Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 56 Entries. Thursday, April 24 View Page The first set of plants went in on April 24th. Alanna has the other side of the greenhouse this year. We both planted a 1081 Crews. Same seed, same soil. We'll see who does better.... My squash seeds also went in today at home. I have a 993 Vincent and an 1236 Vincent McGill The hoophouses at the farm went in earlier this week, along with the heating cables. The plants should go in for the boys in a few days...depending on the weather. It's been a cold, wet spring and the soil hasn't had enough time to warm up or dry out.   Saturday, April 26 View Page My annual "Springime on the Prairies" post. It only snowed most of the day because I have plants in the ground. I have a bad feeling about the weather this year. The boys are going to have to wait a few days more to get their plants in the ground. The main patch is still too cold and wet.   Friday, June 6 View Page It's been an up and down season so far. The first three weeks of May were cold and cloudy. The greenhouse plants are a little slower than the others. Don't know, might be the soil, but they are on the same pace as the 1081 greenhouse plants from last year, which is encouraging. Late June last year saw a massive growth spurt. Here is Alanna's 1081. Behind it is mine. We had some germination issues and I had to restart my 1081's. She's got 5 days on me. I hope I can catch up.   Friday, June 6 View Page Here's Andrew's plants. My germination heater fried a number of my seeds. He grew the 1177.8 Crews after his first set of seeds cooked. Ugh, stupid malfunctions! He broke his leg in mid April and has just been able to get back into the patch. The leaves on these plants are much smaller than the others in the patch. Strange.   Friday, June 6 View Page I didn't put in a field pumpkin this year. Instead, I used the extra corner of the farm patch to try my 736 Makarchuk est from last year. It's a 1081 Crews x 604 Makarchuk squash. Alex grew the 604 last year and it grew really well until the July hail storm. It produced a pumpkin for him so we'll see what happens.   Friday, June 6 View Page Again, wasn't the plan but Alex put in two of my 825 Makarchuk squash from a few years ago. His seeds got fried too. These were germinated 7 days later but you wouldn't know it. Aside from the weeds, Alex is pretty happy with his plants. I'm impressed as well.   Wednesday, June 11 View Page The 993 Vincent was a slower growing plant, so I kept the 1239 Vincent-McGill squash at home. There's a female at 4 feet opening. A bit early still. It's looking good to have a squash to pollinate in about 2 weeks. The squash plants look to be the first to pollinate. Hopefully we can cross the two. Maybe it's the weather this year. The squash plants are doing much better than the pumpkins. It was really wet and cold until mid May, and now it has just been dry and cool. Sorry for the delay in the pictures. I keep forgetting to take the pictures off the camera. I'm just waiting for the android app so I can do my updates in the patch LOL   Wednesday, June 18 View Page Just a bit wet the past two days. About 3 inches fell yesterday, plus another that fell over the weekend. The farm patch is underwater again. The good news is it is supposed to be warm and sunny in a day or two. Here is Alex's squash.   Friday, June 27 View Page The 1236 Vincent Mcgill squash opened on the 27th at 11 feet out. This was the third female to open, I let the others go. There's another that will open in about a week. This one was pollinated with the 1081 Crews. I wanted to use Alex's 825 Makarchuk squash but no flowers were available.   Friday, June 27 View Page After pollinating at home, we headed out to the farm to pollinate Alex's 825 Makarchuk squash. It's only 8 feet out but we'll give it a go. It was pollinated with the 1236 Vincent-McGill. It's been really wet and below average temperatures. The squash seem to like it but the pumpkins are behind.   Friday, June 27 View Page Alex was teaching Teddy how to pollinate this morning. Grass has made it into the patch and is a struggle to control. I'm not allowed to use Round up out at the farm so it's dig dig dig. I'm not getting ahead at all.   Tuesday, July 1 View Page Alex's 825 plant is really suffering today. It's not that warm (only about 20 degrees) but, the soil is so saturated that the roots can't breathe. The farm plants outside of the greenhouse are not happy.   Friday, July 11 View Page July 11th. The 1246 Vincent McGill squash is plugging along nicely. Finally, we get some nice heat.   Friday, July 11 View Page Alex was cheering for the Italians in the World Cup since the Ukrainian team didn't even qualify. He didn't choose well. Oh well. This is his 825 Makarchuk squash. Day 14. All of the rain in June stunted the growth of the farm patch plants. Until the deluge, he had the best plant going. Since the soil has dried out, the plants have started growing again. It's July 11th, 7/11. Time for a free slurpee.   Friday, July 11 View Page Andrew's 1177 Crews. This one is a little strange. Both 1177's he planted were very slow from the start. The rain in June just set them back even more. They were planted back to back with Alex's 825 and the squash grew nicely, so it can't be the soil. The leaves are very small. His first female opened on July 6th and was pollinated with the 1081 Crews at 7 feet out. There's no other females in sight. Hopefully this one took, but he doesn't have high hopes in getting a personal best this year.   