Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 141 Entries. Friday, January 10 View Page 2014 is here! I pray this year is enjoyable and fun. That is what it is about. May God's amazing grace and love lead us this year. Joshua? Yes papa! Where are we going? To get cow poo papa!   Friday, January 10 View Page We headed out to the local dairy, best manure around. This is where they compost it over 5 months before we bought it. I did not put in manure last year, so it was time! Forgive my pictures, the camera was weird and light! :)   Friday, January 10 View Page what did you find buddy? Cow poo papa!!! And lots of it.   Friday, January 10 View Page 3 yards of it! I was sooooo blessed to have been given the truck for this job. It saved a lot of money compared to being delivered. Thank you Mr Jim from Sonrise church, totally awesome how you helped me out.   Friday, January 10 View Page what is with the funny face buddy? Too much excitement????   Friday, January 10 View Page well, papa found out! lol Joshua went pee big time right when papa was holding him too :-D We both got pretty wet! Gotta love it! What an awesome start to the season.   Friday, January 10 View Page huge pumpkin cannon at the farm, Joshua loves pumpkin cannons!   Friday, January 10 View Page back home, shredded leaves, manure just shoveled out!   Friday, January 10 View Page guess who showed up? Gourdzilla, or vince, taking some leaves for his patch!   Friday, January 10 View Page aaaahhhh, whew! :=D   Friday, January 10 View Page another 2 hours plus tilling and.........   Friday, January 10 View Page papa is wore out Joshua!!! All done for another few months. Where else can you ammend your patch on January 10th and break a sweat in 80 degree weather. And the season has begun:)   Monday, February 24 View Page Well, as the 2014 season approaches, here's to the memory of the 980 Fredricks fruit grown 2 years ago. Me and Joshua are so excited to grow our own seed again. I really believe that we did not max out the 980's potential in size at my patch 2 years ago. We pray God can bless us this year and see what happens. Oh, and this year I pulled out the secret weapon to try and one up My Dunn and get back those 31 lbs I lost last year :-D I will keep the secret weapon a secret until the very end, when I will reveal it on my diary. I am really curious to see if it makes a difference. I have never used this "weapon" ever before in 12 years growing. lol I know you will be wondering all season what it is Chris! As for now, it is the sahara desert in my patch and my leaves are not decomposing at all. We need rain or I might have to start watering the patch!   Wednesday, March 5 View Page Today's diary post will be a reflection on what matters most this season: Yesterday at work, a friend of mine for 7 years got a call that her sister, 35 years old, married and with small kids, passed out at her house. She was rushed to the hospital where she died of 3 blood clots in her lungs. A shock and very sad day. I do not believe she had a relationship with Christ from what I know, but that is an assumption on my part. As we move into the season, always concentrate on what is most important in life, love and relationships with God and our loved ones. How we spend our time each day is the best gift we can give to our loved ones and to our Heavenly Father. It is another reminder that we are here for just a short time, and our focus should be not on what we see now, but the unseen eternity to come. For there is one God, one faith, one baptism, and one mediator between man and God, who is Jesus our Lord. If you don't know Him, my prayer is that you will find Him and find life in Him. Here is to a new 2014 season, may we spend our time wisely and full of love, with a servants heart for those we meet.   Monday, March 24 View Page well, will update the diary. Been on vacation and just stayed in san diego with the family. Here is my wife and two boys at sea world! What a blessing!   Monday, March 24 View Page we hit up the bay more for fun than for fishing with my wife and son Joshua who is now 3. My wife pulled in this fish which I had never caught in all my years. It is called a midshipmen. It has some of the most beautiful markings on the underside like stitching in many designs. Nice fish sweety and sharp teeth! :) Ok, for all of you orange guys out there, I have some exciting news. I will be growing the 980 Fredricks and crossing it with two different seeds. With the 1985 miller for size and thickness, and another cross for genetics only, but really excited for this one, 1491.5 werner by 980 fredricks. That will be some awesome genetics for big, orange, and heavy. The plant will be small, but the genes are what I am looking for on this cross. When I cross, I don't like to just go purdy, it has to go big and purdy, and that is why I chose the 1491 genes, big and purdy and really heavy. Will be fun:)   Saturday, April 5 View Page Joshua. Yes papa. We are in big trouble buddy! Why papa? Mr Chris has been testing seeds all winter and his cover crop looks like the garden of eden buddy! I think we are up against a heavy hitter. lol We don't stand a chance, we haven't even gotten a soil test done! Well, let's hope that the secret weapon really works, we are gonna need it :-D Papa? Yes Joshua? Have you ordered the secret weapon yet? Uh oh, we better get right on it!!!!!   