Bloom Where You're Planted Farm

Our family took its first "grown up" family vacation last week.  We went to the Manitou Springs, Colorado area with my parents, brother, sister-in-law and niece.  My mom turned 60 in April and this was her belated birthday trip.  It was lots of fun and we enjoyed some quality bonding time.  Here is a photo taken at Eleven Mile Canyon State Park near Lake George, CO.  Terry and I are on the right, in the red and orange.

Now its time to get back to work preparing for our sixth-annual Pumpkin Festival.  Our first order of business will be building a big trellis/tunnel for the Kids' Gourd Garden and planting the gourds.  We've been having nice rains these past couple weeks, and the pumpkins (& unfortunately the weeds, too) are responding well.  There is always some weed or bug control to see to, and every year we have lofty goals to keep on top of it better than the last season.  Will that happen?...?  We'll keep you posted! 

It is never too early to plan your fall party or get-together.  We also do summer field trips and campfire parties -- please let us know if there is anything we can help with.  Hope to see you soon at the farm! 

Lots of exciting things have been happening here on the farm!  All of our pumpkins, squash and gourds are in the ground.  We were pleased to be done about a week ahead of our usual schedule.  Planting began on May 15 with the giant pumpkins, hard shell gourds (such as the apple & swan varieties), and a few types of squash with longer growing seasons.  We added a Cushaw squash and Blue Hubbard squash, both which can grow to be quite large.  Our goal is to have a big pile (or piles) of fantastical giant pumpkins and squash for photo ops--now our part is done and Mother Nature takes over!  We hope for plenty of rain and warm temperatures to give all the seeds a good start.  The May 15 seeds are all sprouted and some are starting to put on their third and fourth leaves already.

On May 22 we hosted a field trip/play date for a group from Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, NE.  We took them on a hayride to see the horses and everyone enjoyed meeting our calf Alice, who is a month old already.  She is mischievous, ridiculously cute, and growing by the day.

With all the seeds in the ground we used this long Memorial Day weekend, which we usually spend planting, to do some painting on the barns.  The animal barn is done, one of the two wood-sided walls of the big barn is done, and the second side is power-washed and ready for primer.  This second side is the most intimidating, so we may drag our feet a little on getting that one done...J   We'll keep you posted!Hope to see you soon at the farm!

Our long-awaited arrival is here!  Our heifer Molly, who came to us as a bottle calf three years ago, had her first calf Tuesday.  On a whim, I'd walked out to check her one more time before going in the house to get ready for a birthday party.  There was no mistaking the fact that she was in labor.  Terry was home building cabinets for a customer, so I grabbed him and we headed out to observe.  This was the first time I'd watched a live birth (other than some kittens when I was a kid) so it was really fascinating--and nerve-wracking! 

After the baby was born we waited for her to stand up (what a struggle to get those wobbly legs straightened out and working properly!) and start nursing.  With just a little help from Terry, everything went off without a hitch!

We named the baby Alice.  She's a big calf, and already has a very independent spirit.  The electric fence was no match for her -- she simply walked right under it and headed for the lush, tall grass by the creek for a nap.  No amount of calling from Molly would bring her back.  We put Alice back in several times, after which she'd just make a bee-line right back out again.  Molly'd finally had enough and "jumped" (knocked down) the fence to go after her.  Now we've moved them to a different area with a permanent fence, and all seems to be working out.

The first photo shows Molly and Alice around 30 minutes after the birth.  The second photo was taken this morning, at not quite two days old.  In my book, there's nothing cuter than a tiny baby calf!

Our weather lately has been amazing!  Plenty of sunshine, low humidity, temps in the mid-60s, and best of all......no wind!!!  That's a rarity here in Nebraska!  I looooove Springtime!

We've been taking advantage of the conditions and getting lots of work done.  Over the weekend we edged flower beds, mulched, weeded, and worked with the horses.  We've also prepared the ground and seeded grass in the many areas that were either disturbed when we trenched in water lines last fall, or destroyed by the tractor during snow removal.  I'm most excited about the area in front of the Schoolhouse Cafe.  We planted new grass right up to the new sidewalk -- if it takes, it will look great and be a huge improvement over the dust and weeds we had before (after all, that area was a cow lot just a few years ago!)

