Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 273 Entries. Saturday, February 6 View Page Our cover crop. We need to mow as rain is on the way!   Saturday, February 6 View Page Cover crop second try   Tuesday, February 9 View Page Ornamental pears in full bloom and full of bees too!   Friday, February 12 View Page We had to rent a steil weed eater to do the job....   Friday, February 12 View Page More weed whacking   Monday, February 15 View Page Pete's Birthday! We packed a lunch, drove up to look at Conn dam (Napa's water supply). The dam was pretty high. This seems to be an annual event fir us now. After checking the dam we headed for Moore Creek trailhead and found a great hike called Valentine Vista. The vistas were great! We hiked a couple of hours and promised to return for more hiking in April.   Monday, February 15 View Page After the hike Pete still had more energy to give that patch a mow before it was too high for our mower again.   Friday, February 26 View Page Oh, about 11am Pete suggests it may be a good day to haul compost. Right after lunch we head up to St Helena for some compost blend (it has some vineyard compost in it...some grape pumice...some yardwaste..smells like Fall in the Napa Valley). We get up there for load one and we find out they only load until 3:30. Yikes! We want two loads! Load one....   Friday, February 26 View Page Load two...   Friday, February 26 View Page Two loads done! 4PM! We will sleep well tonight   Saturday, February 27 View Page Now we need to get the compost to our centers....   Saturday, February 27 View Page Here is one of our future planting areas   Saturday, February 27 View Page Good to work in the morning with the steam coming off the compost. Actually I (Cindi) had a tennis match lined up so I could only help early. When I got home Presto! The compost was where it should be!   Sunday, February 28 View Page We went over to visit Jose Ceja's patch. He was mowing his mustard crop. Wow!   Sunday, February 28 View Page Pete and Jose at Jose's patch   Tuesday, March 1 View Page I came home from tennis and....the patch was tilled! We have a boatload of rain heading our way so we need to get the patch tilled while it is dry enough to work.   Wednesday, March 2 View Page Our morning hike   Wednesday, March 2 View Page Our morning hike   Saturday, March 5 View Page California Giant Pumpkin Growers meeting. Elk Grove, Ca we had I think just over 100 growers there. Steve Daletas was our speaker. Great seed auction (thank you all who donated seeds to our group), great gift raffle ( thanks to all who donated products and gifts), great seed table ( thanks to all that donated pumpkin and other veggie seeds)   Saturday, March 5 View Page The raffle prize table.....we had tons of great prizes!   Saturday, March 5 View Page Steve Daletas speaking   Saturday, March 5 View Page My auction and raffle prizes. The orange truck also included five packs of orange producing seeds. The candy in the truck was made by Lila Vezzolo. Now...if it was just a life sized pickup!and thanks to Dean Busquaert for the fine wine donation.   Saturday, March 5 View Page The truck fits right in on the pumpkin collection shelf   Saturday, March 5 View Page Pic of my raffle and auction prize from our meeting.....   Monday, March 7 View Page Another inch and a half plus of rain over night with more coming this week. Temp in the 50s this morning.   Monday, March 7 View Page The creek in our neighborhood is running pretty good this morning. Good and muddy   Monday, March 7 View Page The creek in our neighborhood is running pretty good this morning. Good and muddy   Wednesday, March 9 View Page There will be no tennis match in Marin today. What to do?   Wednesday, March 9 View Page Let's bake!   Wednesday, March 9 View Page Di's chocolate chip cookies!   Wednesday, March 9 View Page Shay's lemon zucchini muffins. They are going to be good for breakfast tomorrow.   Wednesday, March 9 View Page So what is Pete doing while I am baking? Research!   Wednesday, March 9 View Page Those little notes on brown paper are so important.   Wednesday, March 9 View Page The soil test came today. We have about four rainy days ahead to ponder the soil test results. Look , Ma! No nitrogen! We expected this after our lovely rains this Winter.   Thursday, March 10 View Page Our morning walk cut short by that much needed rain. Heading home to ponder the soil test results.   Thursday, March 10 View Page Just the beginning.   Sunday, March 13 View Page More much needed rain. Napa is now over normal rainfall! Woo hoo!   Sunday, March 13 View Page The creek was really running this morning. We are now getting used to walking with umbrellas!   Saturday, March 19 View Page On the way to Leonardo's this morning. I had to stop to take a pic of the vineyards in the fog.   Saturday, March 19 View Page Another vineyard pic. You can see the vines just budding out   Saturday, March 19 View Page The house where Leonardo and Gloria and family live. The wisteria are in full bloom. This house was built in the 1800's   Saturday, March 19 View Page The Three Amigos off to Harmony Farms to buy feather meal, humic acid, worm castings and who knows what else? Harmony Farms is in Sebastopol a good hour drive from Napa. This has become an annual trek for the trio.   Saturday, March 19 View Page The Three Amigos off to Harmony Farms to buy feather meal, humic acid, worm castings and who knows what else? Harmony Farms is in Sebastopol a good hour drive from Napa. This has become an annual trek for the trio.   Saturday, March 19 View Page Pete is back with a load. A few bags for john hawkley too....   Saturday, March 19 View Page Our stack of stuff....   Saturday, March 19 View Page And a bit of maxicrop liquid seaweed. We are getting ready.......   Saturday, March 19 View Page And a bit of maxicrop liquid seaweed. We are getting ready.......   Sunday, March 20 View Page So, what was in the truck? Three 50lb bags of gypsum (to add sulfur and calcium), two 50 lb bags of feathermeal (to add nitrogen TIME RELEASE), four one cubic ft bags of worm castings (to go in our immediate planting area for water soluable nutrients), three 50 lb bags humic acid (to be spread all over our 3000 sq ft patch before tilling).......We will see if this is the right recipe for our patch. The proof will be in the.......pumpkin?   