Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 115 Entries. Tuesday, May 13 View Page This is from Thanksgiving Friday of 2007, I added maple leaves to my part of the patch,,,leaves came from across town, from a man who laughed at me for asking if I could have his leaves!!!! Tuesday, May 13 View Page Then Dad tilled them in for me, he's a great Dad, beats hand tilling!!!!! Tuesday, May 13 View Page Then, I added gypsum and some other patch amendments, and he tilled it again,,,and now I had to wait til spring. This is my tilled patch, waiting for spring to come. Tuesday, May 13 View Page On April 29, 2008, I filed and soaked 3 seeds, the 1178 Lovelace, the 1319 Greene, and for a backup, the 1118 Greene. Tuesday, May 13 View Page They saw dirt about 4 1/2 hours later, and were put in a cooler with a 60 watt light bulb,,,,alittle warm it got, so, the next day I switch to 40 watts and a timer that rotated on and off every half hour. Finally got that temperature in the right area, and didn't toast those seeds!!!! Tuesday, May 13 View Page Saturday May 3, 2008, 6:30 A.M., during the nite, 1178 Lovelace decidedto join us!!!! Tuesday, May 13 View Page About 12 hours later, on May 3, 2008, the 1319 Greene decided to join us too, it didn't break thru til evening, but happy to see it! Tuesday, May 13 View Page May 4, 2008, 1178 Lovelace under lights, getting first true leaf. Wednesday, May 14 View Page May 4,2008,,,here's the 1319 Greene plant under the lights Wednesday, May 14 View Page May 4, 2008,,,Here is a comparison of the 1178 Lovelace plant and the 1319 Greene plant. Wednesday, May 14 View Page May 5, 2008, not the best picture, but here is the 1178 Lovelace getting its first true leaf. Wednesday, May 14 View Page May 8, 2008,,,This is the first true leaf popping out on the 1319 Greene. Wednesday, May 14 View Page May 8, 2008,,,Here's John, he was helping me set up my planting boxes. Wednesday, May 14 View Page May 8, 2008,,,and, he watched over me like a good brother should, while i planted the 1178 Lovelace, saying,,,be careful of that plant!!!!! Wednesday, May 14 View Page May 8, 2008,,,,Here is the 1178 Lovelace in its new home!!! Wednesday, May 14 View Page May 8, 2008,,,and a new home for the 1319 Greene too!!! Wednesday, May 14 View Page May 8, 2008,,,Here they are, all settled in their new homes, Barenie style!!! Wednesday, May 14 View Page May 12, 2008,,,second true leaf is unfolling out of the 1178 Lovelace. Wednesday, May 14 View Page May 12, 2008,,,the 1319 Greene is alittle slower paced than its neighbor. Wednesday, May 14 View Page May 14, 2008,,,you can now clearly see the second leaf on the 1178 Lovelace. Wednesday, May 14 View Page May 14, 2008,,,,and a second leaf is joining us on the 1319 Greene also!!! Wednesday, May 14 View Page May 14, 2008,,,Here is a side by side shot to show a comparison,,,1319 Greene on the left, and the 1178 Lovelace on the right. Monday, May 26 View Page May 16, 2008,,,here's the 1178 Lovelace getting its third leaf Monday, May 26 View Page May 16, 2008,,,Here is the 1319 Greene, smaller and still a step behind the Lovelace plant Monday, May 26 View Page May 21, 2008,,,The 1178 Lovelace is now getting its fourth leaf, I was told to back off on watering, but these wilty leaves make me think it needs alittle water Monday, May 26 View Page This is the picture that should have been with the previous entry. Monday, May 26 View Page It's hard to see in this picture, but here is the 1319 Greene getting its third leaf. Monday, May 26 View Page May 25, 2008,,,The third leaf is filling out on the 1178 Lovelace and a fourth is there beside it but, we could sure use some extra sunlight and a little warmth, maybe it will help,,,plants are a little yellowy Monday, May 26 View Page May 25, 2008,,,Following suit with its neighbor, the 1319 Greene is also getting a fourth leaf,,,it also is yellowing like the Lovelace plant Thursday, May 29 View Page May 