Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 65 Entries. Sunday, January 3 View Page 2010 patch plans unveiled! This little pumpkin is estimating at July 13, 2010!! Wednesday, January 6 View Page NEAL LELAND IS DA BOMB!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He deserved a much more timely post because I got the package over 24 hrs ago, but never-the-less....NEAL IS THE AWESOMEST !!!!!!!!! Wednesday, February 10 View Page As of February 9th at 3 pm, bubbles officially became hazardous to my health. I guess I just don't have the patience required to be in my postion. I don't know how the other growers do it. The rude emails that make me cry, the people who don't understand "no I don't have enough seeds", the letters with one stamp attached to a white business envelope, the letters with NO STAMPS, the people who want to be my facebook friend with the sole intention of asking for seeds, I could go on for days. Every bubble that arrives causes my blood pressure to increase to dangerous levels. In conclusion, do not send me any more bubbles I am pretty much out of seeds and am turning my seed room into a nursery now. Friday, April 2 View Page FINALLY IT CAME!!!! Good things come to those who wait :) Friday, April 2 View Page This year was pretty cool giving the 'how it was done' speech at all the different seminars. 4 seminars are done and 1 to go; but I'm sending Nick to the last one without me. I'd say Niagra was the most receptive audience and in 2nd place, the Pacific Northwest. Those crowds just seemed more light-hearted and got our humor. Friday, April 2 View Page Pretty cool that the guy who gave me the seed was the one who gave me the jacket. YAYAYAYYAYAYYA!! JOE JUTRAS IS THE BEST! Friday, April 2 View Page "presented" the jacket I should have said. Don't want to take anything away from Port Elgin! It is their jacket to give. PUMPKIN LISA IS MY HERO!!!!!! Friday, April 2 View Page Speaking of heros, doesn't get any more pumpkin celebrity than the Checkons themselves!! Friday, April 2 View Page A flew flights later and we were in Puyallup!! GENEVA EMMONS!!! AND BOOM BOOM!!! YAYAYAYA!! Friday, April 2 View Page BEAST FROM THE EAST (trying to replicate steve's pose)!! The only seminar with styrofoam replicas of pumpkins. Friday, April 2 View Page Brought down from Canada for the day. Incredible. I need to thank all those west coast growers and organizations for bringing us out there. IT WAS SPRING IN THE PACIFIC NW!! I couldn't get over the flowery smell in the air that day (but only one day; the rest of the week was rainy LOL). So hip-hip-horray for all of them and a special shoutout to LEE ROOF! Friday, April 2 View Page more west coast friends! Friday, April 2 View Page Cindi! And tulips! So happy to meet her! She is delightful and a TEACHER TOO!!!! Thursday, April 29 View Page Today I started seeds for Nick! (Timed out so those things would germinate on the weekend). I started: (5) 1236 Harps (1) 1316 Harp (1) 1725 Harp (1) 1677.5 Hunt Yes, all unproven. And yes, double planting for the first time ever! We'll see what happens with this strategy. Since Nick didn't know his schedule for this year with being out of town so much plus being busy with baby's arrival, this way there is no wasting "proven" seeds! Saturday, May 8 View Page Germination rate on 8 seeds was 100% !!! Greenhouse is FULL! Waiting for a weather window to get these out in the patch. Sunday, May 9 View Page I might be taking the year off from growing, but Nick is full steam ahead. He estimates that we had 5,000 sq feet under plastic the day I took these pics. Yes he is using me as slave labor (rototilling, planting peas, potatoes, helping to move walking boards, lay plastic, build hot-houses, start seeds, pot plants). Friday, May 14 View Page I cannot tell you how excited I am to see this patch in use after 3 years off. I feel this is the best patch in our rotation by a land-slide. Friday, May 14 View Page I am very very very very pumped about this. Sweet corn, and not the early variety! Normally we can't plant this stuff until June and here we've got it