Bloom Where You're Planted Farm

Ag Day

Saturday, October 17th was our second-annual Ag Day in cooperation with the Conestoga FFA (Future Farmers of America).  The weather was still a bit chilly, but we had a nice crowd come out to enjoy the activities, demonstrations and animals provided by the students.  We had a show heifer, alpacas, pygmy goats and baby pigs.  A couple of the girls did a tack and safety demonstration with our mare Abbie, and several students helped demonstrate our antique corn sheller for the kids.  They brought pedal tractors for our straw bale maze, and lots of informative handouts about pork, beef, corn and more!  We thank all the students and their advisor, Mr. Anderson, for helping to make it a great day!

Nature's Classroom

Sunday was a BEAUTIFUL day, and we had a great turnout.  One family stopped by that had visited last year and "adopted" two tree frogs that they'd found.  They cared for the frogs for an entire year, watching their life cycle and learning all about them.  On Sunday they brought them back to be released into their old habitat.  They even brought a helium balloon to release in honor of the occasion!

 --------------------

The weatherman is predicting crisp, sunny fall weather for the upcoming weekend.  We still have lots of beautiful pumpkins, squash and gourds.  Our mums are still looking good and will be on sale for just $7.95.  Come and get them while supplies last. 

We hope to see you soon at the farm!

I just watched the forecast for the coming weekend, and it is SUCH a relief to hear that the rain and cold temperatures we've been having are FINALLY coming to an end!!! 

For those of you who aren't from this area, last Saturday and Sunday we set records for the lowest-ever high temperature, and the earliest snow fall of the season.  We all woke up on Saturday to snowflakes falling and between 1/2 to seven inches of snow on the ground, depending on your location.  Luckily we were on the half-inch side of things, but it was still a blustery, cold day.

It was our third-annual Doggy Day, and several of our canine friends and their owners did brave the weather to join us.  We had ten dogs visit, and the admission fee we charged the dogs will be donated to the Capital Humane Society of Lincoln.  Three volunteers from the organization bundled up and brought some adoptable dogs out to show off.  To learn more about the Capital Humane Society and ways you can help, click here.

All in all, it was a better day that we could have expected.  Chad Silber from channel 10/11 news even came out in the afternoon to do a story about Doggy Day!  Click here to watch it. 

Saturday, October 17th will be fun day at the farm!  Its Ag Day, and we are again working with the Conestoga High School Future Farmers of America (FFA).  In addition to our regular pumpkin patch activities, the students have planned lots of farm-themed contests and hands-on learning opportunities.  They'll also be bringing farm animals including goats, pigs, chickens, show cattle, and alpacas.  Add these to our four friendly horses and cows Molly and Fern, and we'll have a real barnyard full!

Come out to celebrate the return of nicer weather!  We hope to see you soon at the farm!

This past Sunday was our second-annual Scout Day.  All scouts wearing some part of their uniform received free admission to the farm.  It was a beautiful afternoon and the scouts all seemed to have a great time. 

This is Jasper, a Boy Scout from Hamburg, IA.  He chose an awesome pumpkin from the U-Pick patch!

My college roommate Carri and her family came for a visit on Sunday.  One of the best things about having this business is when friends or family stop by.  Some of them, like Carri and her family, live far enough away that we often only see them once a year at pumpkin patch time.  It was near the end of the day, so I put one of our employees in charge of my post at the admission counter and rode along on their hay ride...

This Saturday is Doggy Day.  Bring your canine friends to enjoy the sights and smells of the farm!  $4.00 doggy admission will be donated to the Capital Humane Society of Lincoln.  Volunteers will be on-site with a selection of dogs which can be adopted from the shelter.

Sunday is 4-H Day.  All 4-Hers who wear or show some type of ID will receive free admission.  It is forecast to be a pretty chilly day, so we'll have FREE coffee brewing in the gift shop to keep you warm!  We'll also be selling hot, spiced cider in the Schoolhouse Cafe all weekend, a perfect complement to a slice of pumpkin pie or our famous frosted sugar cookies!

Hope to see you soon at the farm!

We're heading into our third weekend of the Pumpkin Festival already!  This Sunday is Girl Scout/Boy Scout day.  Scouts wearing any part of their uniform will receive free admission to the farm. 

