Latest / The PNW Podcast / Giant Pumpkins, Second Chances & Beaver Fever

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Giant Pumpkins, Second Chances & Beaver Fever · The PNW Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the regatta, for people who don't know what this entails, you know, everyone sees it on the news where people are like riding in a pumpkin through a little mini lake, what or a pond, whatever this thing is, the man-made water spot out there in Twalton.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: What is it and how does that go down?
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: So this is at the Lake of the Commons in Twalton, just a small man-made lake.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: So you bring your pumpkin the morning of the race in your trailer.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Ideally, you have a pumpkin six to like a six hundred to a thousand pounds.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: I've I've done taken bigger ones, but if you want a fast pumpkin, you need one that's that's the wheelhouse.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's the wheelhouse.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: But so they'll they'll lift it for you, they just drop it in the lake, hole, and then you wade in and kind of position it the way you think it wants to float, and then you cut a hole in the top and hollow it out, and you've got yourself a boat.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're here at the Stafford Hills Club per usual.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're looking for a place to hit up as those winter months are slowly creeping up, now we keep seeing days where you can rock a pair of shorts, maybe even need a little bit of sunscreen, but those days are fleeting, and pretty soon you're gonna need a pool that's heated, and you're gonna need a facility that's real nice during that time.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what Stafford Hills Club is, the premier indoor and outdoor tennis facility in the area and rank, the number one health and wellness facility in the Portland area, and for good reason.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Great classes, incredible instructors, and just people who are the type of people you want to be friends with.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: They hold the door for you, and they're just a good time.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Check it out today.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Staffordhills.com, Tone Drew sent you for half off your initiation.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: My guest in here with me today, relaxing on the program, is Brad Paines.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Brad was on my other podcast, the Fit for Radio Podcast, which you can actually access all of it at the PNW podcast.com.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Go to the little toolbar at the top and hear Brad's full episode, but the clip notes are Brad survived a massive heart attack where he borderline died right there in his driveway, was brought back to life by his wife, who's also a hero, and is now looking happy and healthy.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Brad Baines.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the show.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's good to be back, Drew.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is uh what's the help like?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: How are you feeling?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing great.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm playing great golf, and I'm here today to talk giant pumpkins.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you are, because the West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta is coming up Sunday, October 18th, and there's a final weigh-in also the day before that, which we'll get into all of that.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm glad you're back because I've been meaning to chat with you about what happened to me.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: I ran into a situation where I had a feeling in my chest that I'd never felt before.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: I thought it was maybe the worst heartburn of my life, but it was just kind of stretching across the left side of my chest, and I didn't really understand.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was actually talking my daughter out of trying to buy a mini fridge at a garage sale in the front yard.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: The neighbors were selling some stuff, and I'm like, you're 11.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: You're not having a mini fridge.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I can barely regulate you at the normal fridge, let alone your snacks and drinks on layaway in your bedroom.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: She fought hard for it, but in those moments, I wasn't feeling great.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I laid down, tried to walk it off, laid down again.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: My wife uh talked me into calling my mom, which it's funny, like you call your mom as a 45-year-old man, but I know when I call my mom that she goes into boss mode and that everything's gonna get escalated.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: And when I called Brad, this is what's crazy is she happened to be in the car with a cardiologist, showing that cardiologist houses.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: She's a real estate agent, and his wife is also a nurse, and it was a perfect situation, but it also made sure the escalation continued.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: I got talked into going to the hospital.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: I went there, and when I got there, uh they tested my blood and my troponin levels, which I didn't even know that word.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, my troponin levels were elevated to a point where I was hospitalized and I was told that I had had a minor heart attack, an end STEMI, which is sounds like a cute snack at a party, but uh it's it's classified as a minor heart attack.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so this has been a strange thing for me because when I was feeling those feelings at the house, I was thinking about you, Brad, and and what happened to you in the moments before you had your heart attack.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I I'm just I'm mumbling things like, am I gonna fall over?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Am I gonna die right here in front of my kids?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and I know that sounds dark, but I started to panic to the point where, you know, sometimes when I go out of the house, I'll have like a small white undershirt under my shirt if it's not like hot outside.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so I had one of those on, and I'm I'm running around and I throw my shirt on and I walk out in the hall, and I realize I just put an undershirt over an undershirt trying to leave the house.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I take that off real quick.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: I grab a normal shirt, I put it on backwards, and like I'm I'm falling apart mentally at this point.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: My wife walks up, she's like, Are you ready to go?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I don't know what's happening to me.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so she drives me there.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: The feeling kind of goes away on the way to the hospital.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm trying to talk her out of being there.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: And in the end, she just says, That's not happening.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: We end up going.