already more than ankle high. It survived freezes and frosts in these tunnnels. We've got 4 rows in these 2 tunnels. Friday, May 14 View Page The pumpkin plants were put out on Monday May 10th in what is always a "Harp Race Against the Weather". The story of our lives. Thursday, May 27 View Page "Wilbur" (not really his name) has gotten some super cute pumpkin and tractor clothes! yay! Thursday, May 27 View Page found some little suprises wedged behind our greenhouse LOL. Thursday, May 27 View Page This pic was taken about a week ago and I can't believe how much the corn has grown since then in this heat wave. We will have the earliest corn we have ever had. YIPEE! In other news, having the garden so close to the woods proved to be a bad idea because our broccoli is totally gone / eaten. boo. replant and step up the "war on wildlife!" Monday, June 21 View Page 1236 Harp. We've had bizarre weather around here (who hasn't LOL). 5 inches of rain in 4 days and then a big fat nothing for 2+ weeks. Last year we didn't have to lay out drip until mid-July and this year it's going to have to be June unfortunately (annoying). :( Monday, June 21 View Page BUT THE CORN IS TASSELLING!! Yipeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Baby "Wilbur" is due 3 weeks from tomorrow!! And so much for not gardening in June; I've had to pick and freeze peas every 2 days for the past 2 weeks. Blech. Thursday, June 24 View Page 1236 Harp. Everything is taking OFF!! Thursday, June 24 View Page Staggered plantings of giant tomatoes for the first time ever. There are some very secret projects in this patch!! :) Thursday, June 24 View Page What will come first: Ripe corn or Wilbur? :) This pic is for all of you that are dying to know how fat I am now! I feel humongous but can still handle picking peas! LOL. Tuesday, July 6 View Page garden update Tuesday, July 6 View Page 1236 harp in yard Tuesday, July 6 View Page giant tomatoes Tuesday, July 6 View Page nick is like a little kid at Christmas every single time he goes into the tomato patch because of all the megablooms. it is hilarious. Tuesday, July 6 View Page HOW DARE I FORGET THE BEENIE BABY?!! OOPS!! we had our first day 10 today and nick was like, "it's totally going to be crappy" because every single year our day 10's are crappy compared to the insane things we see on this website. just to revisit, if you are interested, the 1725 harp was 19 inches on Day 10. That is officially what I will compare everything with this year. And let's just say we hit the target right on. LOL. So yeah, no stellar day 10's in the harp patch! Tuesday, July 6 View Page CORN BEAT WILBUR!! Yummy stuff and TOTALLY worth messing with the polytunnels to get it this early :) Monday, July 12 View Page Long story short, my grandparents wanted to use our 2011 patch for their garden this year. Sort of messed with our rotation a bit as you can imagine. LOL. Who can blame them drolling over that soil? haha. Well our 2009 patch will now have to be our 2011 patch. The disadvantages to being land squatters!! Nick mowed down his sudan grass, spread manure, spread compost, and replanted another cover crop! Monday, July 12 View Page I picked and froze beans, peas, and corn this weekend! And LOTS OF IT! That is about as close as I get to nesting LOL. We had so much stuff I even experiemented with making zucchinni, green bean, and pea baby food to freeze for Wilbur to eat this winter! Worked great. Monday, July 12 View Page Wilbur Watch 2010: Still biking, swimming, 4-wheeling, gardening, and looking like a fatty 2 days before my due date!! WHY ISN'T THIS KID OUT YET?! haha. Wednesday, July 21 View Page Introducing Blaine Jacob Harp! We brought him home from the hospital last night and went up to the patch a short time later to show him the pumpkins err pumpkin (darn aborts LOL). THEN IT STARTED RAINING! darn. Maybe today we'll get a pic of him seeing the garden for the first time :). 5 days overdue! 