Random crap with Uno.

[Unorthodox]

Telekinetic Coffee Shop Surprise

[Unorthodox]

One of those pumpkins with the freakishly large stems.  Thickness of a baseball bat.  I'm fully aware that odds of getting these from saving the seeds are not great thanks to how pumpkins breeed, I'm going to try anyway. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Interesting.  Any particular reason you find the trait valuable?

[Unorthodox]

It won't break.  I don't need it THAT big, but a stouter stem that don't break when you grab em would be nice. 

Nice size/shape on the fruit too, which were fairly uniform.  At the very least, I have seeds of some pumpkin variety that have crossed with the big stem freak.  At best, I have the big stem freaks I can then think about crossing with things on my own. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Any chance of trying to keep a cutting of the vine alive over the winter?

[Unorthodox]

Never heard of such a thing being done, but don't know.  Wouldn't likely work around here, the powdery mildew eats the vines every fall. 

[Unorthodox]

I am getting a...um...

I'm getting some indoor growing equipment.  Don't really know the proper terms. 

[Buster's Uncle]

As in typically used for illegal activities?  Grower.  Hotbox - something like that.

I wouldn't be surprised if pumpkin is one of those plants that's only annual because it gets cold in the winter...

[Unorthodox]

It's just some shelves with some lights.  Bigger setup than my seedstarters this year. 

I DO have some hydroponics stuff somewhere in the Halloween supplies...not that I ever got that idea working....

I don't know...keeping a vine FED would become quite daunting if you tried to keep it alive, I would think.  Wouldn't surprise me if they have a built in suicide switch just for that.  Between pumpkins and corn, I've got to nutrients in my grounds somehow.  The polebeans did a lousy job of it this year.  Indoors...it would be a LOT of fertilizer. 

[Unorthodox]

Google's best on keeping the vines is a commercial procedure that says you can keep the vine indoors 'up to 3 months', but that is talking about seedlings. 

[Unorthodox]

Soooooooo....

That [complaint or disagreeable woman] my brother married texted me that the family pumpkin carve will be on the 30th this year (instead of the Sunday before like it always has been).  I don't really like going to the thing ANYWAY, but a lot of the family likes to come to my party that I've been doing on the 30th for, oh, the last 8 years. 

Gonna get interesting how that all shakes out. 

Swear filter me will you...

That hundin my brother married. 

[Buster's Uncle]

You do not seem to fear being counter-programmed.

[Unorthodox]

I'm going to go into some rather complex family history here that I don't fully understand myself. 

WAY back when, grandpa grew the pumpkins, and we'd all head over there to carve the pumpkins just before Halloween.  There was a barbecue, and it was really the ONE time my dad's side of the family all come together.  I mean, we'd visit through the year, but Halloween was that one get together we'd see all the cousins.  Mostly because my mom did Thanksgiving and Christmas for her side of the family.  I would assume Gramma G (dad's side) did these for the family at large, but Gramma T (mom's) was a widow for a long time, and Mom had to help cook the dinners.  Thanksgiving was at Gramma T's with the larger family, and she'd come sleep over at our place at Christmas to help with the puppies. 

Back to Halloween.  Grandpa died when I was 5 or so.  I don't know what, exactly, all transpired, but my dad quit speaking to his brothers after this.  Most my uncles worked the UP railroad.  Dad and my great uncle (grampa's brother) Blaine worked the SP railroad.  Blaine more or less become my grampa after that.  A couple years went by, and Dad started speaking to Uncle Rex again.  They lived right across the street, so I guess it was easier that way. 

Uncle Rex wanted to get some of that tradition back, so he started growing the giant pumpkins, and our two families would go to his house to carve.  It was nice and simple.  Then the hundin my brother married got involved.  First, oh, we had to turn this into a dinner party.  Then, the kids all need 'activities' to do.  Oh, and then there's little party bags.  Etc.  And HEAVEN FORBID the kids actually CARVE!  Ew, it's messy and the sharp knives.... Soon, my Aunt gave up, and it become my cousin and the hundin's job.  I've been slowly chipping away, bringing my kid safe knives and smaller pumpkins and letting my kids carve their own, thank you.  Most the kids now carve and the activities are mostly gone. 

I was 18 before dad would speak to Uncle Tom again.  I never really got to know Tom much as a result.  Back in 2010, I took it on myself to break the ice, and went down to Tom's (my Grampas old place) to ask if I could harvest his corn.  Thus, he learned of my Halloween.  He come that year's party, and recalled the carving parties at grampas' (indeed told me more about it than I could recall).  He's grown the pumpkins for us since, and his kids usually come over to the party.

So, there's this complicated thing now.  You got half the cousins who have never come over to my party, and the other half who do.  I honestly don't know of Rex and Tom still have some problem with each other or not.  Somewhere, Grampa's upstairs rooting for me to somehow get them all together, though.   

[Geo]

I don't even try to understandf amily stuff like that.
Though there's a shism in the making as well between the siblings of my family.
Will probably really come to the surface once my mom passes away (which shouldn't happen for at least the next generation).

[Unorthodox]

Ricoh just announced a new pentax $1600 flagship behemoth.  Theoretically, this opens the door to my next upgrade.  I'll now be 8 generations out of date, and while the last 3 generations have essentially been only minor differences (K5, K5II, and K5IIs), all three are worthy upgrades to my specific low light photography penchant (and indeed the only cameras rated better at it than my present model across all brands/cameras under $2k), and this is the first camera to give people a REASON to update in 3 generations. 

Question is WILL people upgrade, and what will that do to the prices of used/refurbished K5 models. 

Even better news, the new K3 (yeah, numbering has always been odd on Pentax) is coming out with a new line of lenses to make use of it's larger sensor.  That means those that DO upgrade will likely be dumping old lenses as well.