Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 20 Entries. Tuesday, January 10 View Page Well, here we are the 10th of January 2012 already. I spent yesterday at the PA Farm Show. It's a good way to start the year by looking at other people's cows, pigs, other animals and produce that they grew last year, and compare it to what I want/plan to do this year. (It was also Pennsylvania's Mid-Winter FFA Convention). One of MAGPG's members, John Rauch, had a 735 lb. pumpkin exhibited at the Farm Show. It was amazing to stand there and watch people when they saw this monster. Hands touched it. People took photos of it. It got the attention of everyone who passed by. (Thanks John for showing it. Your hard work is appreciated by all of us in this hobby). It gets the word out about giant pumpkins. I wish everyone success in obtaining your PB this year, and I look forward to reading everyone's diaries. Thursday, March 22 View Page Very warm this time of year here in SE PA. It must be 15 - 20 degrees above normal. Ground is drying out and is ready to be planted like it is in May. We have the onions, lettuce, cabbage, and peas in and growing. I planted pansies just to have some color in the flower beds along with the daffodils. This morning I went to Good's Feed Mill in Fivepointville, PA and picked up five peeps. They will become part of my egg laying hens in a few months, and keep the insect population down. There's nothing like an egg or two from chickens that live outdoors...:) Saturday, March 24 View Page Five gallon bucket on the left is potatoes. I've got the southern window view during the winter and didn't want to waste it. I never tried potatoes this way and am anxious to see if they produce anything. The plant on the right is a pineapple plant.Pineapple is rooted and planted. Another experiment. Just to see what happens. Anxious to get started in the pumpkin patch, but that is a few months off yet. LOL. Thursday, April 19 View Page It seems that every year brings a new idea (or update) to the pumpkin patch around here. This year I will be using a 300 gallon poly tank to store the rainwater from off the barn roof for watering garden/pumpkin plants. (Now if only it would rain so I could get the thing going...)sigh... Monday, April 23 View Page Here's the starting line-up for today's planting. A 1320 Snyder (1193 Snyder X 1725 Harp), A 452 Graydus (parent was 923 Gerhardt), and 811 Gerhardt (923 Gerhardt X 1332 Wolf). So, a cozy, warm water soak in paper towels and then put into heated pots should ensure a nice and easy sprouting in a few days. We've got much needed rain here, starting last Saturday night. The 300 gallon poly tanks in the last photo are half full. Yay! Saturday, April 28 View Page Starting one early - outside in an enclosed glass window pane container with a matching lid. Ha! The rest of the seeds are inside and should come up any day. Surprise for me is that seven seeds came up in the patch where I planted to plant in a week or two. I left them in the ground where they are and covered them with various containers to keep them warm. I don't want to kill them off as they survived the spring so far...not sure what to do with them. I will probably dig them up and give them away, or keep a few. Sunday, May 6 View Page My three main plants are up and inside the house. They will probably go outside this week. I love this time of year when things are still going okay and this hobby is not sooooo stressful...yet. Tuesday, May 29 View Page I spent a week with friends in Greensburg, Kansas. It was very windy and the wheat crop looks very good this year. It is dry where I was. Google 'Greensburg, Kansas' and see where an EF 5 tornado hit this town five years ago on May 4, 2007. 95 percent of the town was destroyed and the rest severely damaged. I made daily calls and texts home to see if the pumpkins were being watered. Now, most of them are on automatic watering systems and they 'water' themselves. LOL! Wednesday, May 30 View Page 1418 Snyder is planted in a pig/cow manure pile. These plants are always fast out of the starting gate for us. Thank goodness we finally got the rain last night that everyone else has been getting in SE Pennsylvania. The last storm before that came down from the North and parted like the Red Sea around us and we didn't get any of that precious rain. Rain barrels are now filled again, and life goes on in the pumpkin patch. All eleven plants here are doing good and starting to vine out. Wednesday, June 6 View Page Okay...