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Pumpkin Lift in Medicine Hat

Tonight we had our 3rd Annual Pumpkin Lift with a great turnout of
friends and family to help us lift the pumpkins and load them into the
Suburban (1977 model, a classic, right?) for the long trip to Smoky Lake
for the weighoff. As we did last year we borrowed an electronic scale
with a 440 pounds capacity.

Before the lift we all enjoyed (except for me because I was too nervous
to eat) BBQ hot dogs, a variety of salad dishes, pop and beer to fortify
ourselves. After the lift we returned to enjoy (what else) pumpkin pie,
pumpkin cake and ice cream after a job well done.

And the results?

There were three pumpkins on this plant and their stats are as follows
(from smallest to largest, and tape measurement are in order of
circumference (c) , front to back (fb) and side to side (ss), all in
inches)

#1  c99, fb58, ss55, est weight 205, actual weight 228.2

#2  c109, fb64, ss63, est weight 271, actual weight 294.8

#3  c125.5, fb73, ss72.5, est weight 400.5 actual weight  ???440+

The last pumpkin exceeded the capacity of our scale so we know its over
440 but we have no idea by how much. This is my best effort to date so I
am very happy with the result and since 5th place last year at Smoky
Lake was 445 I am hoping that I will be in a similar placing this year. 

A couple of weeks ago Tim down in Florida (timpat@bhip.infi.net)
mentioned his pumpkin stats were similar to mine (total of 274 inches
OTT) at the time and that his weighed in a 459.  I wrote him back at the
time to say that if mine was anywhere near 459 he would hear me yelling
for joy in Smoky Lake all the way down in Florida, so if you hear a lot
of noise on Saturday (between 12 and 2 Mountain time) its just me  8-)

Looking back I probably should have culled one of the backups, but after
losing my first pumpkin to rot early in the season and having only one
plant to work with I felt better playing it safe. Besides, both were
doing well and I never could make up my mind which one to cull.  The
smallest one has been offered to the owner of the property next door
where I have my garden for halloween.

I will post the results from Smoky Lake to the list after I get back,
unless someone else beats me to it. 

Bill Kournikakis
Medicine Hat, Alberta
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