Friday, April 11 View Page Chris, you are crazy buddy!!! Motor oil will not beat my super secret weapon! lol By the way, did I order our secret weapon yet Joshua????? Not yet papa! Boy am I lagging lol. Been to busy with car stuff lately myself but it isn't motor oil :)   Tuesday, April 15 View Page My mom, Joshua, and baby andrew!   Tuesday, April 15 View Page hhmmmm.....   Tuesday, April 15 View Page hhhhmmmmm..   Tuesday, April 15 View Page wow.....   Tuesday, April 15 View Page Hey Joshua, this thing looks way bigger than in the picture! I think they super sized us!!!! lol Joshua, do you know how to use this thing??? Well, who cares if we don't know what we are doing, it's a super secret weapon, it should do something good :-D   Tuesday, April 15 View Page This is a fun picture from memory lane. Myself and vince back in 2005 at my old patch in el cajon at a friends house. This fruit topped off at 38 lbs a day when I had way less experience and less growing skills and techniques. She blew up on me with a blossom end split, but I grew her out to 55 days. She was headed over 1100 lbs on the old 2003 chart if she would have grew out and stayed in one piece, she weighed in 10% light at 861 lbs, 359 ott back then. Good memory photo and one heck of a ride 9 years ago in san diego. And Chris, Joshua said to keep guessing, your mist blower guess is not correct! :)   Monday, April 21 View Page soil test got back. Results were less than saisfactory. Lol. A few things that always seem to puzzle me in san diego, salts are always high, even when I never fertilize. I've been told our water is high in salt, so I think I believe it. It came back at 5.8 The dry winter did not help, nothing got leached out. Potassium, jumped up to 2500 ppm, way higher than even last years 1400. No clue why it won't go down. I didn't even add manure last year, I did this spring. Go figure. And lastly my ph is 8.1, so I gotta hit it with a lot of sulfer. Again, our water ph is high, it is a never ending cyle trying to get the ph down. So to wrap it up, hehehe, my soil looks kind of messed up. Well, we will see what it grows!!!!   Wednesday, April 23 View Page Well, I found on old small sprinkler and it is currently on all day today. I am starting on one side of the patch where I will plant. My soil is nuked lol. Thanks Chris for the call today, will make a plan of action when I get more info. The first plan is to leach some salts and high numbers down. With a bone dry winter and high temps, seems like a lot of things were drawn up from the soil to the surface instead of being flushed by rains. Well, no more testing, I'm on a budget. We will flood for awhile, ammend, and go for it!   Thursday, April 24 View Page operation Noah's Ark now in process. Trying to flood the salts and high numbers down a little before planting. I am not an expert at this in San Diego!!!! It doesn't even rain here lol. I wondered if it was working, so I walked into the flooded area and sunk 1 foot deep and almost lost my shoe!!! :)   Thursday, April 24 View Page Thank you Father for your promises:) You can see my sparce winter pea cover crop, didn't sprout so well or grow too big in our 90 plus temps this spring. Iwill not re test soil after this, too expensive:-D Let's have some fun Joshua!!!!   Wednesday, April 30 View Page good thing plants are not started yet, huge santa ana winds all week, temps around 100, feels like the desert. All sorts of records being set. If plants were out, they would have been toast with this wind. I found 4 dead crows by the patch, all in one spot. They were not quite full grown but seemed to have been juviniles completely blown out of a tree to my east and hit the ground dead! Yikes, poor guys. Crazy wind and weather!!!!!!!   Tuesday, May 6 View Page Joshua, T minus 2 days and counting. Seeds will be officially started on the night of May 8th! Patch is still in set up mode, hoping to get it up and running soon! Seeds of choice, well, no other than my own 980 Fredricks. Let's have some fun buddy!   Wednesday, May 7 View Page This might be an interedting year now that Joshua is 3. He is very smart and he has learned to turn off and on my water that controls the whole patch system. He also has learned how to scale 3 foot chicken wire and successfully get inside the patch bending and tripping on papas drip lines, lol. I might be in for sabatoge this year Chris and lucky if I get a plant that is not destroyed by Joshua. I need barb wire I think!!!! I'm gonna have nightmares of my water being turned off for misting on a 100 degree day while I'm at work. Oh goodness!   