Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 43 Entries. Thursday, January 1 View Page Happy New Year to one and all. Dori and I wish to each and everyone the best of the best to You and Yours.   Monday, January 5 View Page Congrats to all of the growers that entered my photo contest on...ubgiants.com. Winners are ..1st Joe & Kaarina Menting (PumpkinJam Sprouts), 2nd Niel Freshcorn (PumpkinEnvy), 3rd Jason Booth, 4th Bruce McGreevy, 5th Joe and Kaarina Menting (PumpkinJam, Sprouts). Honorable Mention to all of the rest growers. First 5 places will receive my latest item, a May Travel Strap and our special calendar.. May Travel Strap is a tie down for securing pumpkins during transport to weigh off. Honorable mention winners will receive a May Travel Strap also. I will post a video shortly of how to use the May Travel Strap. This item is named after Gary May(gmay) who suggested I make the travel straps. Thanks Gary. Hope you don't blow them up and you have something to weigh this season. Gary will get the 1st May Travel Strap for his idea.   Monday, January 5 View Page May Travel straps will be ready for shipping next week. Looks for the video about them that I will post. Also will have a limited number of our special calendars for sale. Special limited editions of our photos printed on canvas will soon be available also at....ubgiants.com   Thursday, January 15 View Page A special thanks to Jason Terry, M Strange and Mark Kiger for sending me seeds to distribute with my rings. I really appreciate your kind thoughts and seeds, Grow a Monster this year.   Friday, January 16 View Page Do not worry. The prizes for my photo contest winners are all ready. I just have not gotten them packaged up. Will send them next week...Promise   Monday, February 23 View Page Dori and I driving to GPC big show in PA. If anyone needs a lifting ring or other stuff we will bring it and save you the shipping. Shipping rates have gone way up...for example a 40" ring to Ohio last week cost me $220. If we can help you we would like to do it. Besides you need your ring early so you can use it to hang flowers from it. Check out my website.....www.ubgiants.com   Friday, February 27 View Page It seems like this year I don't know whether I am coming or going. I have a lot of lifting rings that I owe to growers that have been very generous to donate to the various seed auctions. I have been slow at getting them out. I will start shipping this coming week. When I ship I will email you to let you know it coming. If by some chance I have missed you PLEASE get in touch with me and I will get it straighten out. Thanks for your patience. Best of the best to you and yours.   Saturday, March 7 View Page Deep ripped the patch today using a skid steer with forks on it. Ripped it approximately 18" deep. There is a little snow on top and got stuck in the mud. Top 6" was frozen but dry underneath. This will help mix up the leaves, compost and hay we had scattered over the top. Will plow it next. Dori was kind enough to help me get out. Will wait till night and finish up on freeze up time.   Saturday, March 7 View Page Check out the pumpkin presentation on lifting rings in my website. Click on videos and then on the screen that comes up. You can stop it and look at the pictures and data closely. This is some of the data I came up while testing lifting rings this winter. It suggests the large diameter rings and longer and wider straps are best....www.ubgiants.com   Tuesday, March 10 View Page If you want a good deal on a lifting ring I need to know in the next couple of days. We will be driving to GPC show in PA. Can bring your ring and save you the shipping. You will be able to hang it and use it as a flower ring all summer and then lift your monster in the fall.   Thursday, March 26 View Page It was good to meet many of you in PA. Mark (Bubba Presley) ask if I could make a ring to lift a new WR. Yes I can. I all ready make a ring that is capable of doing this. In the past couple of years I have given rings to people that do well in growing. This year I gave 40" rings to Beni Meiers for 3 WR, Scott Holub...WR Squash, and Lorelee Zywiec for largest grown by a lady grower l781 lbs.   Thursday, March 26 View Page This year I will give a ring for the following: WR pkn, WR Squash and largest Pkn grown by a lady grower. I want the women grows to show us guys how it is done. I will also give a watermelon lifting ring for a WR watermelon. Also I will give a lifting ring for the first grower that weights a sound pkn at a GPC sanctioned Weigh Off that is 2,500 lbs or greater. This will be called my 2.5K ring. Hope there are several that his the 2.5K mark.   Thursday, March 26 View Page I forgot Susan Barber for her watermelon largest in the USA. I am sending her a Watermelon Lifting ring in the very near future. Congrats Sue...enjoyed your GPC talk.   Thursday, March 26 View Page My 2.5K ring is 47.5" wide and will have 6..3" adjustable straps app/ 9 feet long that have a working load of 6,000 per strap. Ring alone weights app/ 54 lbs. Working load for the ring is 4,000 lbs. If you want I can add 6 additional adjustable straps making a total of 12 straps to better support your pkn. If you are interested you can buy the 2.5K ring. Get in touch with me and we will work something out. Contact me at lee@ccutah.com   Thursday, March 26 View Page I also make another very heavy ring that is 42.5" diameter and weight about 75 lbs. My welder says you could you could lift a D9 dozer with it. I believe he is stretching the true just a little. This ring has a working load of 5,000 lbs. Comes with 6..3" adjustable straps app/ 9 feet long with a working loads of 6,000 lbs per strap. If you want I can add 6 more straps making a total of 12 straps for a spreading the weight evenly. All my rings come with 1" tubular nylon closing strap that is 27' long to go around and under the very large pkns that are coming to scale.   