Much of our time this week has been spent getting ready for our Spring Open House on Apr. 24 & 25.  The Schoolhouse Cafe is all cleaned and rearranged.  I set up a small gift shop area in there yesterday--it will be much smaller than our fall gift shop, but we'll have some fun, spring-y foods and decor for sale.  Mowing and food shopping are all that remain on that to-do list.  We're praying for good weather and looking forward to our first springtime event in four years.

Here's a photo I took last week of a beautiful Nebraska sunset.  Hope to see you soon at the farm!

So far, our spring is off to a pretty productive start!  After a couple weekends of vigorous yard cleanup (I still don't fully understand how ALL that driveway rock made it into the yard during snow removal!) we started on our first "pumpkin patch project" of the year.

Until now, we've only had a crushed rock path leading to the Schoolhouse Café.  This was working okay but we wanted a better surface for strollers, wheelchairs, and little feet.  The cement truck arrived yesterday morning, and within 2 1/2 hours the sidewalk was all finished and drying in the sunshine.  We want to thank Terry's dad, Richard, who helped with the labor-intensive project.

 BEFORE...

DURING...

AND AFTER!

One project down, dozens and dozens to go! 

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On a different note, we hope to see you for our Spring Open House on April 24 & 25.  We'll be open 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and noon-4 p.m. Sunday.  Don't miss this chance to visit the farm in the Springtime!  Walk the nature trail, visit the animals, and challenge your family members to a game of ladder golf or bean bag toss.  Chow down on a fresh-grilled picnic lunch in the Schoolhouse Café, made from Nebraska food products.  Admission is FREE (food not included).

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Late last week, Terry and I attended a class put on by the University of NE extension.  It was all about growing berries in your home garden.  We've been considering planting some small fruits in the hopes that we could grow enough to make our own jams & jellies to sell in our gift shop.

The three main fruits we covered in class were raspberries, blackberries and strawberries.  We also touched on currants, aronia berries and gooseberries.  Strawberries are a given; hopefully we'll plant enough to have leftovers after we eat our fill--they're our favorite!  We're planning to build some raised beds and start some plants this spring.

But what else to plant??  Red raspberries are another favorite of mine, and it seems like they're a necessity in any berry patch.  And, we like the idea of blackberries (especially the thornless type)!  One of our Facebook fans suggested gooseberries.  I've heard that gooseberries and currants both like partial sun, which may work perfectly in the part of our garden that gets shady in the hot afternoons.

We'd love to hear your feedback -- if you're currently growing berries, what do you recommend we plant and/or stay away from?  (We're on the line between Zone 4 & 5).  How many plants (of each fruit) to we need to can a few dozen jars of jam?  If you don't grow berries but love to buy and/or make jams, jellies or preserves, what are your favorites?

Thanks for your input!  Stay tuned to hear how it all turns out for this couple of newbies!  :-)

Some of you who visited last fall will remember Frannie, our tortoise-shell cat who was just a kitten at the time.  She made some good friends during the pumpkin season, so I wanted to share some current photos and tell a little about how Frannie came to be part of our family.

Just before bedtime on the Friday before Labor Day, I heard loud, urgent meowing outside the front door.  I knew it wasn't one of our two adult cats, and when I went outside I was absolutely shocked to see it was a tiny kitten making all that noise.  If you've been here before, you know that we have a long driveway and no close neighbors -- how did this little thing find her way here?  I picked her up and she immediately began purring so hard she was vibrating.  She never stopped meowing, the loudest I've ever heard from a kitten.  Terry and I looked at each other and said, "This is the kind of thing that doesn't go away.  We have a new cat."  Other strays have visited over the years, but no one so tiny and helpless.  This kitten needed us, and we were just the suckers to help her.

After feeding her (have you ever heard a kitten try to meow at full volume while eating or drinking milk?) we took her to the shed outside for the night.  We needed sleep, and it wouldn't happen with her in the house!  In the morning she was just as loud and needy, but as the day wore on and we went about our tasks, she found a pile of hardwood flooring in the garage, climbed to the top and seemed to settle in.  This would continue to be her "safe place" for the next few weeks while she became more brave and comfortable in her new home. 

