Crazy Uncle Ryan's favorite quotes


"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."— Arthur C. Clarke

Friday, October 26, 2012

The Witch's Camp

So, this year I decided to try something new with our outdoor Halloween Decorations.  What I ended up with was The Witch's Camp.  I think it turned out pretty good and the boys love it.
Here we have the view during the day.  The witch does talk and cackle when she moves.  It's pretty fun.  I made the Spooky Trees out of branches from our wood pile.  Most of the components came from the wood pile, the dollar store or our pumpkin patch.
There's Collin and Liam hanging out with the witch (one of the few things that didn't come from the dollar store) and a number of the pumpkins from our pumpkin patch.
Here's the view at night.  It looks a little bit different now as I decided to add a little height to the spooky tree on the right.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

The 2012 Pumpkins Are Here!

Well, 2012 was a very successful year for Ryan's Pumpkin Patch.  I ended up with 18 pumpkins with a total weight of 201.4 lbs.  That is a personal best in terms of number of pumpkins.  The most I ever got in a year was 15.  It is also the most total weight for the pumpkin patch ever.  So here they are:

From Left to Right - On the Table: The Tardis (28.0 lbs) [This Year's "Big Mutha"], The Dalek (22.6 lbs.) - On Cinder Block: The Bro Code (13 oz.)* - Middle Row: Knucklenose (10.8 lbs.), HooDoo (12.6 lbs), Captain Sneaky Pants (14.8 lbs.), Han Solo (13.2 lbs), Twisted Sister (17.4 lbs.), Challenge Accepted (16.4 lbs.), Knucklehead (12.6 lbs.), August Rush (14.4 lbs.), Sally Slingshot (7.8 lbs.) - Bottom Row: Snickerdoodle (4.0 lbs.), Peter (6.4 lbs.), Susan (5.4 lbs.), Edmund (6.2 lbs.), Lucy (5.0 lbs.), True Story (3.0 lbs.)

So, there you have it.  I know that to many of you the names make no sense.  But, that is simply because you don't watch the right TV shows.  Anyway, Happy Fall!



*Yes, that is ounces, not pounds.  Smallest pumpkin I have ever grown.

Friday, September 28, 2012

The Final Days of The Pumpkin Patch

You know, my last semester of college was both happy and sad.  I loved my time at BYU and the friends I had made and the things I had learned.  However, as I started my last semester I had finished all my linguistics courses and the only classes I was taking were a bunch of random ones I needed in order to finish up the last of my graduation requirements.  In addition to that, it was finally dawning on me that I had majored in linguistics and that I had absolutely no idea or plan regarding what I was going to do with my life.

Much like those final days of my college career, my pumpkin patch is in its final days.  Most of the pumpkins have now been picked and there are just a few stragglers clinging to the dying vines as I wait for them to turn orange.  So, in the next little while I will be picking the last four pumpkins and I will be taking out the pumpkin patch for another year.  It's happy and sad all at the same time.  Much like my last semester of college.  Hmm, deep.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

First Pumpkin of 2012

Well, yesterday I picked the first pumpkin of 2012.*  This is the earliest I have ever picked a pumpkin.  Since I picked it on the last day of August and it was clearly in a big hurry to ripen I decided to name this 14.4 lb beauty . . . wait for it . . . August Rush.  I know; my creativity knows no bounds.  Sometimes I'm amazed my brain doesn't explode under the weight of all this creative genius.




*Technically, the first pumpkin I picked was the one that had gone rotten.  This was the first intact pumpkin of 2012.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Pumpkin Patch Update

