Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 70 Entries. Sunday, January 1 View Page Happy Growing to everyone this season! I hope the seeds you plant are your ticket to a fun ride this year!   Friday, January 6 View Page   Saturday, January 7 View Page I moved my long gourd trellis to new ground.   Sunday, January 8 View Page   Monday, January 23 View Page   Friday, January 27 View Page I hurried between weigh offs this fall and got wheat in. Trying to slow it down with some of my compost. Newer beds got some sand from the creek. I got my fifth bed ready ( last one lol) . Too many seeds I want to plant   Wednesday, March 8 View Page Cullmaster 1000 prototype. It will cut. lol Probably won’t pick up as well I am thinking frog gig or two tongs. Winter projects are fun   Thursday, March 9 View Page   Wednesday, March 22 View Page Soil sample day!   Thursday, April 13 View Page Kennebec potatoes are in the ground. 50 lbs plus last year’s seed. We had a good day with friends planting and always have enough to spread around. Give your loading help good taters in August can’t hurt!   Wednesday, April 19 View Page I moved my lg trellis this year to some new ground.   Wednesday, April 19 View Page   Thursday, April 20 View Page Where the old lg trellis was….is now the GOD “sponsored “ melon viewing façade!   Thursday, April 20 View Page   Thursday, April 20 View Page God is good! My grandson on his first birthday helping, what more can you ask for!   Friday, April 21 View Page Catching the last heat on a cool spring day   Monday, April 24 View Page My 268 did well last year so I am growing it again this year. I started earlier this year going for 120 days of fruit growth.   Tuesday, April 25 View Page 268 was a wide one!   Wednesday, April 26 View Page   Saturday, April 29 View Page I have three 276 in the ground.The weather hasn’t quite warmed up enough to get them going. I had to replant a couple with backups. I need to make sure I out them during a bit nicer weather next year.   Sunday, April 30 View Page 276 (146.5 Young x self)   Wednesday, May 10 View Page   Saturday, May 13 View Page The taters have come in nicely. We have been much cooler than normal and they like it!   Sunday, May 14 View Page The melon plants are hanging in there. They have not seen 80 but for one day since I put them out. I can’t complain if we weren’t missing the rain I would have lost them all probably. I replaced a couple with backups. Blue sky’s are a coming   Monday, May 15 View Page Green beans are in. Contender beans is what I have grown for as long as I can remember.   Wednesday, May 17 View Page The main broke on my 268 so shes gone. Gonna roll with it trying to get to WVA or Tenn September 16th! It should be fine whenever we get some good weather. Cold weather is making this year a challenge.   Monday, May 22 View Page I went to till and prep my lg bed and found a large snapping turtle laying her eggs! I was glad I noticed her eyes in the dirt doing a final look before I got on the tractor! So no tractor today. The turtles lay around 30 eggs which take 75-90 days to hatch. This female is at least twenty years old.   Friday, May 26 View Page You can see by the size hole how big she was! I will try not to disturb the area best as I can. Sometimes the nests will be found by nighttime digging varmits but maybe all my man made things will keep them away. I have my long gourd plants in, all the same 138.63 Harnica Thanks John for the seeds.   Sunday, May 28 View Page Not a whole lot of change here but they did grow some I promise lol One good thing about this weather is no bugs!   Monday, June 5 View Page Potatoes are doing really good. We could use some rain. I watered them good from the well but that’s not like God’s water.   Tuesday, June 6 View Page I haven’t grown long gourds in a few years so I am excited for this year. No problems with wildlife so far and they are growing well. My goal for this year is 120” . The first year I grew one it was 113” and I haven’t beaten it yet so this is the year!   Wednesday, June 7 View Page A swarm of honeybees came through and stayed the night. I was working on the lg weed fabric and the bees were so loud when they arrived!   Thursday, June 8 View Page   Friday, June 9 View Page It was very cool to see. They were there overnight and left around noon the following day. I researched the queen only travels a short distance then rests while hundreds of scouts search for a nest site. Before the queen leaves her old nest she lays new queen eggs to take her place as the hive splits.   Monday, June 12 View Page Here come the melons!   Thursday, June 15 View Page This is a fun time of year! Always excited to see the next little one to show itself! The plants have picked up now I think the weather finally got warm enough for them.   Friday, June 16 View Page Another visitor this year! This guy has been hanging around here a little too much for my liking. Sharon has been bringing the feeders in every evening and had just put the feeder’s out before he showed up.   Saturday, June 17 View Page   Thursday, June 22 View Page The baby from my earlier entry turned out to be my keeper! 268Houston x 276Houston. This month has been just as unusual as the last one. It started Cool and dry, when it warmed there was wildfire smoke for four days,then cold rain for four days. All my other sets but one kicked off or just didn’t show. Anyway, I am glad to have two on   Friday, June 23 View Page My other keeper. 276x276sibb   Monday, June 26 View Page 276 all racked up   Wednesday, June 28 View Page It’s off to a good start. This is two days later.   Thursday, June 29 View Page 268 day 15 ready to roll I hope! The weather has turned summer like, great melon weather. Thankfully, I think my other two plants have gotten sets on them. I did have to pull one of my 276 plants last week. It was in a new bed that I had really jacked up my soil ppm’s so maybe I found the ceiling :)   Wednesday, July 5 View Page The no vacancy sign is lit. It’s all down hill from here, one way or the other!   