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Then they find out that I've had this thing, I have to stay the night.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: I hate hospitals.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: I hate staying the night at hospitals.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I went through it, Brad, partially because I knew what you had been through.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And even though I I feel like it must have been contagious and you gave me the heart attack, um, all jokes aside, I'm glad that we had had that conversation because it kind of at least gave me a context of what how serious this is, and that I did need to go get myself checked out.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think the message in in the podcast that I was on like before was when in doubt, deal with it.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, don't just uh shrug it off and say, oh, it's it's gonna go away.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: If you if you're pretty certain that something's wrong, you should deal with it.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Because as the title of the podcast was Dead in the Driveway, we we made it to the driveway as far as I got.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I do have to apologize because I haven't been a hundred percent on that like I should, because I knew that the last time I had that feeling in my chest when I went to the hospital, I stayed the night and I had all this stuff happen and then all these tests, and they were poking me all night long, like every couple hours, just in there checking those troponin levels.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I actually see the cardiologist who's gonna get this all figured out on Friday.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: It only took two months for them to get me in.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Playing games with my heart over here is more than just a love song.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I'm I'm excited about that, but I've had that feeling a few more times in my chest during aggressive workouts or just stressful moments, or even getting overly excited at a sporting event on my couch.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I've felt that feeling.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Amy's telling me, you got to go in and get that tested so that they know, did you have another minor heart attack?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Well, I'm going to the cardiologist soon.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: So and that's not ideal, Brad.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's not, but I just part of me doesn't want to go back in and go through it all when they didn't like actually do anything for me other than like have me lay there.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's the tough part.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And what do you say to that?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, and I agree.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're gonna have some feelings from time to time.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: I I still have occasional feelings in the chest, like something's going on, but you can kind of tell if it's a major or not, I guess.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, that old saying, your heart skips a beat or something, you'll have that feeling from time to time.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think for me, um I can exercise as hard as I want, I can pound it on a treadmill, no problem.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think for me the the most stressful times are like watching a game where I I keep score for basketball, and you know, sometimes we have a close game and I can feel my heart racing.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's that burst of adrenaline that you get sometimes that causes that feeling, but then you know it tends to go too.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I've been, you know, now if I get something truly aggressive, I am going to go in, but you know, it's funny because when I was in the hospital the first time, they were gonna give me an angiogram while I was there, and they were like, Well, do you want to do this?
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I'm feeling fine.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was so stir crazy.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was walking around, like wanting to do my push-ups and everything in the hospital.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like I just couldn't sit there anymore.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so when it was time to go, I'm like, I don't know if it was heartburn or something else, like, let's get going.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: But then what I realized after I left is getting an angiogram while you're laying in a hospital bed is a lot easier than getting your primary or a or a specialty clinic to sign off on it because my insurance blocked my CT angiogram, which is the vit the the picture version.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm hoping when I go into this one, we're able to get all that figured out and I can I can get a true picture of my heart.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so if they say, hey, there's no blockage, the mental blockage that I'm dealing with can fade away and I can kind of because every time I feel something in my chest, I'm like, is this the one?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Is this the one?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if it is or isn't.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I think about Brad Baines every time that I see it or that I feel it.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm glad you're here because um if you're alive and well, then I've got a ton of hope here.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's hope for you.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, um, when it comes to the regatta that's coming up, this is a pretty cool thing.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I live just a city over in Lake Oswego, and so it's just a stone's throw from where I'm at.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me, how did you get into growing pumpkins in the first place?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I I've always been a gardener, probably for like at least the last 20 years, but my family had a garden even when I was um growing up.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I was um growing vegetables was was in my blood.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um about six or seven years ago, I think, um when I was ordering seeds for my garden, tomatoes, cucumbers, that sort of thing.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um I came across a link to uh Seeds for Giant Pumpkins.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: I thought that'd be fun.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: And and I had seen things about giant pumpkins on the news, um probably the regatta, because yeah, it always goes on the news.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's a yearly thing.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought, well, hey, I grow other plants and vegetables.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: I I'll give this a shot.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: So first year I tried it, I just threw the seeds in the ground, um, threw some Miracle Grow on it, and I got maybe a 20-pound pumpkin.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Not nothing special at all.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: So how big is a 20-pounder, like visually, when you're looking at a pretty good size jack-o'-lantern.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so it's still that's still pumpkin patch size.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, upper end pumpkin patch.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: If you took your kids to the pumpkin patch, they would have to drag it.