Wednesday, May 14 View Page two of my three 980 Fredricks seeds are starting to break dirt, the third is yet to be seen but is developing nicely under the dirt (via digging down to find out) :) Been under the weather lately, been so many bugs this year and having small kids. I also get to have minor surgery tomorrow for a skin spot being removed. Yuck. The Lord is good, even on the hardest of days with health suffering. I still learn faith everyday in this mortal body of mine and I know He is faithful. Weather is insane hot, not good this early.   Friday, May 16 View Page Joshua and the three amigos just after coming up, all seeds are 980 fredricks. Just after this photo, we moved them to patch. Joshua helped, but when he picked up the pot, he started squishing it!!! Papa quickly put down his pots and stopped the squishing but unfortunately papa did it so fast one of his 980 plants pot fell over badly spilling out a lot of dirt and almost ripped out the little guy. lol. What a starte :) Well, we put the dirt back in, un squished the other pot and that is that. Might have taken out a few roots but what doesn't kill ya makes ya stronger. Go 980, go 980, go LOl   Friday, May 16 View Page here they are one day later looking fine ;-D   Friday, May 16 View Page the patch! will transplant in a few days, no rush, weather has been insane and half of san diego has been on fire. Scary weather and fires.   Saturday, May 17 View Page What ya got there Joshua???? I don't know papa! Let me tell you buddy. That is our main ingredient for our new covert operation, code name, "operation bud light". Ok, papa. If you have seen my diary before, you probably know what is coming:) ....   Saturday, May 17 View Page pill bugs are my most dreaded enemy by the thousands. Last year I took out over 3000 by my estimations, maybe more. Curious to see if my effort last year curbed the population, especially with a dry year. Empty tuna can set down into dirt.....   Saturday, May 17 View Page fill it with beer and they come running to drink it. They fall in, get drunk, and drown. This Bud's for you Mr pill bug!! lol Especially since I don't drink ;-D   Monday, June 2 View Page been awhile since posting so here we go. This is my number one plant so far, the 980 fredricks. So far so good, she looks normal and healthy with no doubles or mutations.   Monday, June 2 View Page My second choice, the 980 Fredricks plant B. Very healthy as well.   Monday, June 2 View Page Third choice, the 980 fredricks C plant. I call her curly, all her leaves were a little off center. Nothing wrong with her, just not as pretty as the others. She will get cut soon.   Monday, June 2 View Page in the corner of the patch, genetics only, not getting any attention, and fastest grower in patch, the 1491 werner.   Monday, June 2 View Page I let Joshua take care of her, she might not survive! lol :)   Saturday, June 7 View Page 980 fredricks c plant, aka curly was taken out today. A moment of silence please. The 980 plant A and B are neck and neck, it's anyone's race now. I will let them grow another week or so before choosing. Seems like operation bud light was a success. Actually last years bud light worked so well that there have been significantly less kills this year. I must have wacked the population pretty good last year. Myself, Joshua, and my dad will be going on a 3 day 300 plus mile trip on way for camping starting monday. I will take pictures of it. Should be fun and interesting :) Last but not least, the 1491 werner for genetics is alive by God's grace. Joshua took a hoe to it when I was on the opposite side of the patch. It ripped off a vine and a leaf or two, but survived by a miracle! lol   Wednesday, June 11 View Page Sierra trip 2014!! Joshua at Grandpa's motel with the towering mountains behind just arriving. 3 generations, my dad, me and my son.   Wednesday, June 11 View Page Me and joshua stayed in a tent at the camp, dad down at the motel, our camp site in Grays Meadow.   Wednesday, June 11 View Page Joshua loved the stream! Just beautiful country.   Wednesday, June 11 View Page looks like someone is having fun! lol   Wednesday, June 11 View Page day two on the way up to bige pine creek, big glaciers even in such a dry year.   Wednesday, June 11 View Page a pond stocked with trout, we caught 5 trout in about 20 minutes on a home made fly, really fun. My dad has all of the fish photos! We caught about 10 trout in 2 days and we weren't fishing that much with a 3 year old.   Wednesday, June 11 View Page beautiful stream! Joshua loves waterfalls. but....   Wednesday, June 11 View Page Joshua got really really homesick on the second day. Poor guy, he cried a lot. We tried everything but to no avail. His first time away from mama for 3 days and home. Plus our first night it got real windy and it scared him pretty bad at night in the tent. So we cut the activities a little short and tried our best to get him through the second night. Me and Joshua went to the motel and slept with dad so he wouldn't be scared. Papa was actually kind of happy for this since he got about 1 hour sleep the night before in the tent! But Joshua still was miserable so we headed home early on the third day instead of doing some more stuff. A memoriable trip, by God's grace. Joshua did manage to break the tent when taking it down, broke a window blind at the motel, and locked us out of the kitchen and bathroom with a one side locking door with no key! lol. That was embarrassing. :)   Wednesday, June 11 View Page 980 fredricks plant A, way longer than when I left a few days ago, about 4 foot out.   