This afternoon we trecked out to the pumpkin fields and brought a fresh crop of orange pumpkins, squash, and gorgeous specialty pumpkins back to the barn.  The new varieties we tried this year are really cool!  The giant speckled swan gourds and colorful, warty gourds have been getting a lot of attention and selling really well. 

The trees are turning, and while many are still holding on to their leaves, there is a good layer on the ground to crunch through as you walk the grounds or stroll the nature trail.  Its a beautiful time to come for a visit, and we hope to see you soon at the farm!

Before we head into the second weekend of our Pumpkin Festival, I wanted to recap our opening weekend and share a couple of photos with you.

We had a great opening day on Saturday!  The weather was awesome all weekend.   It was Military Family Weekend, a tradition we started back in 2007.  I would estimate we had around 30 military families visit over the two days to take advantage of our free admission offer.  We always enjoy talking to the families about their backgrounds and hometowns.  We heard a lot of different regional accents, too!

This packed hay rack was filled with many military families and a few "regular" visitors.

 Another special event took place on Sunday.  Midwest Heart Connection, a group which supports families with children born with Congenital Heart Disease (CHD), held their fall gathering at the farm.  There were around 165 guests.  We hosted the same event last year, and they are really a nice bunch.  It is amazing to watch how well the "heart babies" or "heart kids" as they call them (many of whom are now school-aged) get around after the many surgeries they have had to endure over their lifetimes.  Most of them could outrun me, I'm sure!

This is Ella, who was born with half a heart.  She was so cute and active -- a real miracle!

It is nice to have the first weekend under our belts!  This weekend is our "Photo Days" event.  Snyder Photography of Elmwood will be here from 1-5 p.m. each day to take family photos.  You can drop in, or contact him by email to make an appointment.

Hope to see you soon at the farm!

Well, its just after 10 p.m. the evening before we open for our fifth pumpkin patch season.  This is a record for us -- in past years we'd still be running around like crazy people at this time of night.  We send sincere thanks out to our parents for all their help to make this possible!

It hardly seems like it can be that time of year, but in a mere twelve hours the "open" sign will be out and the first guests should be arriving!  We're really excited to show off our new Schoolhouse Cafe and take the first guests for a ride on the new hay wagons.  The pumpkins are really nice this year, and I don't think we've ever had so many huge, beautiful gourds.   

We hope to see you soon at the farm so you can experience it all for yourselves.  Until then, its time for a hot shower and a good night's sleep!

Eleven days until our Sept. 19th opening day!  The hayracks are built, the water lines are completed, the schoolhouse kitchen is almost finished, and the displays in the gift shop are coming along nicely.  We don't sit down long this time of year!  When there's daylight we're usually outside working, and when the weather is bad we've been trying to get some of our errands, like shopping for supplies and ordering new t-shirts for our employees, out of the way.

At the moment, our "to-do" list seems like it will be managable.  But that can always change!  One of the more stressful things about a business like ours is that so many things have to be done last-minute.  We want everything to look nice on opening day, and that requires waiting as long as possible to decorate, mow, mulch, set up attractions, and pick pumpkins.  Don't let us fool you, though -- we love (almost) every minute of it! 

Opening weekend is also Military Family Weekend.  We invite service members and their immediate family members out to the farm and treat them to free admission.  This is our third year for the event, and we've really enjoyed it.  We've got a big party scheduled for that first Sunday, too, so we'll be starting off with a bang!

We're lining up a crew to pick pumpkins this coming Saturday if the weather is good.  It will be fun to see what all is out there in the patch!  We hope to see you soon at the farm - enjoy this beautiful weather and all the changing colors!

Its just twenty-three days until we open for our fifth pumpkin patch season!  Things have been moving along surprisingly quickly this week, thanks in no small part to my father-in-law, Richard.  A full-time farmer, Richard used to and still does work occasionally as a carpenter.  Both these skills/occupations have been a God-send to us since Terry's accident, as Richard has been putting up our hay and helping Terry build our new hay racks.  Now we have big, round hay bales ready for the kids to play on (and later for the horses to eat), the first hayrack is nearing completion, and as I write this the contractor just pulled in to trench a water line over to the Schoolhouse Cafe!