28, 2008,,,The 1178 Lovelace is progressing, fourth and fifth leaves are coming in Thursday, May 29 View Page May 28, 2008,,,The 1319 Greene is still on the slow track, not advancing much at all, we coud use a little heat here for this guy!!!! Tuesday, June 3 View Page May 31, 2008,,,1178 Lovelace is still progressing nicely Tuesday, June 3 View Page May 31, 2008,,,here is the 1319 Greene, the yellow cast it has is disturbing, and it's still growing so very slow Tuesday, June 3 View Page June 2, 2008,,,weather during the day has warmed up alot, was 75 when this picture was taken and 87 by the late afternoon, the 1178 Lovelace is flagging alittle,,waiting for its morning drink Tuesday, June 3 View Page June 2, 2008,,,here's the 1319 Greene, I added a light and a thermostat on May 31 to see if alittle evening warm up might help to green it up some,,,it is also getting some fish in its water once a week right now Tuesday, June 3 View Page June 3, 2008,,,1178 Lovelace is liking this warmer weather and a main vine is starting to develop Tuesday, June 3 View Page June 3, 2008,,,1319 Greene is still small, but improving,,,color is alittle better and you can see some growth Tuesday, June 3 View Page June 3, 2008,,,here is another shot to show a comparison of the 2 plants, 1319 Greene on the left and 1178 Lovelace on the right Saturday, June 7 View Page Finally, pictures entered the same day they were taken,,,here is the 1178 Lovelace, it landed today Saturday, June 7 View Page Here is the 1319 Greene, its vining,,,and , small but mighty!!! Saturday, June 7 View Page And,,,another side by side, as you can see the 1178's house was removed,it out grew it, and the warm weather has also helped the 1319 Greene come out of the starting gate,,, Thursday, June 12 View Page Here's the most recent of the 1178 taken this morning,,,doing nicely, secondaries coming in now,,, Thursday, June 12 View Page And, we have my favorite munchkin, the 1319 Greene,,,doing pretty decent lately, main landed and secondaries are small, but they are starting,,,leaves gaining some size now too,, Monday, June 16 View Page Picture taken this morning,,, here's the 1178 Lovelace, see the open male blossom near the stump end!!! Monday, June 16 View Page Also taken this morning,,,the 1319 Greene,,,secondaries are starting to vine out better,,,doing ok for a munchkin plant!!! Tuesday, June 24 View Page Here's the 1178 Lovelace , still doing good!!!! Tuesday, June 24 View Page The 1319 Greene is still hustling to catch up,,,these shots were taken this morning Tuesday, June 24 View Page These are the notorious pumpkin shoes,,,I think they scared a few days growth out of the 1319 greene plant!! Monday, June 30 View Page June 28, 2008,,, Saturday, a quick cloud burst went through here with some heavy winds,,,caused some leaf stems to be folded over,,,some have come back, some haven't, lucky it didnt last long, only affected the secondaries, didn't seem to get any on the main vine,,, Monday, June 30 View Page Sunday, June 29, 2008,,,Pollinated a 5 lobe female on the 1178 Lovelace at 6:05 A.M.,,,the female was 10 ft. out on the main vine,,, the males were from the 1450 Wallace being grown by my brother John. Monday, June 30 View Page Here's the 1178 Lovelace,,,it's main is about 13 FT. There are 2 more females after the one I pollinated on Sunday, June 29th. Monday, June 30 View Page Here's my most recent picture of the 1319 Greene, taken this morning,,,I'm not sure of the distance of the main, I think it's around 8 or 9 FT. In the tip it has its second female to show up on the main vine. Saturday, July 5 View Page July 3, 2008,,,,Pollinated a second one on the 1178 Lovelace,,,1178 x 664 Liggett,,,12 -13 FT. out,,,5 lobes,,,at 7:40 A.M. Saturday, July 5 View Page Here's the 1178 x 1450 Wallace I pollinated on Sunday, June 29,,,still in the running,,, Saturday, July 5 View Page Here's todays picture of the 1178 Lovelace,,,due to the 2 