Time to have some fun!

August 1, 2011

It is now August and the pumpkin [that's singular] is approximately 7 inches in diameter – a long way to go to 130 lbs. So I’ll continue with the 20-20-20 regime of fertilizer and bury all the aerial roots along the vines. My hope is to have a pumpkin sister real soon.

August 22, 2011

A fine pumpkin sister has now arrived and is 12 inches in diameter. it’s a much nicer shape than the first pumpkin [now 16 inches in diameter. The current challenge is “Powdery Mildew”. The Thornhill Pumpkin Weighin is not until October 22, 2011, so there’s still time to bulk up.

The great weigh in and pumpkin roll happened on Oct 22, 2011. Here is my pumpkin at 200 lbs even.

Next year “300 lbs”

Cheers to all the participants at the Thornhill Hall, Maple Ridge BC

Additionally, in its report the ALC noted that there was “extensive correspondence submitted from the public regarding the application, mostly opposed to the proposed exclusion.” Read the full report here (.pdf). Kudos to everybody who submitted letters and e-mails — you obviously had an effect on the process!

The winning pumpkin for 2010 weighed 131 lbs!

Requirements: Special Seeds Soil of any type plus lots of good ole manure. Water. Laughter and smiles.

Pumpkin progress will be reported over the next several months with the Big Day – October 23, 2010 at the Thornhill Hall for the “Roll the Hill” event plus carving and family fun.

If you want to join the fun, let me know! Ken Hemminger 604-463-9221.

Latest Update:

July 24 2010: The male flower has arrived and so the next step was pollinating the female flower. Everything looks like we’re on track for a pumpkin – apparently, once the flower comes off and the little pumpkin enlarges – that’s when you know!

July 22 2010: The first female flower is in bloom, but the real challenge is waiting for the male flower to bloom before the the female flower withers away! The male flower or the potential male flower is in the top right of the photo.

July 15 2010: The pumpkin’s free spirit is now coming to light with the main stem approx 6 ft long and several side shoots…. so I’ve been busy with secondary roots [carefully anchoring them in the soil ] and as a reward the flowers are starting to form. Below you can see the start of a female flower. And , yes, some of the grandkid’s lawn area will have to sacrificed.

July 2 2010: Secondary roots are now forming along the main vine and I’ve anchored these with soil.

June 23 2010: Yes, finally an update of the pumpkin plantation. The following photo demonstrates the level of encouragement you must take!

Both plants have been planted in a mixture of compost and manure, aside from that not much else. I did build a plastic tent to cover one of them and will monitor the result.
Happy pumpkining… Ken

May 5 2010: The secondary leaves have now emerged and for a little encouragement I have found a pumpkin tutor that will sleep with my plants. In the mean time I have been preparing the future pumpkin beds with heart-warming manure and compost.

April 26 2010: This is Day 12, with the exterior of the seed still attached.

Over the past decade, Maple Ridge has added more and more homes and welcomed new residents to the community, but taxpayers have been faced with increases in their property taxes almost every year during this period. In conversation and in the media, I continually hear “We must increase our tax base to service our growing community” but I rarely hear, “How can we save money?”. As we have all seen, increasing Maple Ridge’s tax base is a long, arduous, and complex process but it’s important to note that we, as taxpayers, can make money-saving changes to our own behaviours that will benefit the community over the long term.

Recently, I was looking through a flyer from a local building supply company and saw a reference to a municipal toilet rebate program that offers participants $100 when they remove their old fixtures and convert to low flow, six litre flush toilets and low flow shower heads in their homes (applicable only to homes built prior to 2005). There are twelve districts and cities in British Columbia that have made this program available to local residents and it’s been shown to reduce not only water usage, but also the amount of effluent that is flushed down the sewer system. If you look at your 2009 property taxes, you’ll see that owners of single detached residential homes paid $348 for their water levy and $226 for sewer rates. Conversion to fixtures that use less water and produce less waste helps increase the efficiency of our homes by reducing the burden that we put on infrastructure services provided by the District of Maple Ridge.

While I agree that exploring options that would increase our municipal tax base is important, higher tax revenue is not the only way to keep a lid on property taxes in Maple Ridge. Participating in this rebate program and others like it is one of the many ways that residents can reduce personal waste and limit consumption — this type of activity helps reduce the total cost of the services to the community and, in the long term, will contribute to a more reasonable and logical history of tax increases.

I hope this letter flushes out some new thoughts and encourages people to look at other ways that limit consumption and our use of municipal services.

Update: 12 April 2010

Maple Ridge is now participating in the low flow toilet rebate program (.pdf). You can get a $50 ‘utlility tax rebate’ by meeting the criteria described in the official press release from the Municipality.