Thursday, July 6 View Page The 298 McCaslin x open. The bees did the job on this one and also pollinated one on my last plant the same day. It always amazes me how easy it is to miss them. I had been looking super hard for anything on both plants and missed them both. The day after we racked this one I found a huge forty pounder buried under vines on the other side of the plant. This one looks like a good shape day eight. Sometimes the melons will not really show their true shape until this age.   Wednesday, July 12 View Page 298 had a good week day 15   Thursday, July 13 View Page I figured out how to not miss any culls! melonvid 23 got it . This is an unusual disease. I think the May June weather is partly responsible. This has happened in five different states that I know of on healthy plants. There was not a bad leaf on this plant six hours prior. I thought about quitting growing. Not lol I just cussed and kicked dirt then pulled that thing   Wednesday, July 19 View Page The long gourds have done really well. These Michigan seeds like it here John!   Sunday, July 23 View Page This was a backup 276 and was the scrawny one for two months. I thought about replacing it at one time. Now it’s my last one and is on a roll! I always tell everyone that I never know what God will bless me with because it seems to never be what you think or plan! So take care of all your plants equally and don’t give up   Friday, August 4 View Page Long gourds are fun to grow! I went from nothing on to culling like crazy! They open up at dusk I helped some of these, but bees or moths did the rest.   Thursday, August 10 View Page Six days later!   Friday, August 18 View Page Another eight days. The 138.63 Harnica’s are getting it done!   Saturday, August 19 View Page I pulled my 298 plant so now I have two melons left. 276 is chugging along.   Sunday, August 20 View Page Taters are put up. This was two rows out of seven. What a great crop this year! Initial investment was $25 for the Canadian lovelies and ten pounds each of epsom,gypsum and triple ten. Many different families got some and also the green beans we had. We got tired of picking beans and let them go after picking 50 gallons. We put up 27 qts of them and my friend did as well.   Friday, September 15 View Page Davis and I are loaded up for another road trip! Craigsville,WVA here we come!   Friday, September 15 View Page   Tuesday, September 19 View Page We had a blast in West Virginia on Saturday! It was their first weighoff but you could never tell. Growers came from states all over came to show support for a new venue and we were not disappointed!   Wednesday, September 20 View Page   Thursday, September 21 View Page I really like the new leaderboards that were built! We didn’t necessarily like where the names ended up though! NC goes top three and gets us again lol. All and all Saturday was a fun time with lots of growers talking shop.   Friday, September 22 View Page Long gourd growing was very enjoyable this year. I was able to beat my pb from 2013. I had taken a few years off but I am hooked on lg again! I learned so much and am already thinking of next year. There is something about going to a weighoff that re- energizes you. I left home thinking of what a pain it was going to be to do year end clean up, you know all the stuff we have to put away. On the ride home we both suddenly had all these things on our minds we wanted done now! This week I got a lot cleaned up and some wheat planted with a smile on my face and thoughts of the big one next year. Weighoffs have great healing power for me because of the wonderful people in this sport!   Saturday, September 23 View Page Thank You Jesus!   Thursday, September 28 View Page During the Va weigh off we had a five inch dumping of rain. Certainly made the weigh off a mess but the wheat I had gotten in liked it. It will be a lot more work flipping the rest now.   Friday, September 29 View Page I was really impressed on how many worms I have now in these melon beds. I don’t know if you can see but there are many many holes going every direction in these dirt clods. I can’t even pick one up they crumble. That was my goal a few years back while buying expensive worm castings. I thought why not make my melon bed a worm bed?   Thursday, October 5 View Page I start a new pile of leaves every year and if I am lucky I get some donations a friend in the leaf pickup business. This is from two falls ago and ready to use now. To get them started I just add some form of synthetic N on top and leave a small amount of the old stuff to mix in when I flip it.   Friday, October 6 View Page My older brother Mac has moved back into the area it’s been good to have him around. This summer we had some fun hitting some drag races, a tractor pull, and a mx race at Budds Creek,Md where they were jumping bikes like his a hundred feet or more! Mac took a few years to tear down and rebuild this 83 YZ 250 two stroke. I like riding it but the power band is scary. I couldn’t handle it then either lol I had 3 wheelers growing up. Weird but ever since I rode the thing all I listen to now on SiriusXM is “hair nation” and 80’s rock! Ah the good ol days   Wednesday, October 11 View Page The 224 was a thick one and was a knee high melon. Went 10% heavy and grown off my 276 b (146.4 young x self)   Thursday, October 12 View Page Looks like it has a chew of Red Man!   Friday, October 13 View Page Last 224 picture. Silas has started walking since this picture was taken! I also have tested the seeds out and like what I have seen. If you want to give it a grow next year email me, and I will send you my address. or we can swap bubbles and trade I may give master gardener a try and need different category seeds!   Tuesday, October 31 View Page Cover is doing well despite no rain in five weeks. This first bed had problems this year and the wheat color was off. I added some epsom salt to it after a quick soil test. Test results were great at first glance which is always challenging. I had sufficient Mg, but it was way below my K which was pretty high as was everything else. I figure Epsom should help green it up and it can’t hurt.   Thursday, November 9 View Page The long gourds tested out nicely. I planted four of each and they all came up.133.5, 126, and119. Had to just chunk them in the woods to after the picture lol. Email me if you are serious about growing them I have enough to share.