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: But so it wasn't like what you see on the news, but it was a big pumpkin.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: So then I went down the old YouTube rabbit hole, you know, searching for giant pumpkins, and I discovered that there's a whole world out there of giant pumpkin growers, and there's a whole science to it.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: And and so, you know, I just kind of threw YouTube and websites and um things like that.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: I the next time around I I tried some some new tricks, some new fertilizers.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um didn't have a lot of success.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think I maybe got a pumpkin that was maybe 200 pounds.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Two I mean that's considerably bigger than your last pumpkin.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely bigger, definitely one that was that I had to hook up to my my lawnmower tractor and drag out of the pumpkin patch.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna ask, that doesn't seem like something that you like an atlas ball, you're doing world's strongest man with a pumpkin.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so, and and I think I grew that more by accident than anything because I had a lot of pumpkins would start growing and then they would just abort and shrivel up.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: So then I um I actually learned that there's a local club called the Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so I joined that club and met a bunch of cool people that have the same obsession that I was developing, and so um learned a lot more about it.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I will say at this time, you know, my family was pretty skeptical of the whole giant pumpkin thing because they weren't seeing giant pumpkins like like you would expect in your garden.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: In my garden.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um but about I'd say maybe four years ago, I finally had a breakthrough and I grew two pumpkins that were over a thousand pounds.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Whoa! A thousand pound pumpkin.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how big a round is a thousand pound pumpkin?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because I have no context.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: What would it equate to like your arms are how wide?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you wouldn't be able to wrap your arms around.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: So um we measure them with um just like a tape that you would measure like to get a fitting for pants or something.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um how big's the waist on a giant pumpkin like that?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: If if you've got a big one going, most tapes are about 120 inches long, and that 120 inches would not go all the way around.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Whoa, so that's a big boy right there.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Was there a trick you used that was different this time?
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um so in growing your pumpkins, uh you know, there's you have to take a lot of time to make sure your soil is prepared right.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um you can even send your soil to a lab for testing and you know, they measure the the calcium and the nitrogen and potassium and and basically all the vitamins that and then you can kind of use that to manipulate.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: And the key is to get them balanced, and so you can kind of figure out how much of each types of um amendments that you need to add.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then as you're growing them, um you sort of train the plants.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: So these plants want to get really big.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: They they um have vines and they stretch out and spread out over a good space in your garden, and ideally you get your plant to cover about a thousand square feet.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: So we're talking about pretty good sized space.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's massive.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Probably, you know, like 30 by 30 space to to grow in.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: So and then the other thing the plant wants to do is it wants to produce lots of pumpkins.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um are you cutting those back so it hyper focuses on the super pumpkin?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: Once you've got the chosen one, then you you nurture that pumpkin and you strain the vines and you trim back any extra pumpkins that are growing on there, and and eventually what you'll see happen is that pumpkin starts to grow as the plant sort of slows down its leaf growth and the pumpkin takes over.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really exciting because at peak growth, say like in July, um the pumpkin will put on like 30 pounds a day.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Whoa.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: In some places, uh Oregon has cooler nights.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: If uh people that grow say back in the east where it's um you know it doesn't get lower than about sixty at night, they they can put on like fifty pounds a day.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: Man, that's wild.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: So they're it it's exciting because you're you every day you see progress, you see growth.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so as this pumpkin is growing, um you're just you're battling um all kinds of things.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, mice like to burrow holes into your pumpkin.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um you gotta keep the sun off it because the skin needs to stay pliable so you it can continue to grow without cracking and protect it from getting sunburned.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, it's like raising a kid.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: It it is.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: And in fact, it it might even be worse because um you can't really go away in the summertime.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, so you don't ever get to you have to hire a baby.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: How does your I mean your wife saved your life, but how does she not want to kill you during all of this?
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's taken up your whole yard.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: You can't go on vacation, she just knows you love it, or what's the deal?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's sort of something she called.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: I guess it's better than having an alcoholic.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Once I hit, you know, that thousand-pound mark, got a little bit of cred.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, now you were when you were trying to stay home all summer for 50-pound pumpkins, that's not gonna do it.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: But now you're making the big dogs.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, we're gonna take a quick break.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna come back and we're gonna find out about where you went with these pumpkins and what this regatta is all about, the big way-in, and where people can come and check it out themselves.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, even people boating around on pumpkins.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we we got to break the whole thing down in just a second.