Wednesday, June 11 View Page 980 fredricks B plant closest, the 980 A plant behind. Plant B actually looks bigger than plant A, a larger stump and vine, very agressive. Plant A has tap roots growing fast from the vine, plant B has much less aggressive tap roots, not much yet. Which to pull????? Ahhhh, I have no idea.   Wednesday, June 11 View Page another look, 980 A on left   Wednesday, June 11 View Page 1491 werner for genetics!   Tuesday, June 17 View Page well, here was my choice, I kept the 980 plant A. 980 plant B actually had bigger vines and leaves, it reminded me of the 980 I grew over 1100 lbs 2 years ago. Call me dumb, but I wanted to try a 980 with a different look. This plant is just as aggresive, but let's call it a more delicate looking plant. Smaller vines, pretty leaves, etc. It is growing like a weed even in mild temps. Only time will tell what she grows. Let's hope size doesn't matter :-D   Tuesday, June 17 View Page one more look at the 980 fredricks. She is about 7 foot out now. The 980's run fast, if we warm up, she will launch.   Monday, June 23 View Page 980 Fredricks as of today. She is healthy and growing well as of now. Not the biggest plant I have grown, but she is sizing up slowly. I have been foliar spraying calcium and a new micro spray this year along with manganese. Other than that, just seaweed.   Monday, June 23 View Page Here you go Mr Dunn and Vince, first pumpkin on her at 10 foot out. Probably will polinate as a back up. Hoping for the next one to be "the one"   Friday, June 27 View Page 1491 werner got pulled today, unfortunately with no shade or misting, all male and female flowers withered and turned yellow. Leaves looked healthy but flagged severly during daytime. We gave it a go, but didn't work out. 980 Fredricks main is out of the patch, hoping to polinate keeper at 16 feet in 7 to 10 days, rolling the dice. Not gonna polinate at 10 feet, have another that will be 20 feet out. Joshua keeps throwing things at the plant unfortunately, have some holes in a few leaves. This plant reminds me a lot of the 1610 lieber on the father side, vines are still skinny, smaller leaves, yet very fats growing plant. So far heat tolerant on new growth and let's hope she goes purdy orange like the 1610.   Tuesday, July 1 View Page 980 fredricks is really ripping in growth now. Main is way out of the patch under the shade cloth at the bottom of the photo. My fruit at 16 feet will open in 4 to 5 days, but I am concerned, there is a small abnormality on the outside of the flower, wondering if it will be normal inside. Every fruit on this plant is perfect, except the one I need to be!! :) If she is deformed, I am in real trouble.   Tuesday, July 1 View Page here she is from top view, you can't really see in photo, but one side of flower looks a little funny, pumpkin shape is perfect. Cross your fingers Joshua. Hey Mr Dunn, you are too quiet this year! :-D I bet you already got one going at 500 lbs by now. hehe   Saturday, July 5 View Page went to old town in san diego today for fourth of July with my parents and family. Here is part of the gang!   Saturday, July 5 View Page here is a shot of the 980 fredricks with the shade off over the tip of the main. She isn't a big plant in vine size and leaves, but she is way aggressive and fast growing, about a foot a day currently. Very easy plant to grow with no issues I can think of that concern me. Fun to grow your own.   Saturday, July 5 View Page Cross your finger Joshua, she will go off tomorrow!   Saturday, July 5 View Page this is the side where the flower is a little funny on one spot. I really need her to be the one! :)   Saturday, July 5 View Page another shot. where the red bark begins, is where the patch ends.   Saturday, July 5 View Page this is the fruit at 10 foot out, it was an emergency polination. I hadn't planned on polinating her, but decided to last minute when I saw the slightly deformed flower. She is not in the best position, but if all else fails, I can whack the main and use it If I am desperate. She was an open polination that I selfed.   Saturday, July 5 View Page leaves look healthy and green, but I am under an aphid attack. I discovered them all over the plant in many areas. Will spray sometime this week with organicide. It would be nice to just meri the plant and be done!!! Ah, the joys of the hard way going organic :-D   Saturday, July 5 View Page the pumpkin opened and was a perfect looking 5 lober, a big smile came on my face when I opened her up this morning. Unfortunately it was mid 90's today and humid, smokin hot, of course on my polination day! Styrofoam cooler, frozen water bottle and 20 lbs of ice around the cooler on and off all day to keep her cool. A lot of work, but hopefully worth it with a healthy polination. Cross my fingers she will take and we are off and running. Cross secured, 980 fredricks x 1985 miller.   