We're really excited to finally offer hay rides to our customers and think it will be a lot of fun for us as well.  A hay ride ticket will be included with our base admission fee.  The ride will take customers out to our southern pumpkin fields which will now be "U-Pick".  I'm especially looking forward to this, because it will mean less pumpkin picking for me!  :-) 

Here's a glimpse at how the pumpkins are coming along.  They're starting to ripen and are looking forward to going home with our happy customers!

Things have started looking up and picking up around here since my last entry.  Terry is beginning to feel more like himself and enjoyed time outdoors this weekend working with his dad building our new hayracks.  It has now been two full weeks since his accident.  All signs point to a successful recovery, although it will be a few months before we'll know how much vision he'll have in his injured eye.

The weather has been wonderful, and its been really enjoyable to be outdoors, even in the heat of the day.  Unusual for August in Nebraska, for sure.  Maybe its the fall-like weather, but we've started hearing from quite a few folks interested in booking field trips and parties for the fall.  We have a few different party options available - if you're interested, visit our website:  http://www.bloompumpkinpatch.com/parties.html.

I love the anticipation of this time of year, as we await ripe pumpkins and a farm full of visitors!  See you soon! 

Its been about ten days since my last blog, and BOY it has been quite the ten days!  On August 10th, Terry, whose "real" job is as a remodeling contractor, had an accident with an air-powered nail gun.  A finishing nail ricocheted out of the baseboard he was attaching and hit him in the left eye.  We went to the emergency room, and two eye surgeries and multiple eye specialists' visits later, he is finally in recovery mode.  It was and remains quite an ordeal!  One effect of the injury was that a cataract developed.  The second surgery was to remove the cataract, but due to the other trauma in the eye the lens implant that is a usual part of cataract surgery won't be put in for a few months.  His vision in that eye will be permanently affected, but we won't know how well he'll see until after that lens implant surgery.

So many people have sent their prayers and good wishes.  The concern of our extended community has been heart-warming.  We have just over four weeks until our pumpkin season opens, so we'll be relying even more heavily on the help of our family and friends.  Luckily, we've been working diligently all summer in an effort to avoid a major last-minute rush.  So, we're in much better shape than we could be!

The pumpkins are growing like mad and some are even starting to ripen.  The weather today is clear and crisp and feels like it could be early October.  We're looking forward to getting "back to normal" and are excited for opening day!

Another Cass County Fair has come to a close.  As a kid, this was a sad event because it meant that the start of the school year was near.  As an adult with a seasonal fall business, it means its time to kick it into high (higher?) gear!  Our opening day, September 19, is now less than six weeks away.  Wasn't it just yesterday that I was blogging (and panicking) about it being TEN weeks away??

Before I get to work on all the painting, cleaning, ordering and advertising I need to be doing, here are some final images from the fair...

This is our niece Grace greeting a Jersey calf.

One of the most popular events at the fair is the Mutton Bustin' competition, where kids see how long they can hang onto a running sheep.  The folks from McClain's Mutton Busters do a great job!  (Is it me, or does the next kid in line look a little nervous?)

Our friends from the Conestoga FFA (Future Farmers of America) had a float in Saturday night's parade.  This is the group that helped with our Ag Day in 2008 -- we're planning another one this year!  Driving the tractor is FFA Advisor Jon Anderson.

And finally, here is my dad, Mick Jacobson, competing in the antique tractor pull with his 1938 John Deere G.  He got second place -- my brother, pulling with the same tractor, beat him by two inches!

The Cass County Fair , our local county fair, began on Tuesday and continues through Saturday.  We have a booth for our farm and pumpkin patch, so have been spending a lot of time there this week. 

Before we head out again, I wanted to share some photos.  The weather has been beautiful, and the skies clear.  The sun was just setting behind the midway when I shot this one...

I've never seen so many flowers entered into Open Class!  This is just a testament to the wonderful rains we've had in our area this summer!

The 4-H beef show was yesterday morning.  These beginning 4-Hers had just finished showing their bucket calves.

We also spent some time at the 4-H horse show yesterday morning.  I couldn't resist taking a shot of the "sandbox social club".

So many great photo opportunities at the fair!  I'll bring you more soon!

