Loading Tank melon up to head to the watermelon weigh off at Frankfort Monday, September 6 View Page On an old baby bed mattress to keep him safe. Monday, September 6 View Page Packed in nice and snug. Possible overkill here :) Monday, September 6 View Page A shot of the growers who participated. I have on the pink shirt, of course Monday, September 6 View Page Sorry to say, no shots of me standing behind the scales. Hubby was too busy talking to Frank to take a picture. I do, however, have a nice pic of Frank and his wife with his winning melon LoL Monday, September 6 View Page Here is a shot of the winners of the weigh off. Frank Mudd, 1st place. Bill Neptune, 2nd place. Danny Reeb, 3rd place. Great job guys! Monday, September 6 View Page Here is a shot of me with Tank melon. 168.7 lbs. Monday, September 6 View Page The first cut... Monday, September 6 View Page Here is a shot of the inside. Rotten! Stinkypoo! Monday, October 4 View Page Long overdue for an update. First is a pic of some homemade tomato soup I made a couple of weeks ago. Yum! Monday, October 4 View Page I decided to take my Linda pkn to the county fair last week. Here she is being loaded up to go to the scale. Monday, October 4 View Page I did a final taping on Linda when I got her on the skid. 262" OTT for an estimated weight of 386 lbs. On the scale, she weighed 425 lbs! Hooray! Good enough to win 2nd place, a pink reserve champion ribbon and 200.00! A big thanks to SW Landmark for sponsoring the weigh off. Monday, October 4 View Page While I was there, I decided to enter my smaller melon in the giant watermelon/misc. category of the fair. This was a 175 Van Hook that was a second attempt (first one I snapped off). Pollinated mid July and weighed in at 112 lbs and first place! Also won Best in Show! How about that??! Monday, October 4 View Page Here is a pic of the check I won for my melon. 2.00!! We stopped on the way home for a biscuit at McD's and spent it all in one place :D Monday, October 25 View Page Here's a picture of some field corn we harvested. If you look really close, you can see the combine going in the field. Monday, October 25 View Page I finally got around to painting my greenhouse/potting shed last week! This winter, I will work on insulating the inside and building a potting bench and tables for plants.