Saturday, July 12 View Page went in the boat with the whole family in san diego bay. Took 7 month andrew too! Just for fun, but I threw the pole a few times with Joshua, here is a nice bay bass! They fight hard like small mouth, aggressive little suckers:)   Saturday, July 12 View Page look who showed up at the patch! Mr Chris Dunn! He came on a secret mission to the patch traveling a very long distance, trying to unearth our "secret weapon". He searched and searched and finally found it, but.....   Saturday, July 12 View Page Joshua covered it with our cooler we use for polination! lol Oh, so close to it Mr Dunn, but so far away from knowing what it is!   Saturday, July 12 View Page the 980 fredricks as of the evening time. She looks healthy, but really fighting off some aphids, found a big clump again under one leaf. ggggrrrr.   Saturday, July 12 View Page a symbolic shot of the 980 fredricks fruit at day 7, slowly growing with tape measure infront. So far our secret weapon hasn't spurred any fast growth, let's hope she is a slow starter and kicks it in to gear. Chris, thank you for taking the time to come down so far and visit. We had a blast seeing you and enjoying your company as always. Blessings to you and your family and patch.   Wednesday, July 16 View Page what we are attempting to do here is the poor man's mister machine! Backpack pump sprayer on and loaded with milk, check!   Wednesday, July 16 View Page leaf blower in one hand, backpack sprayer wand carefully infront of leaf blower and bam! lol, there she blows, even though you can't see it in the photo, it is blowing milk good on the underside. One step closer to red neck growing. :) Who needs the real deal Chris lol. Weather has been cool last 2 days, alomst 20 degrees below normal yesterday and pumpkin growth slowed way down. Weather is warming again, so hoping the 980 will start to take off soon in pumpkin growth   Sunday, July 20 View Page well, discovered my first bonehead error of the season. Somehow my vine tips must have gotten hit by some of my manganese spray 3 days ago. Not sre how, must have drifted with the wind since I avoid the tip area. All of my secondaries have burned leaves and tips on new growth:( gggggrrrr. lol Never made that error before, still a little confused how it happened. I didn't notice until after I pruned my trieteries too!!!! lol I cut two of the vines off and will let a small trietery finish the last remaining area, but many of the trieteris got fried too. Gonna be some ugly leaves in the last 150 sq foot of the patch. On a brighter note, pumpkin on the 980 is day 14, growing steady and looking very orange and pretty. Hope she goes big:)   Wednesday, July 23 View Page This is the area I chopped off my vines after the burn. Still not sure how it got on the tips, but oh well:) I have a few trieteries I found that I missed when pruning, nice surprise, that will continue the vines the last few feet and fill in the patch.   Wednesday, July 23 View Page 980 fredricks plant is very healthy, but gonna get real hot the next few days. Interesting note for anyone who wants to try a product, I needed a micro spray so I tried, "spray n grow" which is organic and had rave reviews. My plant seems healthier than ever and on a side note, for the past 5 years, I always get a black mold growing on the under side of my leaves and no one can ever identify it, seems to not hurt the plant too bad. This is the first year I do not have it anywhere in patch!! Only one thing different, that is the spray n grow. Looks like it works!   Wednesday, July 23 View Page the spray n grow post should have had a photo! :)   Wednesday, July 23 View Page day 18 on the 980 fredricks. I have a sneaking feeling she is gonna pack on some good poundage. Her growth rate is steady and increasing every day. Hoping she might go nice orange too, time will tell!   Wednesday, July 23 View Page Our good friend, and brother in the Lord Mr Chris Dunn, also one of our main competitors, has taken a big hit and lost his plant at home. We were sad to hear the news and we held a moment of silence for Chris and his family, I know it is hard to take when it happens. Our condolensces to the loss.   Tuesday, July 29 View Page snuck over to my competition, mr vince. He is living up to his name again as gourdzilla! Plant is totally out of control over the whole driveway :) lol. Hey Vince, when you read this, your plant is nuts! lol Your fruit is bigger than mine too! :-D My pumpkin on the 980 is 24 days old. Honestly her growth is not impressive as of now. I was waiting for her to take off and she keeps saying no so far, doing 19 to 20 lbs a day and not budging yet. Hey Chris, we have something in common, my 980 has mosaic virus now too. I wasn't sure on my burn, cause it keeps coming and looks unique, but it is subtle. But I saw a small pumpkin for the first time that looked blochy instead of normal. It is on the very end of the plant, so hopefully I'm ok for my fruit. Too many aphids this year!!! Merit slowed them down but they are still popping up even after drenching. Hopes of a new personal best do not look good right now. I'm wondering if my soil report, which mysteriously seems a little more out of balance every year is hurting my growth. Well, we have done out best, so time to be thankful for whatever we get blessed with from above.   