Bloom Where You're Planted Farm

I don't think there's anything that says "America" quite like a parade.  The community spirit, the families, the anticipation and excitement of the children...you just can't beat it!  Our small hometown of Weeping Water held its annual Limestone/Independence Day celebration this past Saturday, so we loaded up our antique high-wheel wagon and headed to town. 

We've had a major heat wave here which broke just in time for the celebration.  It was a little cloudy and breezy, but it felt great after the heat and humidity of the past week.  Terry and I rode in the wagon and tossed out candy while our brother-in-law, Greg, drove.  I didn't get any photos of our float this time, but here's a photo from our county fair parade last summer.  My dad is driving one of the antique John Deere tractors he restored.

 I had a unique perspective from my perch in the front of the wagon and was able to get some nice crowd pictures.   

Our next trip will be to Murdock, NE for their parade July 4th.  We wish you and your families a safe and happy Independence Day!

Well, we survived a very hot and humid field trip yesterday!  48 students from the Tara Heights Kids Club, part of the Papillion-LaVista school district, visited the farm for our first-ever summer field trip.  They were a nice bunch of kids, ranging from first through sixth grade, with a few high school-aged helpers along to supervise. 

The kids ate sack lunches in the shade of the big Hackberry tree in our yard.  After lunch, we split them into two groups.  One group stayed back and played, explored the farm buildings, and visited the horses.  This was Abbie's first exposure to a large group of kids.  She was safe behind her fence, but it freaked her out a little when twenty-some bright green clad youngsters all ran toward the pen at once.  After that, she took it all in stride.  She'll be an old pro by the end of our first fall weekend.

We took the other group on a farm tour, talking about the field corn on our way to the pumpkin patch.  We came back on the nature trail, where the kids got to see deer and racoon tracks and water striders on the creek.  As a born-and-raised farm girl, it continues to amaze me how horrified and/or fascinated kids can be by bugs...and poop.  One of the horses took a poop while the kids were watching, and you'd think the world was coming to an end!!

We gave the second group a tour, and after the kids filled up their water bottles and took a trip to the restroom, they were on their way.  It all seemed to go by too quickly -- there was much more about the farm which we would have liked to share.  But, it was in the lower 90s and extremely humid.  One little girl told me "Kids don't get hot"... however, teachers and teenaged helpers do. 

It was a lot of work to get ready for the visit, but we had a good time.  Hopefully the kids learned something from us and took a little knowledge of farm life back to the big city with them.

We had a productive weekend and are looking at a busy week ahead of us.  Things are really happening fast around the farm these days!

The health inspector stopped by Friday morning to look at the Schoolhouse Cafe kitchen and help us make sure we're heading in the right direction.  We learned of a few code requirements we didn't already know about, but overall there were no big surprises and it went well.  After a visit to three different home improvement stores in Lincoln on Saturday evening, we now have most of what we need to really get rollin' on the kitchen project now!

On Saturday morning we painted most of the barn loft floor a nice, bright shade of tan.  This really lightened up the place and will hopefully show less dust.  It is all finished except for the corner of the room where we stacked all the furniture.  We probably won't get up there to finish for a few days, as the temperatures are forecast to be in the high 90s with heat advisories issued by the National Weather Service.  A stuffy hay loft is nowhere to be in those conditions!  After lunch Saturday we got all the flowers planted/transplanted into our new butterfly garden.

Sunday we celebrated my aunt & uncle's 40th wedding anniversary in the early afternoon and had my family over in the evening for a Father's Day supper.  It was a fun day.

As for this week, we really need to tend to the weeds in the pumpkin patches, heat or no heat.  When that's done we'll spend some time getting ready for a field trip group that's coming on Thursday afternoon.  They're from Papillion-LaVista schools and we're planning on 45-50 elementary-aged students.  A summer field trip should be fun -- we'll focus on the growing pumpkins, field crops, and livestock.  Temperatures will still be hot and humid, but the really bad stuff from earlier in the week should move out just in time (we hope!)

