Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 17 Entries. Tuesday, April 10 View Page My 12 y/o sons first bird. Me and my hunting buddy took him out Sat. for youth day. 21.5 pounds, 10.5 beard, and 1 1/4 spurs, and one happy kid, and dad! Monday, April 16 View Page 100% on all seeds, under light and on there way Monday, April 16 View Page All seeds up and under lights Monday, April 16 View Page 2012 Melon Complex. 5 plants this year Monday, April 16 View Page 282 Dawson plant for the Raleigh farmers market weighoff for the first Thursday in August. Been in the ground now 3 weeks and has come alive the past week. Havn't used any lighting, but the heating cables really help the early ones for me. Monday, April 23 View Page Sam Lovelace accepted my award in Las Vegas this year, and mailed it to me. Thanks Sam, and GPC. Will hang proudly on the wall. Saturday, May 5 View Page 282Dawson, early plant is now in high gear, really starting to take off. Pinched a few females off, waiting for a plant that is ready to grow a melon. Monday, May 7 View Page Lineup complete. Early 282 for August, then 255 Mitchell, 282 Dawson, 274 Kent, and 228 Knight, are all planted and survived t-storms on Sat. Have 1/2 bed in the back for lopes, maybe plant them in a week or so, 44 Holloways are getting ready. Thursday, May 17 View Page Despite cool nights, and clouds and rain, the early 282 is gaing ground. Thursday, May 17 View Page One of the baby's Tuesday, June 19 View Page Okra, snaps, and pea's Tuesday, June 19 View Page "how sweet it is" corn doing great Tuesday, June 19 View Page Corn is planted where the melons were last year, and I mean, they are loving the rich soil. Never had sweet corn 7 foot, and not tassled yet. Monday, August 27 View Page Season started out with plants never really growing well. Color was never good, and overall just not what I have had in the past. I blamed weather, but in the back of my mind, I knew something wasnt right.I send soil test to A&L, and did tissue tests at NCSU hopeing for a answer. All test came back with good reports, even better than last years reports. Then later in the year, the leaves started to show signs of diease. Then the whole plant, and then the melons. So in a effort to keep from spreading I pulled all plants, cleaned beds, and have planted mustard. But in the end I still am unsure of the reason. I believe the manure I brought in this year was not composted engough and may have carried a diease in it, but at this point it's all guessing. Same spray program, and fertilize schedule as last year, but way different results. Monday, August 27 View Page When spraying early season, no matter what, (kelp,fungicide, or anything) it seemed to have a negitive effect on the plant. Like the plant was weak, and couldn't handle anything. At the end, the leaves had alot of this spoting. The vines had brown lessions, and when pruned would not grow back. I did notice mole runs when plants were pulled, so the tought of grubs, along with the moles did cross my mind as a reason for such lazidasical growth. Monday, August 27 View Page The lack of females always kept me guessing. Plants were a good 400-450 squre feet but no ZERO females. It was toward the first week of July before any females appeared, and they were all odd shaped and very few. I would guessimate each plant only produced 10-12 females all year long. Once I set melons on each plant, growth was only 1-2 per day. Plants and melons were all pulled by day 35, and melon growth never got above 2 pounds a day. At the end all stems feeding melons dripped a brown goo, along with some vines. Now looking back over the whole season, my problems started back in May, but still have no clue of the culprit. Fresh manure, moles/grubs, or what ever, it wasn't good. Then when tissue tests revealed better than last year, thats when I got really puzzled. Anyone that wants to play Dr, I'm all ears. Best of luck to everyone, and hope to see alot of people in Elkin. Tuesday, October 30 View Page My youngest son, Grady, harvested his first deer this afternoon. Super Happy for him.