Sunday, March 20 View Page So, what was in the truck? Three 50lb bags of gypsum (to add sulfur and calcium), two 50 lb bags of feathermeal (to add nitrogen TIME RELEASE), four one cubic ft bags of worm castings (to go in our immediate planting area for water soluable nutrients), three 50 lb bags humic acid (to be spread all over our 3000 sq ft patch before tilling).......We will see if this is the right recipe for our patch. The proof will be in the.......pumpkin?   Monday, March 21 View Page More rain today. We are now at 29 inches plus rainfall. Average is around 25. The reservoirs are filling up. We still need more YEARS like this one to end the drought but this is a nice start!   Monday, March 21 View Page The SNGPG Newsletter was in the mailbox today. Perfect reading on this rainy day. ALWAYS a great newsletter!   Monday, March 21 View Page The hummers were thick this evening at sunset. Will We have time to keep those feeders full during the season? Will I have time to keep up this diary? THAT is the question...   Monday, March 21 View Page The hummers were thick this evening at sunset. Will We have time to keep those feeders full during the season? Will I have time to keep up this diary? THAT is the question...   Tuesday, March 22 View Page John hawkley stopped by to pick up his harmony farm order and   Tuesday, March 22 View Page To drop off 4 bags of bumper crop he picked ip for us at the local nursery. Good to work together as a band of pumpkin growers.   Friday, March 25 View Page New misters arrived. We hope they will be better than our old ones.   Saturday, March 26 View Page Looks like the misters put out a nice fog.   Saturday, March 26 View Page A good day to put some stuff on our centers   Saturday, March 26 View Page A little humic acid, worm castings, myco, bumper crop and an eye of a newt (just kidding,)   Saturday, March 26 View Page Now Pete turns it all over while I take pics! This is a goid deal.   Saturday, March 26 View Page All done. About 7 ft in diameter if I had to guess....we are happy that our ground was not too wet. Tomorrow we eat Pancakes! PS that is "GOOD" not "goid" in my last post. Must be these senior fat fingers   Monday, March 28 View Page New misters are heading back. They produced a fog so fine that if there was any breeze they would not be effective. We went to the local ag supply and picked up a new sprinkler to try out. The search for a better misting water system continues.   Monday, March 28 View Page I need to tackle the pumpkin room to turn it into the germination room.   Monday, March 28 View Page I need to tackle the pumpkin room to turn it into the germination room.   Monday, March 28 View Page About a week ago Don Black sent Pete a set of the Ottawa-St Lawrence growers 1996 16- Card series. I don't know if that was the only year they were made .We were growing then and heard of or met many of these growers. A few are still growing! I think these card are cool! We don't have any baseball cards but we are the proud owners of these pumpkin grower collectible cards!   Monday, March 28 View Page Al Eaton's card front. We brought Al out to speak to the California growers after he grew the WR 1446 lb pumpkin in 2004. He taught us a lot!   Monday, March 28 View Page AL EATON's card backside   Monday, March 28 View Page BILL GREER CARD FRONT. We met Bill at Nuttree in California in 1996 where his WR PUMPKIN was on display. He held the WR (1006 lbs) for just a day or two before the Zehrs broke the record with a 1061. The 1006 and 1061 were the first pumpkins over 1000 lbs.   Monday, March 28 View Page BILL GREER BACKSIDE OF CARD   Monday, March 28 View Page OTTAWA-ST LAWRENCE WEIGH OFF RESULTS 1996....PRETTY COOL   Monday, March 28 View Page OTTAWA-ST LAWRENCE WEIGH OFF RESULTS 1996....PRETTY COOL   Wednesday, March 30 View Page This morning we trimmed the neighbor's oleander bushes that were hanging over into our yard.Oleanders are tough. They can grow anywhere with little care as long as it does not get below 20 degrees. In California they plant them alongside the highways. All parts of Oleanders are poisonous to humans and animals.We noticed our covercrop did not grow where the oleanders had dropped blossoms last year. They must be poisonous to annual rye too!   Wednesday, March 30 View Page Bye bye oleander   Wednesday, March 30 View Page Disinfected the pots and plant trays. We have to get ready   Wednesday, March 30 View Page Disinfected the germination chamber and cleaned the pumpkin room. While cleaning up I found a cool blow up pumpkin beer cooler and the CUTEST apron tutu. Maybe Don Young will want to borrow it.(the cooler or the tutu?)   Wednesday, March 30 View Page Here is the pic of pete trimming those oleanders . The pic didn't show in my first post   Wednesday, March 30 View Page The germination room is ready to rock and roll!   Thursday, March 31 View Page This is the wisteria in full bloom at the house where I played tennis this morning. I noticed a few blossoms on the ground. Next week there will be MORE blossoms on the ground. Peak Wisteria day today!   Thursday, March 31 View Page So what was Pete doing while I was out playing tennis? Digging up the area where we will plant our Two tomatoes, one zucchini, one cuc . Maybe tomorrow?   Friday, April 1 View Page With a nice ten day forecast we decided to plant a couple of tomatoes today.   Friday, April 1 View Page We use wall-o-water plant protectors for our tomatoes, cucs, zucchini. We did try to use them on pumpkins but the pumpkins outgrew them too quickly! We sold wall-o-waters when we had our nursery back in Colorado in the 80's and 90's. They protect plants below freezing and also keep an even temp during the day. We plant our tomato and then cover it with a five gallon pot turned up side down.....   Friday, April 1 View Page We place the wall-o-water around the pot   Friday, April 1 View Page We fill the individual cylindars with water. Two person operation. The pot keeps the wall-o-water from falling over and crushing the plant while you are filling it with water. I think we did that once!   