I'm planning to post some photos soon of our farm-improvement projects, the field trip, and maybe even our first parade of the season, Limestone Day June 27 in Weeping Water.  Until then, stay cool!!!

We are always looking for new ideas and inspirations about how we can improve this business.  This past weekend we took a road-trip to Osceola, Iowa, to the Harvest Barn Marketplace.  I'm not sure how I first heard about them, but they do have a listing on this site:  http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M19115.  I've been receiving Amy's emails for awhile and finally saw an opportunity to visit on Saturday.

It took about three hours to get there.  I love driving through the rolling hills of western Iowa, and Rocket enjoyed riding along with Terry and I.  

The store is located inside this neat, renovated barn.  They specialize in homemade fudge (it was YUMMY!), hand-poured candles, meats raised on their family farm, and ice cream from a nearby creamery (it was YUMMY too--this was not a low-calorie trip!) 

We enjoyed our visit and left with a full shopping bag.  On the way home we talked some ideas that inspired us and goals for our own store.  We decided we needed to brighten up a few areas with more lighting and fresh paint.  We'd also like to make some of our own product.  Our new concession kitchen will allow us to try some new food items -- I'm thinking homemade pumpkin pie, gourmet dipped pretzels, and apple & pumpkin crisp mix made from my Grandma Brandt's recipe.

We continue to learn, grow, and be inspired, and look forward to sharing the results with our customers soon.  Sounds like a lot of work -- I'd better get busy!

We have babies!  Hundreds, probably thousands, of baby pumpkin plants! 

It's been eight days since we finished planting.  When I went out to the fields Friday I saw several seedlings emerging (see above), and by Sunday afternoon nearly all of our hills and rows had sprouted.  The weather last week was warm, and the 2+ inches of rain we received over the weekend made them very happy.  We got a really good germination rate, and it is always nice to start the growing season on a good note.

Squash bugs and cucumber beetles love the little seedlings, so diligent bug control will be our next task.  No matter how many plants we have, it is always heartbreaking to lose one to bugs! 

When you have horses or other livestock and you don't want to feed them hay and grain all summer long, you're always putting up or taking down electric fence.  This was the case with us last night. 

The horses had polished off most of the grass in their latest pasture and needed to be moved.  We're in the process of fencing off a big meadow on my parents' property, but in the meantime there is some lush grass in the windbreak that we wanted to take advantage of.  So, we quickly put up some electric fence so they could spend a couple days "mowing" that area for us.

With most of our fencing projects, you work with the old...

and the new.

 The end result is always happy horses! 

We started our planting last Thursday (5/28) and finished up on Sunday evening.  This is record time for us -- maybe after six years we're finally getting the hang of it! (KNOCK ON WOOD...I wouldn't want to jinx it for next year!)

We planted four "patches".  One of the two big patches south of the house has all of our specialty colored pumpkin varieties, along with all the gourds and squash.  That should be a fun one to watch.  We planted a new pumpkin variety called "Knucklehead", one new large/bottle-type gourd variety, and three new, very decorative kinds of squash.

We're excited about offering hay rides for the first time this year!  The second large patch to the south will be where we stop to let hayrack riders choose their pumpkins.  It has the small pie pumpkins, the giant Big Max pumpkins, and two Jack-O-Lantern-sized varieties.  I don't know if anyone will choose the giant pumpkins from the field (they weigh 50-150 lbs!) but it should make for some great photo opportunities.

Two more Jack-O-Lantern varieties went into the north patch by the Chicken House.  The small patch by the schoolhouse will again be a U-Pick patch and has pie pumpkins, Turk's Turban squash, and some funky-looking Blue Hubbard squash.

The seedlings should start coming up this week, and then the bug and weed control begins.  It's a labor of love for sure.  We'll grow some good ones for you!

Terry planting in the north patch.  He finished up just before a surprise hail storm hit!

 Rocket gets excited about planting time, too!