• 17:40
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• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: So once you got a little bit of street cred with the pumpkins and you're you're growing thousand-pound pumpkins, at what point did you find that you were in a position of growing pumpkins to where you could go and compete with others?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: So the the biggest question I always get is what do you do with this pumpkin?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, do you just look at it or so a lot of pie.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a good one too.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we grow these competitively.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's people all around Oregon.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, our club and kind of encompasses Oregon and Washington, and we have these way-offs uh where we bring our pumpkins and we're competing to have the the the biggest pumpkin with uh cash prizes on the line.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, that was sort of the the next natural point for me was taking my pumpkins to these wayoffs.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: And although I kind of at this point I've sort of had middling success, um my my biggest pumpkin that I've grown was 1,376 pounds, and that finished eighth in the competition that I entered it in.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: So 1,300 pound pumpkin is still eighth.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: Eighth place.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: So people go large with this stuff.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and we just recently had uh this past weekend, we had our first way off at Bauman Farms, and we had a site record set there at 2,271 pounds.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: My goodness.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: And how big was your pumpkin this year?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: This year, so I the one you brought to the one that I brought was almost 800 pounds.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: So this year I actually wasn't gonna grow at all, speaking of like maybe taking a summer off or having a chance to go on vacation for once.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um we had some things going on in the spring where we were traveling, and so I wasn't gonna grow at all.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: And but then I was thinking, well, I want to do this regatta and I need to have a pumpkin for that.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I just I started about six weeks late.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: Because normally you would start growing um you would germinate your seeds about the middle of April.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: So um in this case, I I think I put the seeds, uh, the plants in the ground um at the end of May.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I had a little bit of a slow start, but um The two pumpkins that I grew this year are right around 800 pounds.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Man.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so these people who have the 2,000-pound pumpkin, are you picking their brain?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: Are you trying to figure out how that's going on?
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Is it that they've got the perfect soil?
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: They have a secret.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: What are they doing?
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: One of the secrets in Oregon is an advantage would be to have a greenhouse.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Growing in a greenhouse allows you to control the climate a little bit better.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: Get, you know, a little bit more warmth in the spring and then in the fall.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: So get a little bit more growth that way.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: So don't you feel like there should be two categories?
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: That there should be pumpkins with PEDs and pumpkins that are a standard issue, outdoor pumpkins, because the greenhouse is an advantage.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, my wife's also a massive green thumb, and she's got the greenhouse, and her garden shows that.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, she does all her starts there, and everything kind of can come to life in the greenhouse, whereas in when you're just working outside, it's a it's a tougher deal.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're up against the elements and um you just you can't control things quite as well.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: There was a world record just set um of a pumpkin grown in the UK in a greenhouse, almost 3,000 pounds, like 28 56.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, when you take them to contests and when they do, how what do you do?
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: How do you get them there?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: So another good question, you know, you can't just walk out into your garden and lift a thousand pound pumpkin on the room.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: Not a chance.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: So um in my case, I I build a tripod over the top of it, um, and then use an engine hoist with a special harness to just crank it up in the air high enough to to pull a trailer underneath it.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so what about the people with the two thousand pounds?
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: You might look at some heavy equipment, a telehandler, or some sort of a forklift to get it up in the air.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: That is okay.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's a challenge.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's a whole day event usually with a bunch of friends, and uh my cousin and I have kind of gotten ours down to a science where we're kind of like a pit crew now.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: We can dial it in pretty quick.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got this coming up the day before the regatta, Stickman brewing into Walleton, October 17th.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's a Saturday.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: Will there be other pumpkins at this weigh-in that weren't at the first one, or is it the same people weighing again?
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: House.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: It could be the same people, but you can only take your pumpkin to one wayoff.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: So this will be a little bit of a phone.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so it'll be a pumpkin.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be a whole new lineup.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: This last wayoff we have we call the Terminator.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's kind of the the termination of your season.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: You clean out your garden and you bring everything in and you try to um beat your buddies one last time.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the regatta, for people who don't know what this entails, you know, everyone sees it on the news where people are like riding in a pumpkin through a little mini lake, what or a pond, whatever this thing is, the man-made uh water spot out there in Twalton.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: What is it and how does that go down?