Our latest project, the renovation of the former entry room of the schoolhouse into a concession kitchen, is zipping along.  The walls, ceiling, lighting, outlets and ceiling fan are all in.  The walls are painted the same pale yellow as the rest of the building's interior, and my much-anticipated dark red and pale yellow checkered linoleum floor is in.  I just love it, and hope to have photos up soon.  As I write this Terry is in the shop building the cabinets.  They'll be painted a vintage-inspired green color called "Guacamole".  I wouldn't be brave enough to do these bright colors in my house, but feel like I can have my fun with this kitchen and not have to live with it all day, every day!

The pumpkins are "setting fruit" and the vines are really spreading.  We have had the usual issues with bugs -- we fight a bug called the Cucumber Beetle and they can wreak havoc in the patch.  They nibble on the leaves and blossoms, but the amount they eat isn't the issue.  The problems come because some of them carry a harmful bacteria that gets into the plant's system and makes the vines wilt and eventually die.  Part of the reason we plant SO many plants is to compensate for the loss that is bound to happen.  Still, we value every plant and it is very frustrating to watch!  We try to look past the losses and focus on the healthy plants and all the exciting growth that is happening to keep our spirits up!

Our county fair is about 10 days away (Already??? WHERE has the summer gone??) and I've been printing brochures and handouts and getting everything ready for our booth.  We really enjoy getting to see our customers and friends again, and many stop by the booth just to say "hi!"  Here's a link to the schedule.

Tomorrow we'll be taking the day off to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary.  We've been having pleasant (not so hot and humid) temps so it should be a nice day to play hooky!  :-)  Have a great weekend!

It has been almost seven weeks since we first started planting this year's pumpkin crop.  The average pumpkin takes 90-100 days to grow, so this means we are approaching the half-way point for many of the varieties. 

The plants are looking pretty good, thanks to our regular rains and minimal amount of hot, windy days.  Pumpkins can handle a lot of heat, but hot wind is very tough on them.  We've had our usual bug problems, and plenty of weeds to deal with (they've enjoyed the rain, too!) but it could be much worse.  Overall, we're pleased and grateful for the growth we can see every time we visit the fields.

We're also very grateful to see lots and lots of bees, as we rely on them to pollinate the flowers.  Many of the flowers I looked at this morning had two or more bees apiece!  Did you know there is a type of bee called the "Squash Bee"?  These make up the majority of our pollinators.  Here is some information about squash bees from Auburn University's website:  "Unlike honey bees, squash bees do not live in social colonies.  Each female digs her own vertical tunnel in the ground, usually near the host plants, and spends the morning gathering nectar and pollen to feed her offspring. A squash bee's foraging activity is highly synchronized with the host plants' bloom: the bee emerges from her burrow near dawn as the flowers open, quickly gathers pollen and nectar, and ceases foraging by late morning when the flowers close. Males, in contrast, patrol host flowers all morning looking for unmated females, then crawl into a wilting flower to pass the afternoon and night." 

Fascinating, isn't it?? 

Its hard to believe that we open for our fall season ten weeks from this Saturday.  With the way the weeks have been flying by, that is a little scary but VERY motivating for us!

We've been working hard tending to the pumpkins.  There has been a LOT of weeding to do, plus fertilizing and bug control.  We've been fortunate enough to have pretty regular rains, and the plants are doing well.  There are a few blooms and baby fruits starting to appear -- an exciting sight for pumpkin farmers!

Progress is being made in the schoolhouse.  We installed a screen door on the walk-in door, a door closer on the restroom door (both health dept. requirements) and are mostly done with the wiring in the kitchen.  Most of the other materials have been purchased and are waiting to be installed.  It won't be long until the drywall goes up and the place will really start to look like something.  I love decorating, and even though this is just a concession kitchen it can still be cute, right?  We picked out a red and yellow-checkered linoleum tile floor and I'm trying to decide on cabinet and wall paint colors.

I've been ordering merchandise for the gift shop and am getting anxious to begin the set up.  Organizing and creating displays is one of my favorite tasks, but I'm trying to wait until August to get started.  I've also been painting signs, adding events to our website, and updating the displays for our booth at the county fair in early August.  So much to do, and so little time!