Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 33 Entries. Monday, January 22 View Page The front yard 2017. Made it to a 6 weigh-0ffs this fall. Got the weighed fruit on the front lawn, ready for the "knife".   Monday, January 22 View Page End of August I made it down to the Woodstock CT. fair. Beautiful day. and some nice fruit. Matt DeBacco with his #753, was there keeping things on the up and up.   Monday, January 22 View Page Bart took the Honors with this beauty grown on the stem   Monday, January 22 View Page Went to the Summer Picnic out of the Beauchemin Manse in Goffstown. Had a Great Time, Great Food, Great People. Here Marc Magarian talking about the Great lookin squash he's been tending. He ended up with a #496, at Goffstown NH. weigh-off.   Monday, January 22 View Page Marc also doubles as the pork Prepper. here with his crew at the NGPGA Summer Picnic at the Beauchemin Estate in Goffstown NH. The food and company were top notch.   Monday, January 22 View Page NGPGA Summer Picnic. Stopped at Barry LeBlanc's on the summer tour. Hadn't been to his New(to me) digs. Lots of yet to be developed patch and some already putting out. Barry, Hiram Watson and Woody Lancaster walking the boards checking out a lunker.   Monday, January 22 View Page NGPGA Summer Picnic Tour made it's way to Jason Dubois patch. he'd been having problems so the Dr.s George Hamilton and Matt Debacco set to work with the analysis. Been a bad year for diseases so everyone was paying attention (all most). Only heard a bit something regarding smell and whether a cut section was sticky or not.... Bacterial.... fungus.   Monday, January 22 View Page Had a lot of fun at the NGPGA Summer Picnic Tour from Sue and Jim Beauchemin's house in Goffstown NH. Picture of the crew.   Tuesday, January 23 View Page Made it to Frerich's in RI. Ran into this Abnormal creature in the weigh-off area. Yes IT was weeping. I didn't see any NORMAL wounds, so the problem had to be mental!!! A couple members of the "Green Mountain" Mafia, had just walked away from him so I kept my distance in case there was any HAZMAT residue still air-borne. P.S. Thanks Creature for the Care Package   Tuesday, January 23 View Page Saw The Breznicks of the Green Mountain Gang, talking and making an exchange with the Normal One just before he broke down into the flood of tears. Got to see them at Topsfield and the next day at Sanford ME. I thought "Too nice" to have orchestrated the Abnormally ruthless attack, but.....   Tuesday, January 23 View Page AH HAH!! These 2 with the Blues Brothers' glasses looked a little shady. Kerry and John Young had followed the Normal Man to Colchester VT and Sanford ME, before cornering him at Frerich in RI. A little investigation and I heard that Kerry had taught John how to "twerk", and he was very excited and twerking every chance he got. P.S. thanks for the Care Package.   Tuesday, January 23 View Page More Abnormal Weeping. This time it may have been triggered by cracking #1000 and the Howard Dill award, BUT I think it was residual after being "Man-handed" by the Breznicks of the Green Mountain crew. I heard of a video of Mark, "FORCING" the last, "#777 Young", into Norm's compost encrusted mitts. That'd make anyone weep!! Looking for ORANGE pollinators for 2018, try Johnston RI. GOOD LUCK Norm.   Wednesday, January 24 View Page Beautiful day at Frerich's in RI. Glenn "BORER" Peters and Cam followed up the 995.5 peters at Topsfield with this beauty. Their Halloween display in Billerica MA. should be pretty full.   Wednesday, January 24 View Page Woody Lancaster and Henry Swenson brought a large fruit down from MA. Woody looked a bit more relaxed after breaking the 1 TON mark with his #2003 win at Topsfield the previous week.   Wednesday, January 24 View Page My lovely bride has finally taught me how to do this http worldwide cloudy web thing, but I'm Not having as much fun as John Young after his lovely wife Kerry taught him twerking, I hear the President likes to do it too. Hear you see John warming up..."Look out Wilber Horton and Bart Toftness I'm about to do some serious twerking.".... Go John!!   Wednesday, January 24 View Page Russ "Knots" Klowan at Frerich's. How he got his #510.5 to stand on the blossom was as amazing as the Knots he was trying to teach me at Sanford ME. I wasn't sure if he was following me around... Woodstock CT #782, Topsfield #1468 Sanford ME #KNOTS, and Frerich's. I did the 3 in a row: THURS. Deerfield NH, FRI. Topsfield and SAT. Sanford ME. Between the loading, and unloading my fruit at home and helping at the scales at the 3 weigh-offs I lost #14.5 lbs. Could be why all pictures from the 3 events were blurry from the shakes, or cloudy from the sweating. KNOTS was showing me easier ways of tying the fruit for lifting in between ducking when they were firing the Trebuchet. Now that I'm over 60 I may cut it back to 2 events in a row.   