7/18/2010 8 lbs 11 oz 20 inches Pregnancy = cake Labor / Delivery = cake Recovery = jury's still out! let's just say if I knew he was going to be that big, I would've had a freakout before delivery! I was told he "measured small". LOL. He's doing great so far and thanks to everyone for the congrats and well wishes :). Sunday, July 25 View Page Replicating the famous Anne Geddes photo!! Blaine loves the pumpkin patch already :) Tuesday, August 17 View Page Nick had his first tomato go 4 lbs off of a 5.83 Timm. Tuesday, August 17 View Page sorry 5.58 Timm Tuesday, August 17 View Page Baby is 1 month old; and 11 lbs!!!! Time to get another update on the pumpkin's size; still growing but slowing down :( Wednesday, August 25 View Page 1236 Harp. This is pretty much it for the year; the only pumpkin set on a main vine! Nick should have a shot at a new personal best with this fruit, since it is ahead of his 1316 from last year at this time. He's been pessimistic about it rotting before weighoff but I'm remaining upbeat. Wednesday, September 8 View Page Just a little storytime today with Blaine and what do you know?! His naked-baby-on-pumpkin-twin was on page 116?! Biz, I had no idea he was in the book until today!! Monday, September 13 View Page Big huge diary shout-out to my favorite twins in the pumpkin world, Troy and Tim Neptune! (and their dad, hi Bill!). This pumpkin was grown off the 1725 Harp seed and Bill reports that as of Sept 1st, it surpased the 1400 lb mark (which put it 150 lbs ahead of their 1503 from last year at that time). It developed a foaming stump and had been growing sans-stump since July 18th (Blaine's birthday!). Unfortunately heavy rains led to this pumpkin developing a blossom end split only 2 weeks before Barnesville weighoff. Booo. It was their biggest in the patch. It was polinated with the 1662 Stelts (great cross guys!). IN OTHER NEWS: THE NEPTUNES NOW OWN THE STATE WATERMELLON RECORD @ 209.4 LBS!! WOWOOWOWAA!!! Congrats! Monday, September 13 View Page Big huge diary shout-out to my favorite twins in the pumpkin world, Troy and Tim Neptune! (and their dad, hi Bill!). This pumpkin was grown off the 1725 Harp seed and Bill reports that as of Sept 1st, it surpased the 1400 lb mark (which put it 150 lbs ahead of their 1503 from last year at that time). It developed a foaming stump and had been growing sans-stump since July 18th (Blaine's birthday!). Unfortunately heavy rains led to this pumpkin developing a blossom end split only 2 weeks before Barnesville weighoff. Booo. It was their biggest in the patch. It was polinated with the 1662 Stelts (great cross guys!). IN OTHER NEWS: THE NEPTUNES NOW OWN THE STATE WATERMELLON RECORD @ 209.4 LBS!! WOWOOWOWAA!!! Congrats! Sunday, September 26 View Page Update on Nick's 1236 (field one). Blaine has grown 4 lbs since that first photo and the pumpkin has probably grown 1200 lbs. I think if nothing rots or splits or eats this thing (crossing fingers), Nick may just have a new personal best! Yay! Sunday, September 26 View Page This is also on a 1236 Harp (yard plant). It is Blaine's birth pumpkin because it polinated (open) the day he was born, 7/18! Cool how it is a birdbath so he can just sit right in there with no help! :) Sunday, September 26 View Page Having fun taking pictures! Love it! Sunday, September 26 View Page Nick saw his pic and thought I photoshoped it until he saw the pumpkin guts in the wheelbarrow. :) EVERYTHING IN THIS PHOTO IS 100% REAL INCLUDING HIS HAT! Scarred for life I'm sure. Sunday, October 3 View Page Another fun day at Canfield. The Stark County Pumpkin Princesses had one lone rep: Glenna Rea. AND REPRESENT SHE DID!! She weighed 2 pumpkins over 1100 lbs and had a new personal best! YAYAYAYAYAY!! YOU GO GIRL! Sunday, October 3 View Page Congrats to Jeff Zoellner for the win! :) Sunday, October 3 View Page Nick's fan club. haha. Sunday, October 3 View Page Blaine slept the whole weighoff and woke up at the end in time for some pics. Sunday, October 3 View Page Nick won tomato and cantalope!! Sunday, October 3 View Page awhhh Sunday, October 3 View Page Nick's new personal best: 1441 lbs! It is 1236 Harp x 1725 Harp. Nice! (don't even bother emailing me about sending a bubble for seeds; I'm not doing them