Friday, July 11 View Page My 736 Makarchuk. It's got a corner of the patch and suffered from the wet soil, but is going well now. This opened on July 8th and was pollinated with the 1081 Crews.   Friday, July 11 View Page The two plants in the greenhouse. My 1081 Crews is in the front and Alanna's is in the back. The plant growth in the past 20 days has been immense, just like last year. Unfortunately, the plant was slow in putting out females. Alanna's opned on the 8th at 16 feet out. Mine opened a day later on the 9th at 14 feet. They were both sibbed. The race is on. Same soil, same seed. We'll see who does a better job.   Friday, July 11 View Page I finally had to turn on the water outside the greenhouse.   Saturday, August 2 View Page Alex's 825 Makarchuk. Almost all of his secondaries before the pumpkin shrivelled and died. The same happened with Andrew's plant, which was planted back to back with Alex's. They suffered with the excessive water back in June. He's got the back main and the secondaires past the squash. The plant is pretty small but the last few weeks has seen some growth. His squash is growing slowly, but he's still happy he's got something.   Saturday, August 2 View Page My 736 Makarchuk pumpkin pollinated on the 8th aborted after 18 days. I pollinated this one on the 27th. The plant is on the edge of Alex's and Andrew's and is a little higher. It didn't get as much standing water as the boys' plants. Andrew's 1177 Crews pumpkin also aborted. He pollinated another on August 1st. The leaves are much smaller than everything else in the patch. We'll see if he gets anything this year.   Saturday, August 2 View Page In the greenhouse, here's my 1081 Crews. It's a 4 days ahead of the pace from last year's 1081 but was pollinated 8 days later. It's been really hot the past week and this one has had a great growth spurt.   Saturday, August 2 View Page In the greenhouse, here's my 1081 Crews. It's a 4 days ahead of the pace from last year's 1081 but was pollinated 8 days later. It's been really hot the past week and this one has had a great growth spurt.   Saturday, August 2 View Page Alanna's 1081 Crews. Ok, my daughter's pumpkin is ahead of mine, but not by much. I still have lots of time......   Saturday, August 2 View Page And at home we have the 1246 Vincent-McGill. I'm crossing my fingers with this one...... It's nowhere near anything I've had on August 2nd.   Saturday, August 23 View Page Another year of extremes. July and August were very hot and very dry....until Thursday when the skies opened up and the temperatures dropped like a rock. We've gone from cranking the air condtioning to turning on the furnace! All of the pumpkins and squash have been suffering from the heat. The only thing that has been doing well lately are my long gourds, until a few days ago when it turned cold. Hopefully the weather will bounce back to something more moderate. Still a long ways to go until Smoky.   Sunday, September 7 View Page Beautiful Day. Sunny and 28. Unfortunately the forcast for Tuesday is rather scary. Time for the woolies. My season may come to a rather abrupt end, so here's what we have going now. This is Alex's squash. There's not much left of his plant before the squash and it hasn't grown much in the past few weeks.   Sunday, September 7 View Page Ok, I need to clarify this. Alex and Alanna have teamed up to work together on both of their plants. So they are a team with the other 1081 Crews and the squash from the previous post. Here is their 1081 Crews in the greenhouse.   Sunday, September 7 View Page My 1081 Crews   Sunday, September 7 View Page My 1236 Vincent-McGill squash at home. This one took off but the past month has not been as good. We had over 3 iches of rain in one day last week and some really cool nights. The forecast for the next 4 days looks rather scary. Just under 4 weeks to Smoky. This is going to be a long last month of the season.   Tuesday, September 9 View Page We woke up to -1 on September 9th. Alex's squash at the farm and the long gourd got hit pretty good. I put the cover back on the hoophouse at home and that saved most of the plant. The leaves outside were lost. It's funny, the pepper plants I have in a pot underneath the long gourd were untouched. I harvested one long gourd two days ago as the forecast was for -6 When I built the trellis, I never thought I could grow a gourd this long. I had to put the board at an angle and this year it got me an extra 28 inches. I think it's time to redo the trellis.   Saturday, September 20 View Page We had 3 nights of frost 10 days ago, but the squash and pumpkins are still putting on weight. The last week has been summer like weather. Back to watering again. Here's the two gourds for this year. July and August were really hot this year and the squash and pumpkins didn't like it, but the gourds did. Last year was really good, until the hail. The tips started curling on the boards as they got longer. I lost a few inches because of that. It won't happen again LOL. I need to get another few sheets of lattice (nothing is open in Taber on Sunday) and I'll be good for the spring. I need to remember the sunscreen. It was a hot and sunny day again. More in the forecast for this week.   