Wednesday, July 30 View Page 980 fredricks is definitely having "issues" now of a viral affect. It appears to be some kind of mosaic virus, a few mottled fruit, mottled leaves, and vince tips burning off as if they had no heat tolerance. I seem to be having trouble filling in the end of the patch, set a new vine and it burns off, etc. Not getting root growth on vines at the end either. I think it is the disease year Chris! looks like I followed in your steps. Fruit does not appear to be showing any deformities at 25 days old, but growth is struggling, kind of makes me think the virus is affecting my fruit growth too. Looks like we will keep the fruit and let her eak out as many pounds as we can. Sorry Joshua, looks like we took a hit buddy!   Thursday, July 31 View Page Virus damage on young leaves of the 980, looks to be some kind of mosaic unfortunately.   Thursday, July 31 View Page another leaf!   Thursday, July 31 View Page whatever virus it is, the tips have no heat tolerance anymore, they burn off even in mist and double shade. Ohhhh,, that is an ugly site. The horror. I can't look lol   Thursday, July 31 View Page most of the plant was grown before visual signs appeared, here is a normal leaf a few feet away from the tips, pushing 3 foot across, kind of prehistoric looking! A little burn on the edge gave it a rough edge on one side   Thursday, July 31 View Page plant looks big and healthy over all, but not sure what the future holds. Pumpkin is either being affected by virus or is a copy of last year, real slow long grower. hhhmmmmm   Thursday, July 31 View Page another look at the plant   Thursday, July 31 View Page 980 fredricks on day 26, not budging on growth, If I use the new chart, which is a heavy chart, she did 23 lbs a day for 3 days in a row and has dropped to 21 lbs a day the lat 5 days in a row. A healthy AG should go up in growth at some point, but so far, she is not. So, your guess is as good as mine on what she will do. Time will tell.   Thursday, August 7 View Page 980 fredricks is day 33 I think? lol she has stayed at 20 to 21 lbs a day ever since day 21. In all my years of growing, I have never seen a growth rate like this with any ag I have ever grown. Always finding something new. The unfortunate part is all of the super humid days has spread powdery mildew throughout the patch. Spots on top of the leaves, and some huge patches on the underside in a few areas. I'm spraying organicide but I am loosing the battle. It is only a matter of time before it gets outs of control. hehehe It is always something in this hobby. Well, not the season I had hoped for, but hey, I'm just curious on this growth pattern. My only hope is that she maintains 21 lbs a day longer than I have ever seen before, who knows, she is unique in her growth.   Tuesday, August 12 View Page evening of day 38 for the 980 fredricks. She is gonna take after her momma with her color, gonna be light to medium orange with some cantaloping, exactly how the 980 looked. I was hoping maybe to get one of the dark orange smooth 980 seeds, but it's ok. I know her growth pattern has been very unique, but I am giving it everything I got and won't give up. She actually has come up in growth a little over the past few days, now 23.5 lbs per day new chart. Hoping she is a real late bloomer and keeps crawling up in growth and hangs on for awhile. Now at an estimated 519 lbs day 38   Tuesday, August 12 View Page oldest part of plant, besides mildew up the ying yang on the underside of my leaves, she is very healthy for her age. I'm not gonna give up the fight for pm, will do everything in my humble little organic sprayer to slow it down just enough to grow her out. Time will tell if it will be successful or not.   Tuesday, August 12 View Page view of other side of plant.   Tuesday, August 12 View Page end of plant where mosaic leaves were affected most, they got full size, but with light blochy color   Tuesday, August 12 View Page close up view of the mosaic   Tuesday, August 12 View Page back of fruit is a little more orange still   Tuesday, August 12 View Page the summer of thunder boomers! Been humid for our area.   Friday, August 15 View Page Here is a discussion Papa and Joshua had tonight: Papa "Joshua, I'm sorry buddy. The pumpkin only averaged 17 lbs a day the last 2 days, it has dropped significantly. It looks like the pumpkin just doesn't want to grow for us. It is not doing good buddy." Joshua "papa, let's thow it away!" lol I had to laugh :) Yes, this was his actual words and his responce. Of course I said no, we can't throw it away! We have to be humble and proud of whatever we grow, even if it might be significantly less in weight than what we had expected. PM is spreading even to tops of leaves, very bad in a few areas. We are bailing water, but the ship is sinking.   