Friday, April 1 View Page Now we have to remove the pot. It is goid to have extra hands for this part too.   Friday, April 1 View Page Voila! A happy tomato plant. In a couple of weeks we will have to take the protector off. Oh, I can't wait for a fresh tomato! We planted a purple cherokee and a big beef. We put some myco in the planting holes and used some b1, companion and liquid seaweed when we planted.   Friday, April 1 View Page Voila! A happy tomato plant. In a couple of weeks we will have to take the protector off. Oh, I can't wait for a fresh tomato! We planted a purple cherokee and a big beef. We put some myco in the planting holes and used some b1, companion and liquid seaweed when we planted.   Saturday, April 2 View Page Today we hiked with the redwoods to celebrate our 32nd anniversary. We have logged a lot of miles !   Saturday, April 2 View Page The Groom   Saturday, April 2 View Page Now that is a big tree!   Wednesday, April 6 View Page Time to get those amendments in the patch. Rain is possible Friday and Saturday. The soil is dry enough to till tomorrow. First the feathermeal goes on.   Wednesday, April 6 View Page This is what the feather meal looks like. We put on 90 lbs on our 3000 sq ft patch. Feather meal is 12 %nitrogen slow release.   Wednesday, April 6 View Page Humic acid next. 100 lbs. 50% humic acid.   Wednesday, April 6 View Page Gypsum. 150 lbs. to make strong bones. I think i ate some in the process....   Wednesday, April 6 View Page This is as close to snow as we are going to get. Did I mention it was 87 degrees when we finished at 10:30?   Wednesday, April 6 View Page A bag of bumper crop soil conditioner to each plant site   Wednesday, April 6 View Page Pete raking the bumpercrop   Wednesday, April 6 View Page The finale is a bag+ of worm castings to each site   Wednesday, April 6 View Page All done for today. Tomorrow Pete will till. Cindi will bake a rhubarb pie thanks to Mr Van Houtte. It is supposed to be cooler tomorrow.   Wednesday, April 6 View Page Rhubarb   Thursday, April 7 View Page The patch at sunset ladt night   Thursday, April 7 View Page Pete got the patch tilled today. He is ready for a slice of rhubarb pie and ice cream.....The forecast is for rain on Saturday.   Thursday, April 7 View Page Pete got the patch tilled today. He is ready for a slice of rhubarb pie and ice cream.....The forecast is for rain on Saturday.   Saturday, April 9 View Page Jose Ceja came by today with this   Saturday, April 9 View Page And this that goes in the barrel to make our fertilizing easier. No more pump sprayers . Should take about 5 minutes to fertilize now.   Saturday, April 9 View Page Jose also brought these fresh strawberries by. They are delicious! It is good to have a friend like Jose!   Wednesday, April 13 View Page Pete turned the soil in the centers and then put some plastic (approx 4ft x 4ft) on to heat up the soil. We are supposed to get a little rain tonight. If things dry out we will start getting our greenhouses up this weekend. The seeds are calling. They want to get started soon.   Wednesday, April 13 View Page The tomatoes are growing . Pete had to stake the wall o waters to make room for the tomatoes to grow.   Wednesday, April 13 View Page Out with the old, in with the new! We are redoing our watering, misting system. We have used this same hose for MANY MANY years. Some of our misters were too close to each other some were too far away. We had lowered our misters last year to around three feet to prevent evaporation. They were a bit too short. We will try and get it right this year! I think I will have to curtail my tennis fir the next couple of weeks while we get this all set up!   Wednesday, April 13 View Page Out with the old, in with the new! We are redoing our watering, misting system. We have used this same hose for MANY MANY years. Some of our misters were too close to each other some were too far away. We had lowered our misters last year to around three feet to prevent evaporation. They were a bit too short. We will try and get it right this year! I think I will have to curtail my tennis fir the next couple of weeks while we get this all set up!   Friday, April 15 View Page It is greenhouse day! First the frame work goes up. We make our houses 10 ft x 7 ft. Rebar, pvc pipe, duct tape, clips, zip ties......patience?   Friday, April 15 View Page Slap a little dirt on the sides to keep the plastic from blowing off. We have a lot of wind protection so it would take quite a wind to do damage. We checked with a soil thermometer and the soil outside of the greenhouses was around 55 degrees. We will check the temp of the soil in the greenhouses in the next couple of days. It is going to be over 80 degrees here tomorrow. We will have to open the greenhouses so our soil doesn't get too hot!   Friday, April 15 View Page Pete using zip ties to strengthen our framework   Friday, April 15 View Page One down! Two to go!   Friday, April 15 View Page All three are up. The wind was picking up too so we are glad we are done.   Friday, April 15 View Page All three are up. The wind was picking up too so we are glad we are done.   Saturday, April 16 View Page Today's first stop was the local irrigation store. We have all the parts to build our misting system. Hopefully we can get started in that tomorrow.   Saturday, April 16 View Page Soil temp in the greenhouses moving UP   Saturday, April 16 View Page It was 70 degrees by 10 this morning. We checked the greenhouses and the thermometer was reading 110ish! YIKES!   Saturday, April 16 View Page We opened the ends of the greenhouses and the temp dropped to right around 100. Better....   Saturday, April 16 View Page Time to get those seeds started!!!! First Pete files them.   Saturday, April 16 View Page Then we bubble them for almost three hours.   Saturday, April 16 View Page GO WARRIORS! While the seeds were bubbling we were cheering on the Warriors....   Saturday, April 16 View Page The seeds are ready. The seed starting mix is ready. Pete put some myco in, some rootshield in , just THE RIGHT amount of water .....   