It only took a couple of days before we were completely in love with Frannie.  Its still a mystery where she came from.  Thankfully, the meowing stopped and she has become a really sweet girl.  If you visited during pumpkin season you may have seen her lounging in the middle of a display table in the gift shop, or darting through the sumac bushes just out of the reach of little fingers.  She has now become good friends with our adult cats, especially Willy who is happy to have a new sparring partner.  She is fearless, completely spoiled, and a big part of the family.  Sometimes you just don't know you're missing something until it shows up meowing at your door!

I've been spending lots of time in the office lately, both looking back over the past twelve months and looking ahead to the next eight months or so until pumpkin patch time rolls around again.

As I prepare to mail the sales tax we collected to the state revenue department, I'm looking back over the 2009 season.  Although my sub-par bookkeeping skills make it a bit stressful, it is kind of fun, and certainly helpful, to go back and reflect on what days were good days and what days could have been better, sales-wise.  Before long I'll start in on income tax preparations which also is a time to look back and assess the results of our efforts to run our businesses successfully and efficiently.

Looking back has its benefits, but I prefer looking ahead and making plans for the 2010 Pumpkin Festival.  Believe it or not, even at this early date there are things that need to be done.  As I mentioned on our Facebook page recently, we've ordered our seeds and a few have already started arriving.  It is always fun to pick out new varieties to try!  I also recently mailed off a grant application, hoping to secure funding to help us advertise to a bigger audience.  Included in the application are plans to have a new logo and brochure designed, so I've been doing a little browsing for ideas for that.  We're also looking forward to attending the Nebraska Governor's Agri- & Eco- Tourism Workshop next week.   These are always stimulating and inspiring and a nice break from the ho-hum winter routine.  When we return, I'm sure we'll be full of ideas and looking ahead to the 2010 season even more than we are now!

Have a great week!

P.S. -- To become a fan of Bloom Where You're Planted Farm on Facebook, click HERE.  We'd love to have you join us!

Yee-Haw!  We're finally going to get back to normal temperatures this week, in the low to mid-30s!  Before the melting starts I wanted to share some photos following our third major snowstorm of the winter.  We were finally able to get out on Saturday afternoon, and just going to the mini-mart in our small town was a treat!  

Our "Knight in John Deere Armor", my Dad, who rescued us with his tractor and loader.  Thanks, Dad!

We had a really unusal Christmas here on the farm.  It was white, and beautiful, and peaceful...  But we were all alone.  Snowed in from Christmas Eve (when we did manage to get one family Christmas in before the roads drifted too bad) until Monday the 28th, when we finally got the driveway cleared.  Our little tractor wasn't big enough, and we had to wait until the snowplow came through the road and my dad could dig their driveway out and bring his bigger tractor over. 

It reminded me of what Christmas must have been like in the "old days", and it was actually kind of nice for the first couple of days.  I did lots of cooking (luckily we had plenty of advance warning and bought lots of groceries) and we had a romantic Christmas dinner at the dining room table, looking out through the windows drifted in the corners with snow.  The power stayed on, which was a real blessing.  Staying warm was the first concern, of course, but it would have been a LONG weekend without television!  There was our departure from the "old fashioned" Christmas!

We are having a very strange winter, more like Alaska than Nebraska.  It has been a strange weather year overall.  The summer was cooler than normal, which was great.  We had our first snow in October, which was NOT great.  And now we've had two big snowstorms and snowfall every few days.  I'm undecided how I feel about this, but I'm trying to keep a positive attitude and pretend we've moved north somewhere.  I wonder if there are any pumpkin patches in Alaska??

Our snowstorm last week brought around 12-14 inches of snow, followed by bitter cold temperatures and single-digit highs.  While the cows, cats, dog and humans around here have been staying inside being lazy, the horses are having a ball.

Here are some photos I took during the heaviest part of the snowstorm:

 Sachi (left) and Sully

Sully, just after having a good roll in the snow.