Thursday, January 25 View Page Yes they had they had plenty of Giant Limes to be weighed. Those RI guys know how to party... though I didn't see any Ice or Booze to mix with them.   Thursday, January 25 View Page Frerich's RI. Ken Desrosiers took some time from running the site to get a Bushel Gourd to scale #202.5. Great Job on the Fruit and of course BP.com. THANKS Ken.   Thursday, January 25 View Page Steve Sperry finishing a great season at Frerichs in RI. with a winning #1914.5, Topsfield (2nd) #1938, Deerfield NH (1st)1970.5, Durham CT #1274, Ridgefield CT #1190.   Thursday, January 25 View Page Frerich's RI Ron Wallace took some time off from announcer duties, here talking with Steve Sperry and Woody Lancaster over Steve's big fruit before it got to the scale and ...... Wait is that another Giant Lime behind them?? I don't think the lifting crew will be using a lifting tarp for that beast.   Thursday, January 25 View Page No Giant Lime, just another Joe Jutras World Record, #2118 WR Squash. Joe never ceases to amaze. PS. want to thank Peter Rondeau for the Care Package. (missed his Orange Crocs this year.   Thursday, January 25 View Page For my Last Weigh-off I made it to Goffstown N.H. got 2 fruit weighed #312 & #314. They were co-joined when I left home. Couple bumps later they split!!! No One believed the story so they were weighed separately. I did however find these guys carving a big one. They had kids crawling all over the fruit with carving tools. My wife's relatives were coming up in 2 weeks to carve some pumpkins and I didn't want to give a 9 year old a sharp knife or tool and chance getting blood on 1 of the fruit, so I checked out the tools. "Pottery Tools", the pro-carver informed me. Ordered some on line, Reinforced them as I was told and the Magic began.   Friday, January 26 View Page These 2 didn't make it to scale.The 1 on the right was mostly carved by my lovely wife's niece's family. They seemed to have a great time so we'll probably do it again next year. On left is the start of lady liberty.   Friday, January 26 View Page Wife's relative (rt) and Lady Liberty (lft) lit up. You can't see on the side of Lady Liberty's head I carved a Torch. Gotta love these carving tools!!   Friday, January 26 View Page I started the Carving with the #507.5 from the Woodstock Fair. She's been cut since end of August, and all the seeds were already germinating. Figures it was the only 1 of the ones I had pollinated that made it. I love these carving tools.   Thursday, April 5 View Page Attended the Seminar at Topsfield MA in February. Joe Jutras spoke on the Big Greenies, Steve Connelly on the Large "Limes", and Woody Lancaster spoke about Giant Pumpkins and how to push them till they're "Blue" in the Face (of the leaves) to get the most out of your plant. This from a man who makes-out with a sow at the Summer Picnic. How can I take serious advice from a man......   Thursday, April 5 View Page ...WAAAIT. The Heavy Hitters ALL do it!!!Al Berard, Jim Kuhn, John Doucet, Steve Sperry, Russ Klowan George Hoomis, Woody, Joe Post(seated) and Joe Jutras, (closing in in Blue shirt). Picking at that poor sow like the "Walking Dead". I went home and ate 2 #s of bacon.   Thursday, April 5 View Page Back to February Seminar. It was Dr. George Hamilton that interrupted my winter repose. His pictures of various stink-bugs that carry the Yellow Vine Disease triggered my wife who recognized a couple of them. That the Bugs thrive in wood and brush piles prompted my wife to remind me what a mess I had to clean, before the season started. The weather was great and I started the Big clean-up that afternoon.   Thursday, April 5 View Page Couple of nice weeks in February and I got most of the yard cleaned up. It was so nice I was planning on starting seeds early in March. Then back to back "Nor'easters" and we were socked in for the whole of March. Couple trees fell on the old tree house. Told my wife "I can FIX it." She said "Burn It."   Thursday, April 5 View Page Snow is just about all gone. Back to fun stuff. Here's my only HD winner (to date). #474 Kearns It was at least 30' out on a main that snaked around 1/2 of the bottom patch. Open pollination so I didn't keep seeds. And Yes there was more than 1 on the plant (#537 Kearns).   Thursday, April 5 View Page Some extra "Simply Orange" just for color and it was off to Deerfield NH, and my First Howard Dill award. #474 Kearns off of the #537 Kearns.   Thursday, April 5 View Page I had mentioned the carving tools that the Carvers at Goffstown NH introduced me to. Pottery Tools reinforced with heavy duty glue and epoxy. The metal part is like a carrot peeler bent into different shapes. Sharp enough to carve but no-one got cut.   Thursday, April 5 View Page Side view of Lady Liberty. The torch looked better in person, especially after a couple cold ones.