#$*!H@% Turkeys! Hence the orange construction fence around one of the pumpkin plants. Our turkeys have gotten a taste for pumpkin plants and find they LIKE them. I found one plant 'abused' and 'roughed up' a bit in the garden, and it seemed like a good idea to fence the plants in for their safety. BTW, the turkeys go into the freezer in a few weeks I am told. (Never, I repeat, never a dull moment around here with all of these animals). Friday, June 15 View Page I see that I am a little later in the flowering department for pumpkins in our area. First male flower out this morning. However, plants are looking good and I don't have any 'pest' problems. I was at Penn State this week with the FFA. They did pretty good in the Livestock Judging and came in third place. Congratulations Octorara FFA! Tomorrow I leave for a week at Cape May, NJ. I am glad to go but dread leaving all our animals and garden and pumpkins, of course! Photo is of 1418? Snyder. We also planted this seed line last year. Sunday, June 24 View Page Came home from the shore yesterday to find pumpkin plants well watered and taken care of, but not weeded. So guess what I will be doing this week. Photo is of one of the babies that started to grow this week. Now comes the fun of deciding whether they stay on the plant or are culled to make room for a better one. Monday, July 2 View Page I spent part of last week in the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. I was glad to get away from the high 90 degree weather that is hitting most of the eastern seaboard. We saw numerous wildlife including deer - a buck with 14 points on his antlers - no kidding, owls, and of course, what everyone wants to see - bears! Saw four of them in two days. Bears were close to the road, hence good close viewing. Rode the motorcycle a lot and that was good too. Pumpkin plants are doing good in spite of the hot, hot weather. Every plant has at least a few little punkies on the vines. Saturday, July 14 View Page Well, it's been quite a hot weather week here in SE Pa. We really need the water. The largest pumpkin I currently have is a 1418 Snyder. However, in the last two days something is very wrong as some of the vine has wilted and I can't discover why. We've got some pumpkins, but when I look at the other growers in our area, theirs are much larger at this point. We've got a lot on our plate this week as the turkeys go (into the freezer, haha), the bred gilt (that's pig for all who don't speak farmer) is due to have piglets on Thursday, and a bred Black Angus heifer (female cow) is due to calve on Saturday. It will be quite a week, and I better get some sleep now - as it won't happen later on. I hope it rains too. Sunday, July 22 View Page Our three day old Angus heifer, Little Moca. (The start of a breeding herd of Angus cows). We got up Friday morning and there she was running and jumping around the field. What a nice surprise! Sunday, July 22 View Page My gorgeous and big leafed 811 Gerhardt plant. (923 Gerhardt X 1332 Wolf). I currently have three small pumpkins on this plant. It's been a hard pumpkin growing season this year. We watered to no avail. Guess the hot weather had something to do with it. Not sure...but anyway there won't be any record breakers or PB here this year. I guess it's a learning experience...sigh...:( Sunday, August 5 View Page I am definitely behind in size for most growers in our area. But at least I have a pumpkin. Yay! This is a 811 Gerhardt. I love the shape of this pumpkin. The size of the leaves on this plant are incredible. Most measure two feet or more across the center. It's been a crazy year with so many aborts at the start of the season. Let's hope she makes it! Sunday, August 5 View Page My son, Wynn, has this 1047.5 Lengel 11 pumpkin growing in his pumpkin patch (F: 1165 Rea 10 X M: 1274 Stelts 10). He doesn't keep a diary so I will brag for him. It's his second year of growing the big ones. I hope he makes a weigh-off with this pumpkin. Tuesday, August 28 View Page Okay, a lot has happened here since the last post. I have been raising - as in bottle fed and kept in the kitchen - three little pigs, as their mother died giving birth to them. So sad, but piglets are doing fine. Last week one of the cows got out and damaged the corn and sunflowers in the garden. As if that wasn't enough, she ate half of the pumpkin in the previous photo. Grrr! So I have kind of let the remaining pumpkins grow without my worrying and assistance. Perhaps that is a good thing. Pictured is one of the 811 Gerhardt pumpkins. Color is getting more orange by the day. I hope to make one of the weigh-offs that is coming up next month. It's been quite a year for growers in SE Pa. Weather has been something else this year. Saturday, September 8 View Page Here's a photo of my 811 Gerhardt today before the rainstorm that blew through here this afternoon. She's got to be one of the prettiest pumpkins I've ever grown. The leaves of this plant are still about 2 feet across. I am probably one of the few growers who does not trim leaves away from the pumpkin. Hence, hard to get good photos. Currently there are four pumpkins that are still growing for us. I started the fall crops for the garden awhile ago, and the peas are blooming already. Good to know there will be fresh peas in the months to come.