Saturday, April 16 View Page All planted. Ready for the germination chamber   Saturday, April 16 View Page Germination chamber 85 to 90 degrees. Pete lays a piece of plastic on top of the pots to keep the humidity in. We have planted a 2230, 1998, 2145, 1961 Sperry, 1724.5 Steil. We only have room for three......may the best seed win.   Saturday, April 16 View Page This is why we do this!   Saturday, April 16 View Page These are the dolls I played with as a child. JUST KIDDING!!!   Saturday, April 16 View Page This is why we do this...   Saturday, April 16 View Page These are the dolls I played with as a child.....LOL!   Sunday, April 17 View Page Now it's the waiting game......we hooked up the DEclorinator filter to one hydrant, wired the timer to another and spent a few hours gluing pvc pipe for the misting system. We worked until I said "sleeve" and Pete thought I said "fleas" and I started giggling uncontrollably. Time to quit! Too many glue fumes!   Tuesday, April 19 View Page We layed out the black hose for the misting system and plotted where the misters will be. GOOD NEWS! Almost all the seeds have broken dirt!   Tuesday, April 19 View Page We did get the two END misters in...20 to go tomorrow! AFTER tennis!!!!   Tuesday, April 19 View Page Remember that little tomato plant in the wall o water? Well, it outgrew the wall o water so we took it out and staked her up, added a wind barrier (not in the photo) and we are off to the races! The plant already has some blooms on it! We will be taking our other tomato and our cuc out of their wall o waters in the next couple of days. Time to watch some basketball and RELAX! And WATCH the pumpkin pots pop....   Thursday, April 21 View Page 100 % germination. A couple curly ones, a slim one, ....we gave them a shot of companion and seaweed today. We plan on planting them on Saturday.   Thursday, April 21 View Page We finished the misting system today. Ahhhhh...that was a project! We are ready to rock and roll!   Thursday, April 21 View Page Bocce ball practice at the Senior Center in Napa. We are on a team! We haven't played for a couple of years so we need practice!   Thursday, April 21 View Page Bocce ball practice at the Senior Center in Napa. We are on a team! We haven't played for a couple of years so we need practice!   Saturday, April 23 View Page Oh, a perfect day to transplant the pumpkins into their greenhouses. High temp to be around 70 degrees....   Saturday, April 23 View Page Here are the plants. We will double plant the 2145 and 1998 and the 2230 will have its own greenhouse. We have two backups we will plant into bigger pots in case they are needed....   Saturday, April 23 View Page Here is one of the 1998s. Nice roots. Pete adds some feathermeal, myco, azos, worm castings, hydrolized fish powder, humic acid to the soil . Just a bit.....   Saturday, April 23 View Page We put a little but of all this in a watering can to use after planting....   Saturday, April 23 View Page Here he is giving a 1998 a bit of the mixture in the watering can...   Saturday, April 23 View Page Once the plants are in and watered we put some diatomaceous earth around them. This is supposed to be like walking across cut glass for snails, slugs , bugs. We will see if it works   Saturday, April 23 View Page Watering down the greenhouses to keep them nice and humid .   Saturday, April 23 View Page When we finished planting the pumpkins it was time to take care of the cuc and zucchini! We have to EAT! Here is the cuc we just removed the wall o water and now it needs some windbreak...   Saturday, April 23 View Page Windbreak for the cuc. I think she will outgrow that in a few days! Okay! We are done for today! Pete can relax and watch some basketball. Tomorrow I am hitting the tennis court! We got a lot of work done this week and today! We hope those pumpkins grow, grow, grow!   Saturday, April 23 View Page Windbreak for the cuc. I think she will outgrow that in a few days! Okay! We are done for today! Pete can relax and watch some basketball. Tomorrow I am hitting the tennis court! We got a lot of work done this week and today! We hope those pumpkins grow, grow, grow!   Monday, April 25 View Page It was a COOL38 degrees here this morning. We had ONE heat lamp so we decided to try it in one of the greenhouses. The 2230 WON the heat lamp. We will see how much warmer it is in that greenhouse in the morning.   Tuesday, April 26 View Page The heat lamp worked. Outside temp this morning was 40. Inside greenhoses with NO heat lamp, 50 degrees. Greenhouse WITH heat lamp a balmy 60 degrees. Tomorrow we have a chance of rain on the menu. This weekend we could be in the 90s! We won't need that heat lamp much longer!   Thursday, April 28 View Page Today we gave the 2230 a friend . The 2230 is growing BUT it looks like it may have two or three leaves coming out at the same spot. Flat vine? Or just a robust plant? We decided to plant our SPARE Sperry 1961 to keep her company and maybe win the popularity contest in this greenhouse.   Saturday, April 30 View Page Oh, we had wind today. Can you see those palm trees swaying? I think Pete may even be swaying! We were glad to have our greenhouses and windbreaks up for the pumpkins, cuc, zucchini and tomatoes!   Saturday, April 30 View Page Try try again. The wind wasn't blowing THAT hard   Saturday, April 30 View Page The 1998s are our darlings RIGHT NOW. you know how things can change!   Wednesday, May 4 View Page First the tomatoes outgrew their wall o waters, now they have outgrown their windbreaks. I can't wait until we have fresh homegrown tomatoes!   Wednesday, May 4 View Page The bigger plant is the 2230 . The smaller one planted later is the 1961 Sperry. We were worried about the 2230 as it looked like it had too many leaves coming out at the same spot. We will give it plenty of time in hopes of it straightening out. The Sperry is our backup. Always good to have a good back up!   Wednesday, May 4 View Page The 1998 are plowing along, looking good   Wednesday, May 4 View Page The 2145s are really starting to take off. A few yellow dots on the leaves we think are hereditary.   