*** 2012 Weigh Off ***

The long-awaited day has finally arrived.  Dave helped me lift the pumpkin into the jeep on Pumpkin Dolly 2000 (tm), and headed off to Mark's place to weigh it on the industrial scale.

Mark had designed a great pulley system to weigh the pumpkins in a tarp.  Tested it first on my two smaller MT 76.0 seed pumpkins, to make sure that the tarp/pulley weight was the same as using just netting.  The first one came in at 16 kgs, or 35.25 lbs.

The next one was 52 lbs, just 6 pounds shy of my personal best, using a seed from Mark's 76 lb pumpkin last year. 

Next up is the biggie... the Hester 953 seed-

I'm just centering it on the tarp... there's no way I can lift it... =)  My best estimate was ~130 lbs based on circumference measurements.

And... pull!  And.... pull!!!

And... it tips the scales at 165 lbs!  (We backed out 1 lb for the tarp and pulleys)  

Based on the OTT of 188.25", it should've been 150 lbs, so it went 10% "heavy"

 Next up is the favorite from Mark, a big guy that just kept getting bigger...

Cutting it of the vine, on to the dolly and over to the tarp

And... PULL!!!

Tipped the scales at... 154, a 103% increase in size over the largest from last year.

Final weights, Chris 165, Mark 154, over 100% improvement for both pumpkins over last year.  Quite an accomplishment on both.  The trophy heads back to the Arends household for a year.

A preview of what Mark's place will look like in the front yard next August?  =)