Thursday, March 26 View Page I am working on a lifting ring that will have a diameter of app/ 72". It will have the same design as my other rings with a ring gasket in the center and 6 around the sides. It will have 6..3" adjustable straps but 6 more can be added for a total of 12 straps. Will keep you in formed as I progress on this ring. It will have a working load of a minimum 4,000 lbs.   Friday, March 27 View Page I am shipping the 40" lifting rings etc. I owe to the winners of various auctions. I will be shipping Richard Mace, Beni Meier, Scott Holub, Scott Culp, Daniel Gates, Christopher Chandler, Jeremy Terry's ring next week. I do not have the names of the winner of Eddy Z auction for Ken D. I will ship these as soon as I get the info. If you purchased a ring at one of the auctions and you have not received it or I have misplaced your name somewhere, PLEASE let me know so I can take care of it. Thank you for your support of the various club auctions.   Friday, March 27 View Page Thanks again for all the support of club auctions. Dori and I enjoyed meeting a few of you in PA. I would have liked to get to know all of you. If you have any questions concerning lifting rings etc. you can contact me....lee@ccutah.com   Wednesday, April 8 View Page Finished the test of the 2.5K lifting ring, 47.5" diameter today with a total of 3,784 lbs. Weight consisted of a bag of wet sand weighting 1,948 lbs and 7 layers of building block. I will give a ring like this one to the first grower that weighs a sound pumpkin at a official weigh off of 2,500 lbs.   Wednesday, April 8 View Page I had a problem with the unstable pile of block on the sand bag, keeping it from tipping over. On the final lift 2 straps were too short and the ring bent slightly. I left the weight of 3,784 lbs hanging for several minutes to see if it would bend more or fail. I would not be afraid to use this slightly bent ring to lift any pumpkin.   Wednesday, April 8 View Page Tested a new variation of the Dori Sling on this lift test. It is made out of 3" wide nylon webbing and it handled the weight of 3,784 lbs with no problem. I was tired of lifting blocks on the pile and lengthening the straps. The pile threating to tip over so I called it quits. I am an old grey hair man and not near as tough as I used to be.   Thursday, April 9 View Page I am having problems with my website...www.ubgiants.com. If you have tried to order anything please send me a email...lee@ccutah.com or call me on the phone till I can get it sorted out. I will make it right. Phone # is on my ad on the front page.   Thursday, April 9 View Page Not a good picture the scale does not show the 2nd number plainly. It should read 1985 lbs. This was the weight of the sand when I quit adding water to firm it up and add weight for test. Sand was in the pink tote bag on the bottom.   Sunday, April 12 View Page Have had problems with my sewing machine so I am behind on the rings for the club auctions. Believe I have that sorted so am trying to catch up. I have not forgotten about you and will get them out soon. Thanks....Grow them big   Sunday, April 12 View Page In the background our patch had been plowed. Have leveled it out and will till it tomorrow. Time to get the soil cable in and hoops up. Planting time is approaching. Shooting for last week in April to put pkns in the hut.   Sunday, May 3 View Page My sewing machine is still giving me fits. I am about pulling my hair out as can't seem to get it right. The growers that I owe lifting rings will have to wait a little longer. I appreciate your patience. I have not forgotten you. I just don't want to send out something that I am not happy with.   Monday, May 11 View Page Dori, the Love of my life helped me prepare my soil cables. Happy Mothers Day to all of you Mothers. I hope you beat us guys at the weigh offs this year. Best of the best to you and yours.   Monday, May 11 View Page We deep ripped (24-30")our patch on about 4 foot center with a ditch witch. There is contact between the clayey top soil and sandy clay about 18" to 24" below the surface. Augering thru this contact showed water would drain. Have flooded the patch to see if can leach out the high sodium (salt) 494 ppms content which has a ECe of 5.1   Monday, May 11 View Page Took 2 neighbor boys to the Gateway Dynamite shoot a week ago. One boy hit 3 cans and the other one. These are pop can on a stake at 350-425 yards. Cans are filled with explosive.   Monday, May 11 View Page Explosive filled cans are all over the hills below the cliffs. There are several different class of rifles. Target cans are 100 to 1,500 yards away. Each shooter is allowed 2 shots then has to go to the back of the line. About 6 shooting benches can be seen under the cover with about 12 benches in all. There were approximately 250 shooters and well over $1,000,000 bucks worth of guns, scopes etc. Gateway Search/Rescue and Volunteer Fire Dept. have been doing this for almost 50 years to raise money for their operations. You might say that ear muffs are necessary. A special thanks to Gateway Explosives for donating, handling, and the license for the explosives. They have sponsored this for all these years.   