this year! I have baby duty! Refer to the OVGPG seed sale this winter!) Sunday, October 10 View Page A big diary shoutout of congrats to Chris Stevens for the new world record!!!! Gives everyone new numbers to strive for!! Today we went to Columbus, Ohio to Oakland Nursery; always a favorite weighoff for us! Sunday, October 10 View Page Blaine meets new pumpkin baby friends at every weighoff! Sunday, October 10 View Page Blaine hanging with grandma at the weighoff!! Sunday, October 10 View Page It just figures that when Blaine's birth-pumpkin got weighed (polinated 7/18 on his birthday), I was in the truck feeding him and missed it! LOL. It was 555.5. Guess Blaine's lucky number is 5 haha. But we didn't miss this one. Both pumpkins were on the 1236 Harp yard plant. 1200 lbs of pumpkin on one plant isn't too shabby I guess for throwing in the towel early on when we couldn't get a main vine set. Wednesday, October 20 View Page OMG OMG OMG!! The world record pumpkin made a stop en route to NYC at our house!!!!! Chris and his wife are THE BEST! It was great to meet them and see the pumpkin in real life! Thursday, October 21 View Page Big diary shoutout to everyone who had faith in the 1725 seed!! I had to defend my decision to self that fruit time and time again; so a smile definitely comes to my face everytime I hear a success story. Here is Steve Connolly replicating my "1725 pose" with his 1664.5. That pumpkin looks exactly like it's mama!! Congrats Steve! Sunday, October 24 View Page Well now that the title is officially in the hands of Chris Stevens, I can let out a sigh of relief and reflect a bit. NO ONE WARNED ME HOW HARD IT WOULD BE HOLDING THE WR TITLE. Joe handed me the orange jacket, but for some reason he forgot to tell me what was coming. Like I told Chris, I'm not sure if it was because I was a "young girl" or what, but the bullies seemed to attack me way more than I would imagine they would have Jutras, Wallace, Checkon, etc, and I pray they don't go after Chris Stevens next. Those bullies wanted what they wanted, they wouldn't take no for an answer, and they felt like they could attack my character even if they had never met me. Makes me wonder if having the title was even worth it. I've spent many sleepless hours wondering what I did to make people so mad. Just today I got this message: ----- "I must say, that you are one of the rudest Gemini's to ever walk the Earth... You blame other people for your lack of grace and turn it around. That is wrong!!! You simply got lucky growing that pumpkin and it will be wonderful when the record is broken by a person who earned it!!! I just saw that you are OUT!!! Thank GoD!!!!!! You never deserved the record!!!" ---- Yes, I know there are jerks in the world and I need to ignore them, but it is hard. I've never done anything to intentionally hurt anyone, so I'm not sure why I deserve this. So to everyone going after the title in the future, be careful what you wish for, because honestly, it came with way more headaches and tears than I think it was worth. And to Chris, congrats, but good luck dealing with the crap that comes with the title. Monday, November 8 View Page Hi Everyone! This is a pumpkin I grew last year out of the 998 Pukos seed (THANKS ADAM BLALOCK!). Why am I posting about it? If you cannot get your hands on a 1725, this is close to the next best thing, the 1236 Harp. It is 998 Pukos x 1385 Jutras (the plant that grew the 1725). This year it grew 2 over 1400, 2 over 1200, a few 1100s and a few 1000s. It grew Nick his new PERSONAL BEST and I personally think it is a great seed; I will most likely be planting it again next year. I will be donating over one hundred 1236's to the OVGPG seed sale so check out http://ovgpg.com/ to get this seed! We will also be donating Nick's 1441's to the same sale, 1236 Harp x 1725 Harp. Monday, November 8 View Page Thanks from the bottom of my heart to everyone who sent Blaine gifts over the past year!! So much kindness in the pumpkin community. This home-made hat was from was from the Revier Family! It makes me smile and makes my dad cringe. LOL.