Last august weekend

We had a great weekend. Our trip to our favorite Hood River B&B was
amazing, we went there to get away from our home distractions to focus
on planning the wedding ceremony and writing the vows. It was so
relaxing hanging out in the afternoon sun being creative.

The B&B has a new addition, chickens! Theses gals came right up to us
and were very tolerant of my photo snapping.

We did a little garden work after arriving home. Here's Leighann with
chard under the hops vines. And here's the next batch of hops ready to
be dried.

Second Heatwave

It's cooking in portland again!

Takes the Lead!

Today is a monumental day, my pumpkin finally surpassed Chris' in the measurement comparisons. While we don't know where this nets out on weight, it is an important milestone for me.

Treatment Time

The powdery mildew on the leaves has been getting worse over the last
few weeks so I did a little research and found that this can be a
pretty harmful problem. Eventually the leaves all shrivel up and the
plant dies. Given that we have about two months left before the big
weigh-off I figured I had to take action to extend the life of my
plant as long as possible.

I took a trip to the local Lowes and picked up a spray bottle of this
stuff. Sounds like just what I need. Gave a good coating to the tops
of the leaves but ran out before I could spray the undersides. I this
starts to work I might try a more home made solution of baking soda
and water.

Seems from conversations with Chris and Nick that they are also up
against this same problem. It's very easy to find info online about
it, and I learned that it's so common that I should have been treating
the leaves preventatively before any symptoms appeared.

This is all good knowledge for Pumpkin Grow Off 2110.

Lush!

I think we're are at the peak of our garden right now, as you can see
everything is full and green. The hops are a couple of weeks away from
picking. The zuchini plant in the foreground has been kicking out big
ones for a month now. And if you look very carefully you can see just
a hint of orange from my pumpkin in the lowere left. My neighbor Nick
said his pumpkins are not doing very well so it looks like it's coming
down to chris and I. Now that I think about it there's still a good
solid two months left in the competition so anything can still happen.

Sunflowers

These are not from our garden, but these are the most amazing
sunflowers and the look so beautiful with the morning light coming in
the front window.

New Graphs

As more and more data is collected over the weeks, there are greater
opportunities to make graphical comparisons. The latest graph compares
estimated weights between the pumpkins that Chris and I are growing,
through the use of a circumference to weight conversion formula I
found online. As with all the other graphs all I have to do is enter
the daily circumference and all the charts are calculated.

To see the graphs, there's a link in the upper right corner of the blog.

Bigger Every Day

The back yard plant is still producing flowers which I thought would
have stopped a while ago, but the bumble bee doesn't seem to mind one
bit. I watched him fly in there and just dive face first into the
pollen pool below. He seemed pretty excited after emerging, covered.

It has also been a while since I've posted a 3D photo and I was
inspired to take one again this morning when I saw this scene. This is
the bigger pumpkin, 39", that's along the backyard fence. Also the
yellow flower that's in the photo is where the bee was. Enjoy.

Judgement Day

Here's my extrapolation of the current data, you know, purely for scientific purposes.

Chris Update

Chris wanted me to post a photo of his pumpkin, the size you see here
is 42" in circumference. Looking good but what he probably hopes that
I omit from posting is how his leaves are getting a mildew and the
vine length is about 2/3 of mine. If Chris wants to boast he'll have
to start his own blog! haha.

Apple Peeler Corer

Our apple tree has been dropping apples for about a month now. We find
that picking the apples before they fall is a good way to get
healthier, more usable fruit. But what to do with them? I think as
purely just an excuse to use it Leighann bought an apple peeler corer
the other day to tackle our growing pile. She can't stop talking about
how it's the greatest invention ever (well, besides her new iPhone of
course). Here she is working mechanical magic on an apple before she
puts it in the food dehydrator.