Tuesday, May 10 View Page This is the weather pattern we are in right now. Cool (54 degrees) fog in the morning , sun will come out after noon and we will get up near 80. It is goid to have those greenhouses right now but we had better be ready to open them up fast when the Sun decides to come out.   Tuesday, May 10 View Page Pete was home watching the fog while I was kicking up my heels at my niece's wedding in Crockett, Texas last weekend. I am glad this wedding didn't conflict with major pumpkin growing time!   Friday, May 13 View Page The 1998s still our faves. The one on the left may be the KEEPER.   Friday, May 13 View Page Pete gave them all a bit of companion, seaweed, azos, silicate, essential today.   Friday, May 13 View Page I am booted up for two weeks. I did NOT do this growing pumpkins! I can still take pics and help drag the hose around! I should be golden by burying vine time! I guess I have been spending too much time on the tennis court?   Friday, May 13 View Page Weeding, weeding, weeding.......while i take the pics!   Wednesday, May 18 View Page THE FIRST CUT IS THE DEEPEST. Today is decision day. We took out the 1961 Sperry so the 2230 Wallace is our keeper. We culled down to one 2145 McMullen and one 1998 Jutras. Always tough to make those decisions!   Wednesday, May 18 View Page THE 2230 WALLACE without a roommate....now she has room to roam   Wednesday, May 18 View Page THE 2145 MCMULLEN   Wednesday, May 18 View Page THE 1998 JUTRAS   Wednesday, May 18 View Page After culling we watered and put up some shade material on the sunny ends of the greenhouses. We were over 90 yesterday. Today it will be hot too. Cooling down tomorrow with a possibility of rain on Saturday. That may be our last rainfall until September. This is another pic of the Wallace plant.   Wednesday, May 18 View Page Todays pile of weeds. I love my hula hoe! 4 different varieties of weeds in this batch. Some are edible!   Wednesday, May 18 View Page Pete checked the culled plants over carefully for bugs. We have already sprayed for thrips! We had a mild wet winter which will mean more bugs! We will start our spray program early this season.   Wednesday, May 18 View Page We had to get our morning walk in early. I took this one before 8 and we were at the top of the hill! You may notice thing are starting to get dry. That is why we are called the Golden State. The Hills we all be turning GOLD in the coming weeks. Must be SUMMER! Fire season coming tight up!   Sunday, May 22 View Page Off to work burying vines. This year we are using a concoction of seaweed, companion, silicate, azos and essential in our watering cans. Myco and root shield in the bowl. Dirt in the bucket mixed with water ....VERY LABOR INTENSIVE. But we did a similar system in 2014 when we grew the 2036.   Sunday, May 22 View Page First we make out trench. Then we pour a bit of the concoction on....   Sunday, May 22 View Page Then the myco/root shield combo goes on leaf joints to be buried.   Sunday, May 22 View Page Now some mud over the myco.   Sunday, May 22 View Page We poured a bit of the liquid concoction around the stumps too. We are done for the day! Time to watch THE WARRIORS!!!!!!   Sunday, May 22 View Page And what's fie dinner? Our FIRST cucumber out of the garden!   Thursday, May 26 View Page The 2145 McMullen. We removed all the greenhouses today and put up windbreak. Temps going up close to 90 the next couple of days. The plants did not need greenhouses. The McMullen REALLY didn't need a greenhouse as it is prone to leafburn.   Thursday, May 26 View Page FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST! The 1998 Jutras voted most photogenic of our plants.   Thursday, May 26 View Page Last but not LEAST the 2230 Wallace. The biggest plant. She can really run now!   Sunday, May 29 View Page Today was bury vine day and time to cover the stumps day. First a little spritz with zerotol. I think that is how to spell it!   Sunday, May 29 View Page Then three wires just so....   Sunday, May 29 View Page Then we use the empty sack from worm castings to make cover over the wire hoops. A few clothes pins. Covering the stump but still having good air flow...   Sunday, May 29 View Page A pic of the 2230 Wallace all vines buried , stump with cover. This one I have been calling Dick. This plant is a bit ornery.....like Dick.   Sunday, May 29 View Page By the way....one confession. We removed the mud mixture we were burying with. Cucurbit was right....it became concrete. A couple years ago we did a mud mixture but we used compost which was the opposite. It was hard to get wet at all. Now we are using moist soil and it seems to be working. AND HOW ABOUT THOSE WARRIORS! We hope they can pull off another win tomorrow night....   Friday, June 3 View Page The 1998 Jutras plant all pruned up like a christmas tree.   Friday, June 3 View Page Our first male blossom to open. This is on the 2230 Wallace plant.   Friday, June 3 View Page Yesterday we took the recyclables in to the center. This is all the stuff we pick up on our morning walk! There were 7 trash barrels on the truck bed with some bags and boxes crammed in where they fit! Then we had a couple more big trash bags and boxes in the backseat. Just over $123! Now we can buy some more fertilizers!   Thursday, June 9 View Page Hi Ho! HI Ho! Off to work we go. We have out myco/root shield combo. We have our magic juice (companion, seaweed, silicate, essential, azos, 8-1-9), our trusty kneepads, soil scoops. The plants are starting to grow. Males are opening and a few female blossoms too. We are thinking next week to start pollinating .   Thursday, June 9 View Page The 2230 Wallace. The biggest plant   Thursday, June 9 View Page The 1998 Jutras. Looking good.....   Thursday, June 9 View Page The 2145 Mcmullen. This plant has been smaller from the get go. Smaller leaves and vines. We will wait to set pumpkins on this one.   Thursday, June 9 View Page Tomato plants going crazy. Loads of fruit on there.   Thursday, June 9 View Page From the morning walk.   