pollinations I did, I did some vine rearranging, want to be prepared for the lucky one, plus there are 2 more females up the main,,,it's close to 20 ft. now,,,I'm going out of town for a week of vacation, leaving my plants in the capable hands of my Dad and my brother while I am gone,,, Saturday, July 5 View Page And todays final entry is the 1319 Greene at day 63, small, but hanging in there,,,in the center of the bamboo stakes on the right,,,the main has a female blossom coming,,, Tuesday, July 15 View Page While I was on vacation in northern Wisconsin, I caught some fish,,,,, Tuesday, July 15 View Page ,,,and went to see Unkadan. He gave me all the secrets needed to beat Al, and told me all about a good place to get arrows to hit that target!!!!! And he showed me his bunnies,,,, Tuesday, July 15 View Page He has lots of bunnies,,,,big and little,,,LOL!!!!! Tuesday, July 15 View Page When we left his place, down the road we saw these guys,,,take a close look, there's a mom and a baby deer,,, Tuesday, July 15 View Page July 13, 2008,,,Here's the 1178 Lovelace, it really grew while I was gone. Tuesday, July 15 View Page July 13, 2008,,,Here's the 1178 Lovelace x 1450 Wallace on day 14. Notice the mark in the side the size of a quarter, something took a chunk out of it while I was gone!! Tuesday, July 15 View Page There was a secondary vine fatality while I was gone,,,I'm lucky it wasn't the main vine. Tuesday, July 15 View Page John pollinated a third one on the 1178 Lovelace plant for me on July 11, 2008,,,he used a 1450 Wallace to pollinate with and the blossom had 5 lobes,,,as of right now, doesnt look like this one is going to make it. Tuesday, July 15 View Page July 13, 2008,,,Here's the 1319 Greene plant, it's still small in size, but growing. Tuesday, July 15 View Page July 8, 2008,,,John pollinated this one for me also, it's the 1319 Greene X 1178 Lovelace, the blossom had 5 lobes. Tuesday, July 15 View Page July 14, 2008,,,Here's the 1319 Greene on day 6. Tuesday, July 15 View Page Today, I pollinated a second 5 lobe female on the 1319 Greene. I used a 1231 Pukos to cross it with. Monday, July 21 View Page July 19, 2008,,,the stem on my 1178 plant is in a compromising position, I'm moving it alittle everyday to try to get it in a better one. Monday, July 21 View Page July 20, 2008,,,here is the most recent pic of the 1178 Lovelace plant,,,it's getting tough to get it all in the picture. Monday, July 21 View Page July 20, 2008,,,here is the 1319 Greene plant, it is also gaining in size,,,not the best picture, but it lets you see where its at. Monday, July 21 View Page July 20, 2008,,,Here is the largest on the 1178 Lovelace plant,,the guys helped me put foam and mill fabric under it. Monday, July 21 View Page July 20, 2008,,,Here was the second on the Lovelace plant, it was culled on Sunday,,, Monday, July 21 View Page July 20, 2008,,,Here is the largest on the 1319 Greene, its crossed with an 1178 Lovelace, and was pollinated on July 8th. Monday, July 21 View Page July 20, 2008,,,Here is the second one on the 1319 Greene plant,,,pollinated on July 15 th with a 1231 Pukos,,,notice the critter control,,,something ate some blossoms on another plant here. Thursday, July 24 View Page Here's the 1178 Lovelace on day 24,,,,still need to measure Thursday, July 24 View Page Here's the 1319 Greene on day 15 Friday, August 1 View Page July 29, 2008,,,,Here is the 30 day picture of my 1178 Lovelace, it measured in at 232.5 OTT and a circ. of 105" Friday, August 1 View Page July 30, 2008,,,Here's the 1319 Greene on day 23, estimating 105 lbs. Monday, August 11 View Page August 2, 2008,,,Here's my brother John Barenie with his first place pumpkin at the Lake County Indiana Fair, it weighed 883.5 lbs. Monday, August 11 View Page August 3, 2008,,,Here is the 1178 Lovelace after I discovered a stem split,,,it's not into the cavity, so thanks to Unkadan and Buddy G, I was instructed how to do some