Jozee: the autopsy

fellow pumpkineers, more extremely bad news.  the autopsy was performed
last night, and much to my dismay,  i discovered that indeed it was a
rat, or a bunch of mice that bored a hole through the bottom of my
beloved Jozee. The hole they made created a long 18" crack along the
bottom.   It almost looked like a bowtie, without the tapered edges.
Not only that, but i figured oh well, my pumpkin is gone, at least i'll
have the seeds..  HA!!!!  that damn vermin ate every single one except
for 17!  so all i have to show for my efforts is a 700 lb rotted pumpkin
and 17 seeds.  The smell was absolutely incredibly disgusting.  i don't
even know if the seeds were viable.  i'm drying them anyway.  but i
don't want to populate the pumpkin world with seeds that i don't know
will work.  sorry every body.  this was a great pumpkin.  the walls were
12-13" thick and tapered down to 8" at the blossom end.  I never
actually finished the bathroom scale combined chunk weight, too much
weight was lost through the bottom.  i weighed a rib and a half, from
about 12" above the stem back to the blossom.  the rib and a half
weighed 115. lbs.  if i calculated the rest of the ribs weigh the same,
i come up at 680 about.  and the 12" circumference around the stem puts
me probably somewhere in the 700# range, pretty much right on the money
with the charts, perhaps a little over.  My dissapointment is unreal.
my only consolation the fact that my town newspaper finally made it to
my house to take my picture with my pized pumpkin just before the
autopsy.    In any event, while i was brainstorming about my situation,
i had an idea. i think i may have found a solution to critters burrowing
underneath.  Perhaps someone has thought of this already, however, i
haven't heard of it, and since it came to me last night, i'm going to
share it with the rest of you.  I was thinking to take a piece of 1/4"
plywood, and drill screws in it, essentially creating a bed of nails.  a
3'x4' piece of wood would probably be adequate.  anyway, place the
board, screw side down under the pumpkin, and put another piece of
plywood between the pumpkin and the bed of nails. or i guess you could
use styrofoam, so the heads of the screws don't make an indentation on
the pumpkin.  anyway, if something comes up underneath, they get a face
full of screws.  i know it's cruel, but it just might work.  anyway, i
have another pumpkin thats okay, it's about 300 #  i grew it in only 64
sq ' .  it has a nice orange color, and very big shoulders.  the ribs
aren't especially deep, but there are a lot of them.  it's shape is very
similiar to castellucci's 682.  It came from a self pollinated dills
750.  which i have been unable to locate the lineage for.  i'm gathering
he didn't grow it on location.  anybody with any info?  in any event,
i'll be more than happy to share some of those seeds with anybody.  good
luck to all!!!

scott armstrong
869 n. fletcher ave
valley stream ny.  11580


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