Monday, June 13 View Page Wow! What a weekend! I may exceed the proper number of entries per day in my diary today. IS there a proper number? Anyways, this weekend was about the BEST thing about growing pumpkins. That would be FRIENDSHIP. On Saturday Bother Dave Cantrell and his lovely wife Janet came to visit our patch. They are from Knoxville, Tennessee but were in our area for a graduation and a wedding. Here is a pic of them with Pete in our patch. The plant you see is the 2230 Wallace .   Monday, June 13 View Page After the tour of our patch we took the Cantrells over to see Jose Ceja's patch. Jose showed us his six plants.   Monday, June 13 View Page Next stop...John Hawkley's patch. John is investing in a drip tape and dosatron fertilizing system this year. Here is his dosatron.   Monday, June 13 View Page Here are a couple of John's plants with the drip system installed. His plants looked great.   Monday, June 13 View Page These were the male blossoms I picked on Saturday. I thought they looked so pretty against the Blue barrel.   Monday, June 13 View Page Yesterday we headed over to Sacramento to celebrate Richard Westervelt getting his jacket. Leonardo Urena, Randy Warren, Don Timmons, Brenda Timmons (party organizer! ), a bit of Ron Root's head, Richard Westervelt (with the SMILE and the Jacket), Sharon Westervelt, Karen Root, Pete Glasier, Russ Pingrey, Gloria Urena at the table. It was great to get together and talk pumpkins and congratulate Richard. Rob Globus was there too but He didn't make it into the pic. I guess I need a bigger phone for pics!!!!!it was a great weekend sharing our sport with fellow pumpkin enthusiasts and making new friends.   Monday, June 13 View Page Rob Globus, Richard Westervelt and Leonardo Urena discussing politics........i mean PUMPKINS!   Monday, June 13 View Page Here is a pic of our first female we pollinated today. It is on the 1998 Jutras.It is a six lober. Not perfect but not bad either.There is another one about 3 ft further out. We used 5 males from the 2230 Wallace to pollinate. I think this combo should be called a WALRUS! LOL! I was planning on calling her Sue but Walrus could work! Someone (was it Patty Hawkley?)in our travels this weekend suggested we take pics of our blossoms before pollinating and then compare to the final shape of the pumpkin. We are going to TRY and do this as it could be interesting. Good luck to the Walrus! Okay! Time for the WARRIORS!   Friday, June 17 View Page Our first dilemma of the season. Take this as a reminder to check your stumps often! We had covered our stumps early this year and thought we were safe from stump problems. No such luck! Pete noticed a little soft spot on the stump of the 1998 Jutras plant. He scraped it, sprayed it with zerotol and we put a fan on it to dry it out. It is looking better! We also sent some leaves in to A and L Labs for tissue analysis as we think our plants look a little peaked.maybe they need a little nitrogen? We hope to hear back from the lab soon!   Friday, June 17 View Page The 2230 Wallace plant with the 2145 McMullen in the background   Friday, June 17 View Page The 2145 McMullen plant   Friday, June 17 View Page The 1998 Jutras.....the one with the WAL-RUS pumpkin set   Sunday, June 19 View Page Happy Father's Day y'all!   Monday, June 20 View Page The blossom on the second pollination on the 1998 Jutras plant. It is another WAL-RUS   Monday, June 20 View Page It was a bit over 90 yesterday for pollination. It will be 90 and above for the next ten days! Yikes! We decided to put some ice around the pumpkin to keep her happy and hope she takes!   Monday, June 20 View Page Ice and a little cover to shade the Walrus #2   Tuesday, June 21 View Page Some couples have DATE NIGHT. We have SPRAY NIGHT! Isn't that romantic? We noticed a few cucumber beetles out there. We have to keep after them or they will win the battle.   Wednesday, June 22 View Page The traveling anthesis spray bottle. Pete and Jose have been sharing their anthesis spray as we both had pumpkins that were 48 hrs old on the same days. Pete sprays ours then Jose picks up the bottle and leaves his empty bottle. Leonardo also is sharing his with his fellow patchmates Ruben and Jose Cardenas. It is great to have growers so close to share with.   Tuesday, June 28 View Page The LAST pollination of the 2016 season! This is on the 2230 Wallace plant. We now have two potential pumpkins on each plant. It will be decision time soon!   Tuesday, June 28 View Page You can really see the grains of pollen in this pic   Tuesday, June 28 View Page It is going to be around 90 degrees today so we tucked this baby in with a shade cover and a icepack. We hope she is happy.   Tuesday, June 28 View Page One of the vines is growing where a mister is missing it. We have been hand watering it and putting this shade cover around it. We have to keep moving the shade cover out as the vine grows. So far it is working. No burning!   Tuesday, June 28 View Page Ok. So WHAT day is today???? We THOUGHT it was the 29th. We measured two pumpkins. Oh, we were SO disappointed in their growth. Something is wrong! We are fertilizing too much? Maybe it is our use of silicate? Oh, we were fretting!!!!!! All day!!!! Then about 3 PM we realized it is the 28TH!!!! We don't measure until tomorrow! HOPEFULLY THAT explains those crummy measurements we got today. Tomorrow I hope to wear a ?? (cool and happy face,)...   Friday, July 1 View Page Aha! There are my sunglasses! I lost them in the patch yesterday and found them today. I must admit I have four pairs of sunglasses and about ten pairs of readers.   Friday, July 1 View Page WAL-RUS gets a new home today. We put in a shift today! Burying, watering, measuring, building our first pumpkin tent of the season. We ARE going with WAL-RUS #1 as she has a nice shape and is growing well.   Friday, July 1 View Page We had to do some vine moving, reburying....it was PERFECT weather for this project. In the 70's today.   Friday, July 1 View Page We had to do some vine moving, reburying....it was PERFECT weather for this project. In the 70's today.   Friday, July 1 View Page We are trying Countryboy's idea of putting the styrofoam board under the pumpkin. We are hoping this helps to give her a flat bottom.   Friday, July 1 View Page Styrofoam board, then a RED Mat, then a white mat, then the hoops and tarp. One down...two to go.   