Muddy Maze

Rain, rain, go away, come again...in November!

We're booked solid with school field trips between now and the end of the month, and it's raining again today. Two local groups still came out between storms, but two big schools that were coming from a distance rescheduled.

Our first two weekends of the maze season were hot and windy, and then the weather changed. Now we're working around cool and wet days instead. We've had some weather perfect days for some schools, like yesterday. The groups rode the tram out to see the buffalo herd, each shot the pumpkin slingshot, and walked through the maze. And of course their biggest thrill is picking out their own personal pumpkin from the pumpkin fields.

Weather is to improve for Friday and Saturday, so we'll hope for the best.

The area United Way had scheduled a fundraiser out here last Friday, and had to postpone until this Friday because of the weather. Let's hope the weather cooperates for them this time. We're making buffalo chili and fresh fruit pies for the event, so visitors will have a great meal before they walk through the maze and venture into the Haunted Trail.

If you're coming out to our maze this weekend, except a little mud, and a lot of fun!

881 lb. Pumpkin wins Kansas Contest

Weekend Two of our maze and pumpkin season is over and I'm catching up today. Both weekends have been hot and windy, with beautiful Mondays the next day.
Crowds have been pretty good considering the weather. Attendance is usually light until the middle of the month when the temperatures cool down and people in the mood for fall decorations and halloween.
People have enjoyed our maze and theme, and spend a relaxing 3-5 hours on our farm to walk through the maze, do all the activities, and ride the Prairie Tram to see the buffalo herd. Many stay for a meal and then go through the maze again with a Glow Stick, and finish the night with the Haunted Trial.
We hosted the Official Kansas Giant Pumpkin Contest this last Saturday. How do you weigh a giant pumpkin? Very carefully, and with a skid loader! We had seven entries, ranging from an 881 lber from a seasoned grower, to a 52 lb. pumpkin grown in a little girl's garden. (She did great for her first year, and I think it weighed about as much as she did.)
The winning pumpkin weighed in at a whopping 881 pounds, but the contest was kind of bittersweet for all of us. A family was supposed to bring a bigger pumpkin, measuring to weigh over 1000 lbs, which would have been Kansas' first ever grown that large. But the family didn't show up, so we starting weighing the pumpkins, hoping they had some kind of delay and were just running late.

Turns out their pumpkin, plus their Kansas State fair winning entry was smashed by vandals. We felt so bad for them. The young daughter had won second place at last year's contest, so we knew of the family and were rooting for this big accomplishment.

There was an article about the contest, and the vandalism in the newspapers, so we all "made the news", but not how we had planned.

We growers always worry about the weather when tending to our giants, but not about someone smashing our summer's efforts. The family were able to save some seeds, so I hope they can grow a winner for next year's contest.

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.

Hot Buffalo

Hello from the Bison Farm!

It's been a hot miserable week, heat wise. Heat index has been around 108 to 110 the last few days.

I just went out to check the bison since I couldn't see the water tank from my view from the Visitors Center porch. All the herd was crowding in front of the tank.

Was it upright? Had they tipped the portable rubber tank over? I drove out to check because we can't have them going without water.

The animals were panting from the heat, but they rarely seek shade- they want to see "what's coming". They had tipped the tank enough times to splash out water, and were taking turns cooling down in the soupy mud.

Cow Freda (back end showing in the snapshot) is always hogging the puddle, and as you can see from the photo, her little female calf is learning the same trick with her muddy little face. Wouldn't little Flicka be a mess to clean- if you could catch her!

We're still working on the new website. Please look around and let me know if things aren't linked right, info you'd like to see, etc. School group information is up, but more info will be added to the Giant Pumpkin Contest.

At least I'm inside my air conditioned pasture office while updating things, instead of being in the pasture heat, so I won't complain.

Until next time, direct from the hot Kansas prairie...where the buffalo are keeping cool in the mud...

Linda

P.S. Please sign up under the "Bison Tracks" to continue receiving my Farm Kansas Diary via this blog. We'll be switching over eventually from my old system, and that way you can still keep up with the buffalo and the farm activities.

Hot days makes big pumpkins

Our hot humid August days is really making the pumpkins grow. Verne and I took a four day break from the farm and headed to cool Colorado last week. Now coming home, and going out to the pumpkin fields, they have exploded with vines and pumpkins. Where there were alleyways, now it's solid leaves. We also got 3 inches of rain while we were gone, so of course that helped too.

We don't have very many competetion pumpkins over hundred pounders yet, but I had someone email yesterday that will be coming to our Giant Pumpkin Contest on Oct. 6th. He already had two 400 lb. pumpkins that were gaining 25 lbs a day. Wow, just think how many pumpkin pies that would make! Hopefully these giants will keep growing and not have any problems. I'd love to see a 1000 pounder at our contest this year. The top weight last year was 691 lbs.

Do you have a pumpkin that you'd like to bring? Last year we had cash prizes of $250, $150 and $100 for the top three weights, and contestants from three states. It was quite a show and lots of fun and photos.

Our herd bull Tonka LOVES pumpkins, and I'd love to see him tackle (literally) a giant pumpkin. But right now he's into the breeding season, so he has other things on his mind.... He'll be ready for pumpkins in October.