Gearing up the Maze

We got company on the porch! Actually it's a few of 50 scarecrow cowboys we're posting as greeters around the bison farm for our maze weekends. Our theme this year is the Wild West of Kansas, so we got a rough and ready posse to assist us. They will help draw attention to signs, pointing visitors to the various activities on the farm. They are cheap labor, but well worth their keep.

Last weekend we started moving pumpkins from one of the patches to make displays around the building and farm. Glad we have good strong help for all the work around here.

Our crew set up bale mazes, Spookley's Play Patch, the corn cannon, pumpkin sling shot, and finished the Haunted Trail.

We're into "countdown" with less than a week to be ready for the thousands of people that will visit our maze and pumpkin patch the next five weeks.

I still have a long list to do, but the season will happen no matter what, so we'll just jump in, do our best, and have fun!

If you're within the state, please come one of the next weekends to go through the maze, see the bison herd, enjoy our buffalo chili and fresh fruit pies, and pick a pumpkin to take home too.

We'll (including the scarecrow cowboy crew) will be ready for your visit!

Flying into Fall

Got a slow, but noisy rain shower this morning. Perfect moisture for the pasture grass, and the growing maze and pumpkins. Fall has crept up on us with the lower temperatures and shorter days.

We've been busy getting signs and activities ready for the start of our maze, so all doing work inside today. We'll start hanging out the haunted trail decorations tomorrow if weather cooperates.

Noticed that bird flocks have been traveling through the area alot now. I took my camera with me to check the water tank the other day, and the birds hung on the fence wire, drooping it down with their combined weight. The birds like to stop by the herd for food- flies and insects in the pasture and manure, so both are part of the cycle of nature we see daily.

Such different weather, both by looks and feel than a week or two ago, and it will change rapidly as we move into October. The calves have lost their baby wool and are growing their first winter coat to get ready for the cooler season too.

Where did the summer go?

Wrapping Snake with Electrical Tape

Sept. 1, 2007
Where did August go?! I've spent many days and hours working on the updates for our website, getting advertising lined up for the fall activities, … and looking for leaks to fix in the drip tape watering system in the pumpkin field.
Our high school help went back to school Aug. 16th, so it's been me out with electrical tape in hand, listening for leaks. When we plant the fields, we lay down a drip tape and 4 ft wide strip of black plastic down each row before we plant the seed. This helps conserve water usage, and keeps weeds from growing around the vines.
Every now and then a weak spot or puncture happens, and we poke through the plastic with our fingers, dig around in the mud to find and lift the drip tape just high enough to wrap black electrical tape around the damaged area. It works well enough to seal most holes. It the leak is too bad, we cut and splice the tape with a coupler.
Yesterday I could hear the spraying of water against the inside of the plastic in a certain spot. Of course its under a big twist of vines, and my feet are sinking in the mud which the leak had created.
I'm hunched down, pressing along the tape (expanded round with water) to find the source of the leak, and then I poked a hole and ripped open the plastic along the tape.
Ahh! I hadn't been pressing along the tape but along the body of a brown and black rat snake! I just about grabbed it to wrap tape around its middle! Needless to say I waited until the snake moved on before I searched for the leaking tape again.