 
Well, I am happy to say that the pumpkin patch has been doing incredibly well this year.  Due to an unusually hot summer the pumpkins have grown faster and become ripe earlier than they usually do.  I actually have several that I could pick right now if I wanted to.  As a result of this heat and fast growth I actually have new pumpkins starting up even now.  In fact, I hand pollinated two female buds just this morning.  If things keep going well with these new ones I could actually end up with somewhere in the area of 20 pumpkins this year.  That's more than I have ever gotten in case you were wondering.
The pumpkin shown above is Pumpkin #23.  This was one of the later pumpkins.  I actually almost snipped it off thinking that I should stop any new pumpkins from starting so the plants' energy could go into to the pumpkins I already had.  But, I saw that the pumpkin was already staring to grow so I let it alone.  I'm glad I did.  Even though this one started somewhere in the area of a month later than most of the others it grew like crazy and may very well end up as the biggest jack-o-lantern pumpkin I get this year.  I'm sure there's some kind of Sunday School lesson in there.
Above is Pumpkin #13.  It should probably end up as the smallest of the batch this year.
 This guy (Pumpkin #18) decided to hide behind the butterfly bush.
These are Pumpkins #15 and #16.  Not much to say about them.
Here we see Pumpkins #17, #5 and #22.
On the left is Pumpkin #8.  This is the one competing with #23 for the distinction of being the biggest of the jack-o-lanterns.  On the right is Pumpkin #4; one of the three Big Max pumpkins I got this year.
In the front you can see Pumpkin #1.  This will undoubtedly be the biggest of this year's Big Max pumpkins.  Pumpkin #7 can be seen in the back and should be the second biggest.  Now, this picture is missing something.  Pumpkin #6 is not here.  A few weeks ago I came out and looked it just to discover to my dismay that it's bottom had turned to mush.  As a result, I had to pick it.  It weighed in at 8.6 lbs and I named it Oh Potter, You Rotter.  It seemed appropriate.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Collin's Excavator Cake

So, back on August 7th our little Collin turned four.  Since Alisa took care of all the presents I decided that I would take care of the cake.  Alisa found this excavator cake online and I baked the pound cake and turned it into the above.  It was a big hit with Collin.

Monday, May 14, 2012

2012 Pumpkin Patch - Engage!

Well, back on May 9th I planted the Pumpkin Patch. As you can see from the above picture I planted three hills. The one in the middle is your regular jack-o-lantern pumpkins. The other two are planted with the seeds from the 36 pound and 26 pound Big Max pumpkins I grew last year. I have high hopes that I will set a new personal best this year. My goal is to get a 50 pounder. We shall see.
Oh, so you noticed the newly redesigned pumpkin patch sign. Now some of you may be rolling your eyes and saying; "Oh no he didn't." Well, yes he did! You may feel inclined to point out; "But Ryan, that show ended 2 years ago. When are you going to move on." To which I say: "NEVER! Indeed you are correct, it did end 2 years ago. But, I have the complete series on blu-ray so for me it shall never end!!"
Anyway, if you think that's nuts check this out. As you know, I love to grow my pumpkins and I just feel like I could never really ever have enough of them. So, I decided to try planting some pumpkins on the roof. I'll let you know how this works out.

In case you were wondering this post has been backdated. I actually wrote it 8/2/12. I decided to show the date I meant to write it.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

It's Been A While

OK, so it has been just over 4 months since I last wrote a blog post. Here's a summary of what happened.
  • After being out of work for month I got a job at a 3PL called Pro Star Logistics.
  • I finished my yearly reading of Harry Potter.
  • My new favorite currently running show "Once Upon a Time" premiered. (LOST is still my all time favorite show in case you were wondering)
  • The 5th and Final Season of "Chuck" Premiered.
  • We had a fun Halloween in which I dressed up as a member of The DHARMA Initiative, Alisa was a witch, Collin was a dinosaur coming out of an egg and Liam was a pea-pod.
  • We had a fun Thanksgiving at Grandma Norberg's house and one at my in-law's house in Idaho.
  • I began my yearly reading of The Lord of The Rings.
  • We all celebrated Kari's return to her family.
  • Season 19 of "The Amazing Race" concluded.
  • The first season of "Terra Nova" concluded.
  • Collin (or one of his little friends) threw something at my TV and cracked the screen causing an annoying black line that extends from the crack to the edge of the screen.
  • We had a wonderful Christmas.
  • 2011 ended.
  • 2012 began.
  • I began watching the 4th Season of "Merlin" via iTunes
  • I lost my job at Pro Star and became unemployed again.
  • "Alcatraz" premiered.
  • Liam turned 1 year old.
  • The 5th and Final Season of "Chuck" Concluded.
  • Alisa and I started watching the show "Prison Break" on Netflix while up in Idaho and got ourselves hooked.
  • I finished my yearly reading of The Lord of The Rings.
  • Season 20 of "The Amazing Race" began.

So, that's about it. At the moment Alisa and I are waiting for the next few DVDs of "Prison Break" to arrive at the library but my main focus is job searching. Things are going pretty well. I have had several interviews and one coming up tomorrow and I'm actively networking. More posts soon.