Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The life of a pumpkin named Pearl


This is Pearl on her pollination day.

The day she was born. 

If only we knew her true potential at this point. 




This is Pearl as an infant.

She was so beautiful and round...

A nice long stem and a five lobe belly button.  

What a cute little bundle of joy!




Just look at how perfect she is....

That beautiful soft, perfect skin.




Gaining some nice color here!




Getting some real weight going.




Hey!  How did you get in there?  

Just doing my job of pumpkin guarding. 




Just look at that shape and size.  




The day before her lift onto the truck.  

Miss May had to put her little hat on to visit Pearl.  




This is the device we use to lift our pumpkins.  

It was very hard for me to cut the vine.......sob.




The lift!  




Not sure if it shows up well here....but this shows the concave area in Pearl's bottom. 

That cost us a bit of weight.  




Here she is in the truck.  

We only had one scary moment when my dad's foot slipped off of the brake on the tractor.  

Sorry Donald!  I just about fainted.




This is Pearl wrapped up in the "Barf" sofa.  

My neighbor's sofa that was used for the kids when they did not feel well.  

We got lots of interesting comments about the barf sofa at the weigh off.  
I thought the colors complemented Pearl's beautiful skin.  




This is a shot of the crack of dawn.  I do not see it very often.  

I do not do well at the crack of dawn...
It is really not a good time of day for me unless I am at the beach fishing.  




Me with Pearl right before the weigh off.

Did I mention that it was 90 degrees???
That is why I look like a lobster.  




Pearl was looking pretty good here........

Then

The Monster Pumpkin drove up!

and 

Another monster pumpkin. 




My sweet, beautiful niece and her little dog max. 




Poor Pearl was dwarfed by the monster pumpkins.

I figured that I might have a chance to get in the top ten.  




Pearl getting an escort to the scales.




When your pumpkin is weighed, you have to stand behind your pumpkin with the weight card.

I am a bit shy about things like that, but very proud of my pumpkin. 




Me with the fourth place ribbon and prize envelope. 




The MONSTER!!!  1201 pounds!  These guys have another pumpkin that is larger!

They are taking it to a different weigh off this weekend.  

I was entertained with stories of the brothers blowing up their pumpkins with too much fertilizer or too much rain.  Pushing the pumpkin to the limit.  




This is unbelievable!  
A 291 pound watermelon!!!

A New World Record.  

The people who grew this were getting phone calls from every T.V. station in the area for an interview.  




I miss Pearl.........



Saturday, September 25, 2010

The Results!


This is going to be short and sweet.  

Pearl weighed 659.4 pounds!!!  
I was hoping for just a bit more...but Pearl's bottom had other plans.
She had a concave area that I will show in a later post that took a little weight off.  




We got 4th place!!!!

I had not even imagined that we could have gotten that high up with all of the fantastic competition!  

There was even a World Record watermelon....it weighed 291 pounds!!!
I will post more pictures soon.  
We are worn out! 

Friday, September 24, 2010

Arbor Progress and the weigh-off


I have now finished the texture portion of the second post!




Most of these pictures are of the back side of the posts because the cypress tree prevented me from being able to get it all from the front at the angle that I wanted.  



Why is it when you want to take a picture of something; your dogs always seem to steal the show. 





This is a close-up of the back of the second post.  Of course Bumble is hard at work here as well.  





Side view of the second post.




Front view.  Excuse the sad looking pumpkin vine.  





Front view.  A little closer.  
Now, I have to work on the smaller metal branches with leaves that will branch off of the existing metal.  
I have been waiting on cooler weather to do this.  
You can work up quite a sweat hammering in hot weather.  
That is if you do not own a power hammer and you have to rely on your own chubby little arms.  
Thanks Fred...(my dad who says that I have chubby little arms)
It is really all muscle. He he he.  
Must be my superior genes.





Am I in or out?  Is the grass really better over there?  I do not even see grass on this side of the fence.  




Hi Otis!  You are so cute.  




ANOTHER picture of my gate. 




Our neighbor invited us for dinner and had this beautiful arrangement of cactus dahlias.  




Hey......What's up?  

You are not paying attention to me.

You know 

The 

Cutest Bulldog on the block.  




Ha ha haha .   

Right!  




Come on Bumble...let's play!




You might think you are cute, but I know just how mean you can be.




I am going to show everyone your wild side!




Just look at how she bosses me around!




See....I told you she could be mean.  

Not so cute now are you?  




Hey....I feel funny. 




Do I have something on my back? 




Hmmmm........Maybe I should not sit near Zippy when he digs.





I think that I will check out the pumpkins.





Wow.....love this pretty writing spider!  




Look at the beautiful lines on Pearl!  

Getting ready for the Weigh off!  

This weekend!  




also getting ready for Pumpkin Fest!

I love Pumpkin Fest!

Lots of great food...




I love food...




Time to go.




Wish us luck at the weigh off!

I will post Pearl's final weight sometime Saturday!