Monday, August 18 View Page kind of cool to see organic growing. I have moth catipillars like crazy on the plant, totally green, they make my leaves look like swiss cheese every year. I flock of birds has found my plant and they are going under the leaves to eat the little guys! I tried to get a photo but scared them off. They will be back, it is like a gourmet feast in there, lots of them!   Sunday, August 31 View Page here is a front shot of the 980 fredricks. Her growth has really slowed down now, see how long she can crawl along now, she had dropped to 10 lbs a day. She keeps dropping, hoping she will maintain, but went from 17 to 13 to 12 to 10 lbs a day. Thank you Chris Dunn for brightening up my day as always with your visit! I'm glad you finally got to see the secret weapon! :) lol   Sunday, August 31 View Page old growth is thrashed now, been smokin hot, beating up the plant.   Sunday, August 31 View Page new growth is all mosaic pattern leaves even though it's hard to see in photo!   Sunday, August 31 View Page found one pumpkin in the jungle hanging from my chicken wire, interesting, some new fruit have mosaic symptoms, others do not.   Sunday, August 31 View Page My best photo of the summer, can you believe I got this shot???? This gopher is in my neighborhood close by, me and my family were on a short walk by our house and we found a fresh hole. And behold, he wanted to say hi! Now if anyone knows my ancient history on bp.com when I went by "duster", I am pretty famous for my gopher exploits and it even landed me in a book you might have read a few years back called "backyard giants." I even got some nice emails from some of the nicest fellows you would want to meet! lol I will leave out the details hehehe but let's just say an innocent event that was just out of pure excitment turned into a big mess :-D But this photo will give any pumpkin grower nightmares! Hhhhmmmm, memories.   Saturday, September 13 View Page our 2014 sierra trip started off mysteriously in rain and moisture left over from a hurricane. Beautiful mountains!   Saturday, September 13 View Page the deer wildlife seemed happy to meet us at our cabin, looking for a free handout!   Saturday, September 13 View Page weather change put down the fish bite for the first day unfortunately.   Saturday, September 13 View Page just beautiful God made scenery.   Saturday, September 13 View Page all is not lost, we managed a few fish on day two! Good job dad!   Saturday, September 13 View Page a cool photo of Andrew.   Saturday, September 13 View Page my two sons at Twin lakes near mammoth CA.   Saturday, September 13 View Page the wife looking good!   Saturday, September 13 View Page day three was amazing. Only 4 fish, but 2 were monsters caught on a fly by myself. I got so excited that I kept yelling, "where is the net? Get the net!" even though we didn't have a net. lol We were on rocks, big rocks, and it was by God's grace we landed both fish by hand. The almost both got away at shore but we grabbed them, barely in time. Whew. first trout, 2 lbs 1 oz, weighed after it was dead awhile. so lost a little weight. 18 inches long   Saturday, September 13 View Page the next one, just under 3 lbs, weighing 2 lbs 12 oz, 20 inches long.   Saturday, September 13 View Page a little size comparison of the normal size trout and the big guys.   Saturday, September 13 View Page came home and found that my pumpkin plant is almost dead, really died in 6 days. Gains were only 4 lbs a day, still in the upper 800 range. Even though it is way under our personal best, we will enjoy it. Not sure if it will make pumpkinmania, plant and fruit have 6 more weeks and weather is waaaay over the 100 mark the whole week. I'm just happy for such an amazing trip by God's grace with my family.   Wednesday, September 17 View Page 108 today with rain and high humidity! Even at 9:30 pm, I feel like I can't breath outside, this is insane hot with high humidity!!!!! :)   Thursday, September 18 View Page bad news in the patch, high heat, and I mean extreme high heat and humidity (which is the rare part for us), has caused the stem to go from healthy to very unhealthy in 48 hours. It looks like a catastraphic failure from rot. I have never seen something hit this fast and big. I doubt the fruit will go up to pumpkinmania, but time will tell. For sure the stem is toast, and maybe the fruit. I don't have time to weigh it personally or the means to get it to a scale on a quick notice, so she might be an unweighed estimated fruit. My only hope for her was a very heavy weight, but looks like we won't know. If I end up just cutting her up, will see how thick the walls are. Fruit is still sound so far.   