That's a big pumpkin!

As I was browsing Seed Savers web site last winter, I realized they had no pumpkin seeds for sale. What the heck!? They have plenty of squash varieties, and other ornamental pumpkins, but not regular carving type pumpkins. I did eventually find another supplier, but I honestly don't remember where I got them now. So I ordered them quickly, and they arrived a few days later. When the time came, I picked a spot to plant, made a small mound, and threw a few seeds in.
After a couple days, we had some pumpkin sprouts! And then after a week or two they were about 2ft high.

I chose to plant them in between 2 swales that have a few fruit trees planted in them. Between the swales there is roughly a 15ft open area. Seemed like a great place to plant some pumpkins. It didn't take long before the pumpkins took over the whole area, and successfully grew over the swales and then over the one below it. I'm always amazed at how fast these things grow.

Things were looking good. Until…. squash vine borers! I noticed one of the vines looking a little sad one day. It started turning a little brown like it was drying out. I knew this was impossible, they didn't need water. After a little investigation, I found the evil little DEVILS! Why does nature even allow them?! Well, I was quite disappointed, but not ready to give up! I decided to wage a war on the borers! So, I did some research on the web, and to my disappointment, there wasn't much I could do once the borers are inside the base of the plant. I did stumble upon an article where a guy said you could gently slice into the plant where the borers entered and follow the rot up until you find the little DEVILS, and KILL THEM! Hey, it worked. I found and killed 12-15 of them that found their way into the pumpkins and most of my other squash plants. Although much damage had been done, I was able to save some of the plants.

So out of 4 pumpkin plants, 2 vines did fairly well and the other 2 struggled to survive. The blossoms continued to flower, and soon some pumpkins emerged. They grew very quickly.
So, about this time me and my family went on vacation for a week. When we returned, I was walking around the garden just checking things out when something stopped me in my tracks. It was a giant pumpkin! This pumpkin was not the normal size pumpkin I expected to see. I quickly went into the house to give my wife the news of the giant pumpkin. We both walked out to see this monstrosity. When she saw it she giggled a little and said, something along the lines of, "what the heck did you plant?!"
Hmmm, maybe I should check out the packet the seeds came in. When I found the packet the seeds arrived in, I read, Giant Max Pumpkins. Ooops…... I ordered the wrong variety.

We ended up with several large pumpkins. I weighed 2 of them, one came in around 40 something pounds, the larger one around 65 pounds. But the biggest one, the monstrosity, I'm guessing it was around 100 pounds. I never did weigh it because It took just about everything I had to pick it up.
So when halloween came around, I quickly found out carving a 65lb pumpkin isn't very easy.
Here is a photo of my two and a half year old son sitting next to the largest one.

 Moral of the story, don't order your seed in a hurry.