stem surgery that might relieve it from further splitting into the fruit,,,Thanks Guys, I have my fingers crossed now!!!!!! Tuesday, August 12 View Page This picture was taken on Saturday, August 9, 2008,,,It's the 1178 Lovelace,,,It was measured today (August 11, 2008) and tapes in at 606 lbs, with a circ. of 149, and an OTT total of 306 Tuesday, August 12 View Page Here is the 1319 Greene pumpkin, also taken on Saturday, August 9, 2008,,,It measured in at 322lbs today, August 11, 2008, with a circ. of 110 1/2 and an OTT total of 246 Wednesday, August 13 View Page Had to do another stem slice on the opposite side of the 1178 Lovelace pumpkin,,,my fingers are still crossed and I'm still praying,,, Wednesday, August 13 View Page August 12, 2008,,,Noticed the 1319 Greene pumpkin is getting these spots all over it, and it has dots of pumpkin sap coming out of them. When they were just by the stem, I was concerned,,,but, this worries me,,,is this thing on its way out?? Thursday, August 28 View Page This was taken of the 1178 Lovelace on August 26th,,,the day before it was estimating 923 and gaining about 17 pounds a day,,,the circumference was 172 3/4" Thursday, August 28 View Page This is the 1178 Lovelace taken tonight,,,its low and wide,,,the tarp is 5 1/2 ft. in the front,,, Thursday, August 28 View Page This is a side view of the 1178 Lovelace taken tonight,,,its long too!!! Thursday, August 28 View Page This is the 1319 Greene taken this evening,,on August 25th it was estimating 458lbs,,,its circ was 126,,, Thursday, August 28 View Page The 1178 lovelace is 60 days old today, the 1319 Greene is 51 days old today Sunday, August 31 View Page Last night I went to cover up the 1178 Lovelace and I noticed this,,,see the little black spot, it's the beginning of a split at the rib,,,I think it's all the way through into the cavity,,,so, it was a great ride while it lasted,,,it split right at the 1000 pound mark,,,John helped me measure today, it came in at an OTT total of 364.25, with a circ. measurement of 178 3/4",,,the estimated weight is 1010,,,now lets see how much more it will gain before it goes down,,,the fun isn't over yet,,, Sunday, August 31 View Page The 1178, based on measurements,is still gaining 13 lbs. a day,,,it's sad to see a good contender go down, but I still have the imfamous 1319 Greene to fall back on,,,it's small, but mighty,,,lol,,,and I can begin a new set of pipe dreams for next years pumpkins!!!!Hopefully someone else in the family can still have a nice one before the October weigh offs,,, Tuesday, September 16 View Page It's Tuesday,,,starting Friday, we got a little rain, funny thing was, it forgot to stop raining,,,here are some pictures of our patch that were affected,,,these pictures were taken on Sunday, around noon, the first is my side of the back taken from the second floor window of the house,,,mine are hidden behind the garage and up to the hybrid prizewinners, where you see alot of real orange ones growing,,,notice behind the fence of my patch, the sitting water back in the field,,, Tuesday, September 16 View Page In this one, you can see the hybrid prizewinners and John's side of the patch,,,under a tent in front of the fence there is a pretty good sized pump, John spent all night Saturday night watching and refilling the gas in the pump,,,note the sitting water in front of his side of the patch,,, Tuesday, September 16 View Page A second smaller pump was in there also,,,its hooked to the yellow hose you see here,,,the big pump is hooked to the blue hose Tuesday, September 16 View Page The blue hose was hooked to this black hose, which ran out to the street and the city storm sewer,,,it put out a pretty good water flow,,, Tuesday, September 16 View Page We had to pump for 3 days,,,now we wait and see what real damage was done,,,this last picture is of John's side from ground level,,,the rain finally stopped Sunday afternoon,,,I'm not sure what our rain