Tuesday, September 23 View Page well, the patch isn't looking so hot so I thought I would put another photo up of my trip. This was when I was landing my big trout at Convict lake. As for the pumpkin, in my 6 years at this patch, well, unfortunately my ott this year was only smaller one time :) I won't give away the ott since my fruit might make it to our weigh off. I chopped off a good section of the stem and put a fan on it. Time will tell...   Saturday, September 27 View Page the patch as of today. She went from the healthiest plant I had ever had to one of the unhealthiest for early die off. I attribute it to the mosaic virus mainly, along with over grown pm problems, and then temps up to 108 with humidity. A rough end to the season with the fruit only growing 70 days. My average is atleast 80 days, with 90 plus days realistic. Vince got over 100 days one year. So I missed a lot of year end weight with the fruit stopping early.   Saturday, September 27 View Page the stem on the 980. The whole stem is starting to go soft, so I give it another week max before it totally rots off. If she makes it, still will try to bring her up to pumpkinmania if God opens the door for transportation and lifting. But she will be off of the vine a long time sitting in hot weather, weight will be lost on a smaller sized fruit already. :) Not much to be done except enjoy her while she lasts.   Saturday, September 27 View Page a side shot of her!   Saturday, September 27 View Page unfortunately, only about a very small area about a foot and a half to 2 feet around the blossom is smooth skinned and red orange. I was hoping to have this for the whole fruit, but looks like these genetics only gave me 10% orange :-D   Tuesday, September 30 View Page well, stem is all soft now, much faster than expected, she will be off the vine for a month, not sure if she will make it:)   Sunday, October 26 View Page Thank you Gourdzilla, Mr Vince, his gracious help allowed my fruit to make the weigh off. My wife flew half way around the world to see her ailing father, so I have both kids for a week and my hands full. I had no time or means to bring up my fruit, he and his family helped out. Thank you Gina, for heping with the kids while at the weigh off. You guys are a blessing.   Sunday, October 26 View Page the boys packed in the car with me on the way up.   Sunday, October 26 View Page to catch everyone up, it was a tough year for all in southern california, including my patch. High heat and lots of disease took out a lot of growers this year. My fruit stopped growing at day 70 and the plant was toast. I usually get 90 days and I felt this fruit would have grown 100 days with a healthy plant, but the heat and mosaic killed it early. It ended up at 870 estimated, one of my smallest fruits ever in this patch. Off of the vine for a month in high heat, I knew it lost a lot of weight by sight and by feel. God provided a way up with vince, so we loaded it and went and thanked God for the blessing. Joshua also took up this fruit that weighed in at 35 lbs, he won youngest grower award! Awesome buddy!   Sunday, October 26 View Page some of the competition at pumpkinmania.   Sunday, October 26 View Page Team Dunn looking awesome! Kingston's fruit was great, what an incredible job he did! He ended up taking second place with a 649.5 lber, beating out 3rd place by 3 lbs at 646. Good job kingston!!!!   Sunday, October 26 View Page up we go, let's see where she falls....   Sunday, October 26 View Page 810 lbs, what a blessing to take first place, I really wasn't expecting it. God was definitely good to us. I'm pretty sure it would have weighed about to chart over a month ago, so that puts it loosing around 60 lbs sitting around in high heat off of the vine. The blossom end wall would move in a little when pushed on and a few places the fruit cracked as it lost weight, but it was still sound and in one piece, barely:)   Sunday, October 26 View Page papa and the boys hanging out in the hay after the weigh off eating lunch. I want to end my 2014 diary by thanking God through Jesus Christ, what a blessing to be able to grow! Next year will be a rest year for myself and the soil. Maybe I can try a giant tomato? lol. Who knows. Best to everyone this offseason.   Wednesday, November 26 View Page lake cuyamaca, elevation 4600 feet in the mountains of san diego. And yes, it gets cold up here, very cold in winter. We got there early and dressed warm.   Wednesday, November 26 View Page Joshua said he was cold :-D   Wednesday, November 26 View Page what to do when cold? snuggle with papa and weight for a trout bite! and wait, and wait, and nada. But all is not lost since grandpa was with us...   Wednesday, November 26 View Page grandpa hooked into this trout of a lifetime! Amazingly huge, pictures don't do it justice! I'll remember this day for a lifetime, good job dad!   Wednesday, November 26 View Page the whole gang together, she weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs :-0! My goal is to get Joshua on the water this winter and enjoy God's great outdoors. Been awesome so far. Maybe I better invite grandpa again :)