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: So this is at the Lake of the Commons in Tualleton, just a small man-made lake.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um so you bring your pumpkin the morning of the race in in your trailer.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: Ideally, you have a pumpkin six to like a six hundred to a thousand pounds.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um I've I've done taken bigger ones, but if you want a fast pumpkin, you need one that's that's the wheelhouse.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's the wheelhouse.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: But so they'll they'll lift it for you, they just drop it in the lake, hole, and then you wade in and kind of position it the way you think it wants to float, and then you cut a hole in the top and hollow it out, and got yourself a boat.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so you've ridden in these pumpkins and done this race before.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've done four races uh now, so this would be my fifth time coming up.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: What's your uh best finish in the regatta?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: The best finish was about fifth place.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: I did that in a I think it was in a 1,200-pound pumpkin.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a big dog.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: It was a luxury liner.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was gonna say the house, but the the good thing is it's a comfortable ride because you can feel on the smaller ones, um, you can expect to uh have your legs go numb.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's not made for all that jazz.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: The first pumpkin that I ever did was kind of lopsided and very slow.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: And honestly, I wasn't sure if I was gonna finish the race.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, looking back on it, that that might have been an opportunity for my first heart attack.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you gotta be careful uh out there doing all this stuff.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, um, when people want to go to this thing, to the regatta, is that something you gotta get there early to get a spot?
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh how crowded is it?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: What's what's the the serious fans get there early so they can be right on the front row, but um the crowd just rings around the lake, um, usually like five or six people deep.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um nice.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think a couple of years ago we had a really nice weather day.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: There were close to 25,000 people there.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: Whoa.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: So and so this goes from 10 a.m.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: to four p.m.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: on race.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: They do have four races on on the day, so the growers get to do the first race.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: So as a grower, you get in and you kind of hollow out your pumpkin and get it all set up.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then you do the race, and then they have a few others.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so in fact, this is uh something that people have uh can apply to get into, and okay, people all around the world actually try and get in the regatta.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they get into this lottery to get a spot.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: So is that why you've only done it four times because you have to lottery it or are you grandfathered in?
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, so you get in.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: We've got the goods, you know.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: Without the pumpkins, there's no what are you gonna do?
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: So at the event, is there other stuff going on?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Is there food or music?
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: Food, music, um, games for the kids, there's booths.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think they have a fun run um earlier in the day.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I think my kids would get a real kick out of that.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's really a huge family event.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: And and honestly, we've brought in a fair amount of people into our club just from this one event.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: We have our own booth, and uh the booth is just packed all day long because people want to know how do you how do you grow these giant pumpkins?
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Does a giant pumpkin seed look like a normal pumpkin seed or is it like the size of a shoe?
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's it's it's fairly small, but bigger than a you know most seeds.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Man, that's incredible.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: So are you this year, are you going to be boating or pumpkin boating in this, or are you that's that's the plan.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I have two really good boat-sized pumpkins right now.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the first pumpkin that I have um developed a small little hole.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-oh.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so it actually disqualified disqualified me from the competition.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: I took it and had it weighed, but um it has to have no holes.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: What I did is I actually took some caulking and I plugged up the hole just to try to prevent it from going rotten.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because I I really want that one to um go in the lake.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: So but it will qualify to go into the lake.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: As long as it doesn't uh fall through.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because you'd think that people would be doing all kinds of stuff, like well, I guess you have to hollow it out there because so otherwise people would be spraying bed liner in there and all kinds of other stuff.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: You can kind of doctor them up.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: The you know, the the race itself doesn't have any strict rules as far as that, other than you can't really put an outboard motor.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: And Brad gets first.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh that's amazing.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to do it, uh 10 o'clock to four o'clock, and if you want to get that front row, you're gonna want to get there a little bit early.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Bring the family, get that food, maybe a little music.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always down for food and music, especially.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: We've been so lucky with the weather.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, it'll all continue to hold up and we'll get some more of these beautiful days for the regatta.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Have you had a time where it was super stormy?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: We've never actually raced in the rain.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: There was a morning a couple of years ago.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: I think we got a little bit of rain while we were carving our pumpkins.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: But it always clears up.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, one year we did it in about 80 degree weather, which is what we've had recently.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: So the regatta and odds in stadium.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: It never rains.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's what they say.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh even though they say that while it's pouring rain.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we only have a few minutes left, but I did want to get your take on your Oregon State Beavers because you are a Beav yourself alumni, and you know, you and I talked a little bit about the excitement that is this team now.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I went so far as to say, you know, in a perfect world, the Beavers could battle hard and get themselves into the college football playoff.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: I had a ton of people call me uh fun names like Moron for saying that.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, I just love the fact that there's it's just such a better environment for the Beaves this year versus last year.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: As a as a fan of the team and alumni, how are you feeling about the direction of the program?