Sunday, September 21 View Page It's another warm one. Here's what's left of the main farm patch. We pulled Andrew's 1177 Crews and my 736 Makarchuk a month ago. We just couldn't get anything to pollinate. Alex and Alanna's squash is to the right under the tarp. There's not much left of his plant. Even before the frost he had no plant before the squash. The vines all stopped growing in June. It is still putting on 1-2 pounds a day.   Sunday, September 21 View Page Alanna and Alex's 1081 Crews. The heaters didn't keep the frost completely off the plants in the greenhouse. This one has pretty much stopped.   Saturday, September 27 View Page It's almost over. Here's what's left. Nothing is growing any more. Here's Alex and Alanna's squash   Saturday, September 27 View Page The kids and their 1081 Crews   Saturday, September 27 View Page My 1081   Tuesday, September 30 View Page My 1236 Vincent McGill.   Tuesday, September 30 View Page Side view of the 1236   Tuesday, September 30 View Page Other side. I wasn't paying attention this year. About September 1st I discovered another squash in the patch. With the dark green colour, leaves and the weeds, I missed this thing. Maybe it's good I have it. The 1236 is thumping pretty good and the skin is starting to split. A bit more growth and I might have had a stem split.   Thursday, October 2 View Page The pumpkins and squash at the farm came out tonight. Thanks to the crew from Alex's hockey team! Here's the two 1081 Crews. Mine in the front and the kids' in the back.   Thursday, October 2 View Page I got very lucky. We picked the kids' 1081 and found this mice nest under it. There was no damage but we had a bit of a scare. We tipped back their squash to position the tarp underneath and my son goes "THERE'S A MOUSE!" I didn't believe him. There was a rather large mouse living under the squash! Again, no damage done. We lost the best mousing cat this summer and few other cats lost their 9 lives as well. There's only 1 adult and one kitten now. I think we need some good mousers. We really dodged a bullet.   Saturday, October 4 View Page Another great day in Smoky Lake. Alex and I picked up my dad in Calgary and we made the early morning trip. Here is what we brought on the trailer.   Saturday, October 4 View Page And the kid's squash   Saturday, October 4 View Page First my long gourd. 100.5 inches, good enough for 2nd. First was 103. I also had a 97 inch gourd this year. Mine is second from the left.   Saturday, October 4 View Page Alex and Alanna's squash. OTT of 226 inches, estimated 266 comes in at 256.5 pounds. 5th place.   Saturday, October 4 View Page My squash. Estimated weight of 726 and OTT of 320 inches, comes in a bit light at 646, but good enough for first place.   Saturday, October 4 View Page Alex sure likes taking picutres. Here he is with his and Alanna's 1081 Crews. OTT of 275 inches and estimated weight of 468, it comes in heavy at 499.5 Rats, they couldn't get 8 more ounces. Oh well. 7th place   Saturday, October 4 View Page My 1081 Crews. OTT of 320 inches (Same as the squash...) and estimated weight of 726 inches comes in at 731.5 Eddy did a great job running the show!   Saturday, October 4 View Page Forgot to mention that my 1081 Crews came in 3rd. Here's the winner. Don Crews had a nice one that came in at 1210 pounds. Great job, Don.   Saturday, October 4 View Page Waiting to load the kid's pumpkin. The kids' squash and my pumpkin and squash were given good homes. Just waiting our turn in line. The gas mileage was better for the 700km trip home.   Saturday, October 4 View Page Finally, the pumpkin drop. I managed to catch a pumpkin snowman... one with a big head.   Friday, October 31 View Page Ahhh, Halloween. It's been a very warm October and it's a great day to carve in shorts and t shirts. We found an extra squash in my patch in early September and decided to keep it to carve. We stood it on it's end and Alex decided to carve it on the side touching the ground, giving it an unique texture.   Friday, October 31 View Page Alanna is carving the bigger pumpkin. She still has her makeup on from her costume at school. She cut out a piece from the back and she decided to turn it into a tongue. She likes using the reciprocating saw to carve.   Friday, October 31 View Page So here are the finished products. I harvested the seeds from the long gourds last week. I cut them into smaller segments and hollowed out the guts and seeds. They dried out nicely and we fashioned horns for Alex's squash and a nose for Alanna's pumpkin. Alex's squash also has a cigar hanging out.   Friday, October 31 View Page All lit up. It was a great night. No wind and warm. That is really odd for us. We had about 150 kids and I was able to stand outside and talk about the pumpkins without a coat. Lots of fun.   Saturday, November 1 View Page Patch prep is all done and the patches are put to bed for the year. I have some great neighbours that deliver several loads of leaves to my patch. I also had several tonnes of composted cattle manure delivered a few weeks ago. Turns out it was almost 40000 pounds. Ugh. The tractor at the farm helped with the main patch with the tilling, but the greenhouse and the home patch, well that was all moved and tilled by hand.