Wednesday, June 10 View Page I just picked from my welder, who makes my lifting rings a prototype of a walking/sliding broad fork. It is 20" wide and has 5 1/2" pointed tines on the top spaced 4" apart. There are 6 1/2 tines that slide along the ground. The top and bottom tines are 12" long. It is made to drag on the ground with out picking it up when in use. Rotating the pipe hand upward positions the top tines to be pushed into the ground with your foot. The handle is then pulled toward you and tines bring up the ground and it is broken against the tines at ground level. The distance between the 2 sets of tines is 2". The fork is then pulled to the rear and handle rotates upward position the tines to be inserted into the ground again. This broad fork will take a lot of abuse and handles will not be broken. I have not tested it yet but believe it will work in soft ground very well. Will update with pictures after testing.   Wednesday, June 10 View Page If testing of the walking/sliding broad fork is what I want it to be they will be available for sale. I have had several people ask if I could make something like this. Testing probably give us more information on what will work best. The unit I have is very strong and probably weights about 25 lbs. It is designed to be carried or pulled to the working position and then not be picked again until the row of broad forking is completed. It will work best work as the user backs up and works in a row. It will not work well to go horizontally. More to come...   Friday, July 3 View Page Happy 4th of July. May you all have a great growing season. Remember what this day mean to our Country. We must be strong....respect comes from strength.   Friday, July 3 View Page We have been working on a sliding broad fork. We will have them ready for sale in the near future. We are making them in 3 widths....20", 16" and 12". Dori was using the 12" model today and she likes it. I prefer the 20" model. They all go 12" deep. Tines are 4" apart and they work in opposition of tines that lay on the surface that are also 4" apart but offset 2" so the ground is broken in 2" slices. The good thing about this model is you do not have to pick it up to insert in the ground each time. Just drag the fork to the rear and lift the handle to near vertical and then step on it driving it into the ground. When tines a in the ground pull the handle toward you and it bring the 2 sets of tines together and breaks up the ground. Then pull fork to the rear and repeat the process. Will have pictures and videos on my website....www.ubgiants.com soon. They are made by the welder that makes my lifting rings. Right now they are very labor intense to make. Hope to cut the construction time down as time goes by. Grow them big...   Monday, August 31 View Page Due to drastic slow down in the oil patch in this area I have not been able to obtain the salvage ring gaskets I have had in the past. This means I may not be able to make enough 40" lifting rings to growers that want them. Anyone that wants one should order now. It will be first come first served. I do have several of the 27" lifting rings in my shop. I have quit making the 13" lifting rings as it uses the same ring in my 40" rings and it takes 8 ring gaskets to make one 40" ring. Please plan ahead.   Tuesday, September 1 View Page My material for making 40" rings is very short. I only have enough for 3 rings at the present time. Don't know if I can get more. Planning a trip to Wyoming and North Dakota to see what I can get. I you want one of my 40s Please order now and I will try to supply. I went to a local place where I have been getting ring material and they had nothing.   Friday, September 4 View Page I will have a limited supply of 40" and 27" lifting rings tomorrow. I will be happy to take your check, money order or cash. Give me a call and we will work it out. Check my website on the front page to determine the cost. Lift a Monster.   Saturday, September 5 View Page If you need straps replaced on your lifting ring I had do it. Let me know what you want. I can make adjustable straps so you can do better job of lifting your pumpkin. My straps are 3" wide and have a working load of 8,000 lbs. The adjustable buckles have been pull tested to 3,300 lbs when they bent but did not slip. Let me know how I can help you. Email me at lee@ccutah.com or call 435 790 1051. Check out my website...www.ubgiants.com   Tuesday, September 8 View Page I have 2--42" lifting ring that are very heavy (75 lbs)Rings comes with adjustable straps/closing straps. $400 to lower 48 states including shipping. I have only 1--40" ring and 2--27" rings with straps etc. I do not know if I can get more material to make any more this year. If interested check my website on front page or call me.   Sunday, September 13 View Page I can make custom straps for your rings. My current adjustable straps are 3" wide polyester with a working load of 6,000 lbs. They are approximately 9 feet long. The adjustable buckle is made for holding harnesses in racing car. I have pull tested them to 3,300 lbs when the buckle started to bend but did not slip. Straps are $100 for six straps or $15.00 a strap including the buckle. This includes shipping to the lower 48 states   Friday, October 2 View Page http://backcountrynetwork.blogspot.com/2015/10/western-life-radios-october-4-2015.html This is a radio interview I did with Brian Brinkerhoff and Back Country radio. We talked about my lifting rings and other products.   Sunday, October 4 View Page Congrats to all of the growers at the weigh offs. I see many 1 ton plus pkns coming in. Congrats Tim Mathison on your 1800 plus "Make a Wish Seed."   Sunday, October 4 View Page I am seeing pictures of several of my lifting rings being used at weigh offs. Thanks for your confidence is my rings.