Rollercoaster Ride

What a wonderful surprise I had yesterday when I went outside and saw my jardale pumpkin. It had an open female flower and one male one. I did not let nature take its course. I mated the flowers myself. I am pretty sure I was successful because the female fruit is still hard. Today, however, I am less than thrilled. I definitely have a vine borer which means it could be only a matter of time before the vine starts to wilt. I could cry. It looks like it has yet to hit my regular pumpkins, but I was seriously hoping for a nice pretty jardale pumpkin. Hopefully the vine can survive. I guess that I need to make it my goal to defeat the squash bugs this year and then tackle the vine borers next year. I read about tying a nylon stocking over the base of the vine since the borers only bore in 4-6 inches from the ground. I did that, but then it worried me that the vine might rot under the nylon so I took it off. How dumb. Next year I really need to figure something out. Hopefully, the vine has enough side roots so it will survive. I definitely think that the regular pumpkin has a pumpkin growing which is very exciting.
Still no word on Kyron Horman. What happened to him? I read something so disturbing today that it has hurt my entire being. A man was sentenced this week for killing his daughter. He actually left his two year old daughter in the cold snow in PA in 2007 because she kept taking her diaper off. He actually left her there in the cold on a playground. When I think about how scared and cold she must have been...I cannot stop crying. I wonder how no one could hear her crying. She must have. It is physically painful to think about. I myself have a two year old daugher. I know first hand how maddening a two year old girl can be, but this punishment....it disturbs me. The thought of any child being hurt or scared destroys my soul. How dare he do that to her. I wish I believed in Hell because I would like to believe that there is a special place in Hell for those people.