Farmer Makes A Boat Out Of 910-Pound Pumpkin

A Tennessee farmer grew a 910-pound pumpkin and instead of baking pies or making lanterns out of it, he made a boat and took it for a spin in his pond.

Justin Ownby had been dreaming of growing a giant pumpkin for the last four years, trying hard to break the 100-pound mark. However, the biggest pumpkin he could ever manage to grow was a 220-pound one, his wife Christin told CNN.

This May, Ownby got the special seed from a record-breaking pumpkin that was grown in Tennessee last year, weighing more than 1,700-pounds which he planted in his farm.

"He was out there daily watering it, covering it during the heat of the day and making sure the beetles didn't get to it," Christin told CNN.

When it had grown fully, Ownby hauled the huge pumpkin onto a trailer and took it to his neighbor’s house for weighing it. The large scale showed 910-pounds, making it the biggest pumpkin the farmer managed to grow.

The pumpkin would have come second at the fair if they had participated, but the family already had a trip planned during the event which made Ownby plan to have some fun with the giant 910-pound pumpkin.

He harvested the pumpkin for the seeds and hollowed it from the inside. On Monday morning, he took the pumpkin along with an oar to the pond in the family’s property. He climbed inside the hollow pumping and started rowing while Christin took pictures and videos.

At one point the giant pumpkin-boat tipped over while Justin tried to stand up in it.

Christin said that Justin doesn’t plan to stop growing giant pumpkins and that he is hoping to break the 1000-pound mark next year.

Last year, Steve Geddes from New Hampshire grew the largest pumpkin in the U.S. history weighing an astounding 2,528 pounds.