Monday, July 4 View Page This is what you do not want in your patch. AN ALL AMERICAN SQUIRREL. HAPPY FOURTH!!!!   Monday, July 4 View Page ORANGE dragonfly in our patch. We ONLY have ORANGE dragonflies here! LOL!   Tuesday, July 5 View Page This is what it looked like in Napa this morning. Overcast. Cool. The sun came out mid morning. High was in the 70s. Windy too! Pete said "where did our summer go?". I told him it is always like this! We managed to get our walk in today. We haven't had the time or the energy to make the trek up the HILL for the past couple of weeks. We are getting caught up on the pumpkins now. We have our choices made on each plant. We still have one hut to put up. We still have some vines to bury but everyday some get terminated. Time to start walking and playing tennis !   Tuesday, July 5 View Page Here is a pic of the Walrus. This is our biggest and oldest pumpkin right now. Nice shape and should have good color. This is on the 1998 Jutras plant and the plant is giving us some trouble. This is the one with the fan on the stump (fir the second time). The stump had some rot on it which Pete scraped away then sprayed with zerotol. The stump has dried out but it is still iffy. This plant also has some yellow on the edge of some leaves and some of the vines are almost stunted. She was my most photogenic early!!!!! Now she gives me fits! The pumpkin is growing OKAY. Considering out troubles with the plant we cannot complain.   Tuesday, July 5 View Page Here is the pumpkin on the 2145 McMullen . We just put the hut up yesterday. We are putting the styrofoam sheets under the pumpkin (countryboy's idea) and we really like this! Hopefully it will make for flat bottoms!   Wednesday, July 13 View Page It is not good when our diary entry shows pumpkin vines in the compost bin. We have some problems in the pumpkin patch. Yesterday we found some rotting spots on the mains on the 1998 Jutras and the 2145 McMullen. We scrapped the spot on Jutras , sprayed it with xerotol, covered it with a mini plastic tent to keep it dry. The McMullen had a good six inches of rot on the main so Pete cut that chunk out. We have removed all the vines behind the rot as they will not be doing anything for the pumpkin.so we have maybe 2/3 of the McMullen plant left. We may end up doing the same on the Jutras but for now there is still some of the main vine left after scraping the oft area. We were really hoping to beat that darn fusarium with all our extra work and products this season. The 2230 Wallace plant is still looking good and the main is AOK.   Wednesday, July 13 View Page This is what is left of the 2145 McMullen plant. The pumpkin on this plant grew 10 inches over the last two days. A LOVELY barrel shape. I named her Sleeping beauty as this plant started off SO SLOW it was a sleeper. We were just starting to see the plant filling out when we discovered the soft area on the main. Now she will be an experiment to see how much plant is needed to grow a pumpkin. So heartbreaking.   Wednesday, July 13 View Page This is what we removed of the 2145 today. The 2230 will have better air circulation anyways. They were very close....   Saturday, July 16 View Page The 2230 Wallace plant. This pic was taken yesterday. Today we removed a sidevine as we found a soft area on it . This is by far our biggest and healthiest plant. Some of the leaves are over 4 ft high. We hope we can keep the rest of the plant healthy!   Saturday, July 16 View Page The pumpkin on the 2230 Wallace. Selfed. Grew 10 inches circ in the last two days.   Saturday, July 16 View Page The pumpkin on the 1998 Jutras. This plant has lots of troubles. Stump had soft area early. We have found another couple of soft rotty areas on the main. We have scraped, sprayed , tented areas and hope for the best. She keeps growing 8 inches every two days. She will be very orange and have a great shape. This one will keep us awake nights.   Saturday, July 16 View Page Sleeping beauty. Still growing 10 inches in two days even though we removed the main stump and first 3 vines on both sides. The REST of the plant looks good. This is a total experiment now. We love the shape of this one. Sure wish we could have kept the plant healthy.   Saturday, July 23 View Page 30 days old 100 inch circ. On Sleeping Beauty . 2145 McMullen. This is the plant that we removed the stump and the first three vines on both sides due to rot on main vine a couple of weeks ago.This pumpkin is still growing pretty well. We love the shape of this pumpkin. We sure wish we could have kept this plant healthy as it certainly has potential!   Sunday, July 24 View Page The 2230. Selfed. 26 days old. 91 inch circ. By far our best pumpkin. By far our best plant.   Sunday, July 24 View Page The 2230 plant. Giant leaves, tall leaves, thick vines. Love it!   Sunday, July 31 View Page It has been a rough season. I am not much of a drinker but this JC margarita is quite refreshing when the pumpkin season is not going according to plan. A Little ice, a little lime and things look a bit better......   Sunday, July 31 View Page The 2145 McMullen day 38 est at 444 lbs. this is the plant that is about a half a plant. We took out about the first few feet of the main and the first few side vines on both sides due to rotten area on main. Amazing that she is growing at all!   Sunday, July 31 View Page The 2230 Wallace. The best we have this year! Day 32 est 404 lbs. The plant is big ! Fairly healthy. We are trying to keep this plant as healthy as we can. She is not on pace for our PB but we hope to be competitive with this one. The shape is PERFECT!   Sunday, July 31 View Page The 1998 Jutras pumpkin has just about quit growing. The plant has multiple problems. We are hoping to get her to a weigh-off. She will have great color. We are starting to remove some of the plant that is not helping the pumpkin due to soft vines. I will post pic next week. Time for that margarita   Tuesday, August 23 View Page Remember us? We didn't fall off the pumpkin pile but we have been at war with fusarium. And we lost. Here is what we have to show for all our hard work. Starting from the smallest. The 1998 Jutras. This plant was the worst hit by fusarium. Right now we have just a couple of vines left just to keep the pumpkin from dehydrating. We are hoping to get this puppy to a weigh off. She is sheltered from the heat and has a couple of sheets to keep her warm at night. She has great color!   