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: What a difference a year makes.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: We went last year we had a team that could barely even snap the ball to the runner.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was it was embarrassing.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: I I left Reese Stadium a couple times almost in tears, just how how bad it was.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, either if you weren't crying, you just pretty much had to laugh at how how bad we were.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: It was getting comical.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, we hire a new coach, Jamarcus Shepard.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: Love the guy.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: He totally changes the culture, um brings in players that want to be there, um and actually brings in a couple of stars, um Braden Atkinson and Jesse Legree.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: And wow, we're you know so we lost our first two games this season, but they were against um top 25 teams, uh, and we were competitive in both games.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um we actually were in position to win both games.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: And when I left that second game, even though we lost, I said, Well, that's the most fun I've ever had at a game when it was raining and we lost.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: And because you can see the hope.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I left thinking that we could actually run the table.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're good enough to do that.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: We it we're gonna be in every game that we play in.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I really see the the main roadblock for you guys is Boise State.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: There, there, and I and I hope that Oregon State can find themselves to be one of the powerhouses of the rebuild Pac-12 and to find a way to do it in the in a fashion where, you know, it is you and Boise State going for it every time.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, as a duck, I was at the Boise State, Oregon game, and you know, we were thinking that we were just having a lackluster game.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: And now, granted, things went a little sideways against Oklahoma State the next week, but Boise State I think is for real.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if you guys could beat them as they climb the rankings, I mean, that's a respect situation.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's just exciting to uh uh look forward to every Saturday.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, what are we looking forward to?
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, because obviously uh LeGrie is ridiculous, and you you were right, you and I were on the phone.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: He is second in the nation receiving right now.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody wanted this guy.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't even sign with the Beavers till 10 months ago.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he wasn't even a wide receiver until defensive back, right?
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: His last season in high school, and the coaches saw something in him brought him in, and look at what yeah, he's incredible.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so who who do the Beavers have next?
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: So they have San Diego State coming up this Saturday.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: Are they favored to win that game?
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, San Diego State's they're pretty decent.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: They've been battling the mumps of all things.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, man.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: So will they have is there a chance they forfeit and you just get a win?
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think they'll be okay for Saturday.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: Might give a couple of you the mumps.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: Which nobody wants to be crawling in a pile full of dudes with the mumps.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but yeah, that'll be interesting to see how that goes against them and keep landing those victories, and especially after how incredibly mean some of these people were to me online for supporting the Beaves.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: I have always said that, you know, and I joke with my buddies and we we toss a bunch of crap to each other, but I support the beavers.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: I want the beavers to do well.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think the interstate rivalry should be something that we all have pride in.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember the good old days of in the early 2000s, every storefront had either ducks or beavers in it.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody had a sticker or a placard on their car.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: It was everywhere.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it was, it was a house divided, and I and I loved that about it.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, Oregon has had uh an embarrassment of riches.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: They got to go to the Big Ten, and then you guys kind of got left on the porch like a stepchild, which I didn't think was fair.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: And and so I I'm all about the rise of the beavers.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it's easier for me when we don't have to play you because you guys love to be the giant killer.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I want to see what happens and how it plays out.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if they could get that 12th playoff spot, I would just love to just personal message each of those people and be like, Do you remember October?
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: Who's the moron now?
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, who's the dum-dum?
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it would still be me.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so thank you, Brad.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for coming in.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you check out the regatta if you get a chance coming up on the 18th.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's a Sunday.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're probably not doing anything anyway.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: Go check it out.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the weigh-ins the day before start at noon at Stickman's Brewing uh Brewery, and you'll be seeing him.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: You see Brad out there just crushing.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe this is your year for victory.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe my year.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that little hole that you you clogged up with the cogging gun, boom.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: That was what the doctor ordered, and maybe you'll get the whole thing done.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right on.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, I'll keep you posted on what happens with my heart because I can feel a little something in there right now.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, it's just heartburn.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Brad.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, brand new episodes of the PW podcast right here and at the PNW podcast.com.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: You can get yourself caught up on each and every one.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to see our faces, they're all on YouTube as well.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great day.