2013 Pumpkin Patch

Well, last Saturday I planted the pumpkin patch.  Not much to say about that.  Today I had planned on spraying the patch with Miracle Grow but it has been raining all day so I don't see much of a point.  As of today there are seven plants that have popped up, all jack-o-lanterns.  I did take a look and there is one Big Max pumpkin plant that is now just starting to pop up out of the ground.  I decided to plant more jack-o-lantern pumpkin plants this year and less big max.  I figure more pumpkins is better than big pumpkins.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.