Tuesday, August 23 View Page The 2145 McMullen. This seed has potential! This is the plant that had the stump and first few vines removed quite awhile ago. We found more rot on the main and removed another 3 feet of vine the other day. We are just amazed that this pumpkin keeps on growing! 13 lbs a day at last measurement. It could have been something if it had a WHOLE healthy plant!   Tuesday, August 23 View Page The 2230 Wallace. We have had to remove some vines and we removed the stump and a few side vines. This plant was huge so it still has a lot of plant. It REALLY COULD have been something if it had a whole healthy plant. The main vine is huge. Big leaves. And fusarium. Still growing 17 lbs a day.   Saturday, August 27 View Page We took a little patch tour today. First stop was Leonardo and Jose Cardenas pumpkins. Ruben Frias also grows here but he wasn't there so we didn't look at his pumpkins. They must have about fifteen plants going all together. They also have a community garden for the Hudson Vineyard workers. Pumpkins, beans, corn, cucs, peppers and more peppers! We came home with some unique purple tomatoes for dinner! This pic is of Leonardos pumpkin row.   Saturday, August 27 View Page Here is Leonardo with a 2145 McMullen . The blossom is hidden. I always like Leonardo's pumpkin huts. He gives the fruit lots of room to grow and good protection too. Leonardo pollinated the 2145 with the 2230 Wallace. Photo does not do this pumpkin justice as there is a lot of pumpkin at the stem end you can't see.   Saturday, August 27 View Page Here are some of the dried beans Leonardo is growing. He has at least four varieties going. They will be harvesting them this week.   Saturday, August 27 View Page Here is a pic of Jose Cardenas with his two daughters. This pumpkin is off the 2230 Wallace. He pollinated it with the 2145 McMullen. With fifteen plants growing in the same area Leonardo, Jose and Ruben can share pollen easily! Jose also has a 1655 Cardena, 1676 Daletas and a 1945 Daletas going. All looked like they have potential. It has been a cool summer in Napa ......   Saturday, August 27 View Page Next stop Gary Miller's patch! Here is Gary with a 2009 Wallace. Gary has a bunch of pumpkins going. This one is in his upper patch. The lower patch had a later start so the pumpkins are younger with lots of growing ahead.   Saturday, August 27 View Page Another pumpkin at Gary's.   Saturday, August 27 View Page Another pumpkin at Gary's.   Saturday, August 27 View Page Last stop was Tim Mathison's place.   Saturday, August 27 View Page This is the one that got away! 1554 Mathison. Blossom split. This was by far the biggest pumpkin we saw on our tour today. We had a nice visit with Tim and his grandson. Tim sent us home with some lemon cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and a couple of unique zucchinis. That is the end of the tour for today. John Hawkley and Jose Ceja were busy with work and family so we will have to hit their patches another day.   Tuesday, September 6 View Page From the Heirloom Expo in Santa Rosa, Ca. They have a lot of displays. Heirloom veggies, animals,tractors! And a dahlia show!   Tuesday, September 6 View Page More displays. Peppers and more peppers...eggplants, tomatoes, it just goes on table after table!   Tuesday, September 6 View Page The gourd mountain. And squash, squash, squash...   Tuesday, September 6 View Page And then there was a pumpkin weigh off. It is hard to see anything unless you are the emcee standing on the wall!   Tuesday, September 6 View Page The pumpkins. The weights are down this year. We will have to get California back in the running NEXT YEAR! But.....the year is not over. There ARE some nice pumpkins out here. Or so I hear!   Friday, September 30 View Page Loading our last and only pumpkin of the season. We discovered some soft spots on the bottom so we DQed it . Thank you John Hawkley for your help loading!   Friday, September 30 View Page Oops! Forgot to post the pic!   Saturday, October 1 View Page Congrats to Russ Pugh for getting a sound pumpkin to the scale AND WINNING the Elk Grove weigh off ! 1944.5 lbs off the 2145 McMullen.   Saturday, October 1 View Page So what became of our pumpkin? It weighed 919 and was a perfect boat for Zach to race in the regatta at Elk Grove Harvest Fest. Fourth place (out of four!) I was just happy she was seaworthy. I am sure Zach was happy about that too!   Saturday, October 1 View Page The lifting crew at Elk Grove! Great volunteers for lifting, great forklift drivers, great judges, stat people! It takes a village to put on a well run weigh off!   Saturday, October 1 View Page The Elk Grove results board   Saturday, October 1 View Page Russ and his winning squash! He is THE MAN! Winning pumpkin, winning squash, head stat guy!   Saturday, October 1 View Page Jose CARDENAS and 2nd place pumpkin 1626 lber....Jose is quite a grower! He should get a jacket this year as he still has more big ones in the patch!   Saturday, October 1 View Page Kids painting booth at EG Fest. They have so much to do at this festival. Climbing wall, food booths, craft booths, live bands, educational agriculture booths, bungie cord swings, pumpkin pie eating contest starring joey chestnut, etc. something new every year!   Saturday, October 1 View Page Adult painting booth...i really should have done this one!   Saturday, October 1 View Page Pumpkin house   Saturday, October 1 View Page Our last pumpkin. I sure have gotten a lot of use out of this jacket. I traded a woman a beaded pumpkin bag necklace I made for this jacket about 20 years ago! I think I got the best deal! Who was it that said" I'd rather sit on a pumpkin all my myself than on a crowded cushion." .? I may have the quote a bit wrong but you get the idea.   Saturday, October 1 View Page Missing photo of lifting crew. Bless their hearts!   Saturday, October 1 View Page Missing photo of results board elk grove weigh off