The whole gang out for a run

We woke up to a very pretty coating of snow this morning.  It was just the right amount to cover the grass, the rooftops, and settle onto the branches of the trees.  It is certainly "beginning to look a lot like Christmas" here, and the weatherman is predicting another 6-10 inches tomorrow night!

Even before the snowfall I was already feeling the Christmas spirit.  The weekend after Thanksgiving I took advantage of the above-average temperatures and got my outdoor decorating done.  The last of the pumpkins were given to the cows to eat, and then the greenery came out.  Our cats have been VERY helpful in this year's decorating process, as they often are.  Our kitten, Frannie, is discovering her climbing abilities and was on top of our arbor nearly the entire time I was hanging the garland and wreath...

 I took the indoor decorating slowly, and finally finished up this past Friday.  Keeping with the helpful cat theme, here's Willy doing his part to help out...

Here's hoping you all are enjoying the season and staying safe and warm.  Happy Holidays!

This is both an exciting and frustrating time of a pumpkin farmer's year.  It is exciting because we have lots of ideas running through our heads about next season and all we want to do and add.  It is also exciting to have a bit of free time again after so many months of being tied to the farm.  We're eagerly looking forward to the seed catalogs which will be arriving soon, and the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are just around the corner!  Also, before long we'll start receiving information about some of the small business confereces and vegetable growers' seminars that we like to attend in the winter.  Many exciting things coming up!

The frustrating part is having to wait what seems like an eternity until we can start to DO anything to get ready for next season!  Ideas and plans are great, but actions are what count, right?  Sure, there are important bookkeeping tasks to be done, and there are some changes to our brochures and website which I can begin working on...  But, the real fun will begin next spring when we can get out there and do some physical work again--building, repairing, plowing and planting.  I guess as long as we still get excited about these preparations, we'll know we're in the right business!

Terry and I wish you all a happy and blessed Thanksgiving!  God Bless!

Our fifth pumpkin patch season has come to an end.  Our "official" last day of the season was Sunday, November 1st.  Unoficially, our last day was Monday because we had one final field trip that morning. 

Now comes the task of putting everything away and getting the farm all buttoned up for the winter.  As we set about these tasks, we're having some of the nicest weather we've had since September...  Figures, doesn't it?!?  We do appreciate the nice working conditions, even if we would have preferred they come a few weeks earlier.

Other than some weather problems, we had a good season and would like to express a huge, sincere THANK YOU! to everyone who came for a visit, both old friends and new.  We couldn't (and wouldn't want to) have done it without you.  We have the best customers in the world, and we look forward to seeing you again next year!!!!

We approach this last weekend of our pumpkin season with mixed emotions.  We are excited for Halloween and the Goblin's Egg Hunt on Saturday.  It should be a fun day!  And, after Sunday's "Stock Up Sale", we are looking forward to a little break and some much-needed rest after the whirlwind months of August, September and October. 

But, I get a little melancholy when I think about packing up the gift shop for another year, shutting down the cafe, putting away all the outdoor activities and clearing out the pumpkin barn.  It seems like this season has gone especially fast  -- I guess its true that the older you get, the faster time flies!  We have had so many wonderful folks visit, both new friends and loyal long-time supporters.  We will especially miss all their friendly faces.

But, enough gloominess -- we still have one more fun-filled weekend to plan for!  This will be our first season with Halloween falling on a Saturday.  At 10:15 a.m. sharp we'll start our second-annual Goblin's Egg Hunt.  Children ages 12 & under can bring their sacks, Easter baskets or Trick-or-Treat bags and hunt for the hundreds of colorful Goblin's Egg gourds we'll have hidden around the farm.  There will be separate hunts for ages 1-5 and 6-12.  Be there early so you don't miss any of the fun!  In addition, we'll be giving special Trick-or-Treat goodie bags all day to all children who come in costume!

Sunday is our "Stock Up Sale."  Fill one of our Radio Flyer wagons with all the pumpkins and squash it can hold for just $10.00!  Gourds will be half-price, and there will be great sales in the gift shop on food mixes, jams & jellies, salad dressing, popcorn, Christmas merchandise, clearance fall merchandise, and more!

We hope to see you this weekend at the farm!  Happy Haunting!