total was, but just south of us, towns were reporting that they'd gotten 12 to 13 inches of rain,,,I'm sure we fall near to those totals,, Friday, September 26 View Page On Sept. 20th, I was lucky to get to go to Kentucky to see the second weigh off at Bear Wallow Farm Friday, September 26 View Page I traveled down there with 2 of my nieces,,,it was an 8 hour trip and we spent the night before at the super beights motel, where you can't get back out your door, no lie,,,so we left through this window Friday, September 26 View Page My nieces Danielle (top)and Claire (below), helped me carve a special pumpkin for the Kentucky growers,,, Friday, September 26 View Page I finally got to meet some of the growers down there,,I apologize, the first gentleman, I don't know his name, then Steveann, John, Bill, and Larry Friday, September 26 View Page Here from West Virginia was Keith Barrett, with James Van Hook, and Jeff Zoellner,,,Jeff is a new grower from Ohio Friday, September 26 View Page Frank Mudd set a new Kentucky record for watermelon with his 251 lb fruit, if I was better with the digital camera, I'd know what happened to the picture of Larry Burton with the new Kentucky record pumpkin!!!! Friday, September 26 View Page Here is Dwight Slone with Frank Mudd, as they load his record breaking melon after the weigh off Friday, September 26 View Page Another person that came from a distance was Andy Wolf,,,Here he is harvesting seeds from an exhibition pumpkin he brought to be weighed Friday, September 26 View Page Here is a posting of the standings from the weigh off,,,Congratulations everyone on a job well done!!!!! Friday, September 26 View Page And,,,Here is the finished product of the pumpkin we carved,,,it was a great day and we had a wonderful time meeting everyone,,,thanks for the southern hospitality Tuesday, September 30 View Page Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008,,,The 1178 Lovelace finally gave it up, it's seeping from the bottom,,,the final measurements are circ. 183 3/4", ss 94 3/4", ot 97 1/2",,,ott total 376 for an estimated weigh of 1112 Tuesday, September 30 View Page Sept. 27, 2008,,,Here's a shot of the wall thickness, you can see it was getting alittle mushy by this point,the lower walls were thinner,,,it had 734 good seeds in it Tuesday, September 30 View Page Sept. 27, 2008,,,Here is a shot of the inside of its stem,,,see the split,,, Unkadan, I do believe you helped save this one,,,THANK YOU!!! And thanks to all the other good advice I was given by everyone else along the way, I truly appreciate it!!!!! Soon we will see what the 1319 weighs,,, Wednesday, October 8 View Page October 3, 2008,,,Here is my 1319 Greene on the day before the weigh off, we picked it and found a soft spot on the bottom, it taped 507lbs, weighed 542 UOW,,,maybe the water earlier in the month took its toll on it,,,who knows!!!!! Wednesday, October 8 View Page October 3, 2008,,,Here is dad with his 926 Barenie, on Saturday October 4th, it took first place at the Gatewood Farms Weigh Off in Noblesville, Indiana,,,it weighed 1087.5 lbs,,dad's first one over a 1000,not sure the percentage, but I know it went heavy,,,,GREAT JOB DAD!!!!!! Wednesday, October 8 View Page October 3, 2008,,this is John and my brother in law Lewis preparing to move John's 1231 Pukos,,,it placed 2nd at the Gatewood Farms Weigh Off on October 4, 2008,,,it was also heavy and weighed 970.5 lbs,,,nice one John!!!!! Wednesday, October 8 View Page October 4, 2008,,,Here is my mom, Rita with her 962 Barenie at the Didiers Farm Weigh Off, she placed 4th and her pumpkin weighed in at 1004 lbs,,,CONGRATS ON MAKING THE 1000 POUND CLUB MOM!!!! Wednesday, October 8 View Page October 7, 2008,,,Pulled the seeds from the 1319 today, it wasn't like the 1178, good and plentiful,,,many were empty and undeveloped, havent taken a count, but maybe two to 300 at the max, if that many,,,here's a shot of its wall thickness