Paul is mowing 40 acres on a weekly basis. Of course, he doesn’t mow all 40 acres in one day, but by the time he is finished with the last of the 40 acres, the first of the group is ready to be mowed again. That’s called job security on the farm!

We’ve been taking the Pumpkin Blaster to various festivals around the area–Watermelon Days, the Benton County Fair and Blairstown’s Sauerkraut Days. It’s a bit early for pumpkins so we substitute watermelons. No one has complained yet!

The mazes are coming along great. The corn is now about 10 feet tall, and we are getting ready for the maze games. The Fireball Run comes through in early October! We’ll be announcing the special events as we are given permission to do so. Stay tuned . . .

Dave and Karen

The pumpkins are planted and we are looking forward to harvest as we planted many new varieties. It will be interesting to see how each variety grows and how the final pumpkins will turn out. Another reason why we love farming—every season has its own characteristics and those transfer into the crops. While we know what we are going to get, we never know what we are going to get!

We are currently open for events with corporations and families. Some of our recent bookings include the University of Phoenix, Japanese All Star Team, AEGON International, Benton County Farm Bureau and Mercy Care North. We love working with companies to develop memorable events for their employees and guests.

Later,

Dave and Karen

The pumpkin patch is now our area of focus. Farmers know that crops need to be rotated because each crop pulls from and/or adds to various nutrients of the soil. By rotating crops, the nutrients are kept somewhat in balance. This year we chose to put the pumpkin patch by the corn maze so visitors can experience both in the same area.

The restoration of my 1950 Chevy flatbed truck is still in process. I just added the wooden sideboards to make sure the loads stay in place. Restoration is a journey rather than a destination, so I don’t expect I’ll ever be “finished” with this project. Good thing I love doing it!

 Corn’s not the only thing growing. It’s spring and that means new life. Karen bought 7 new goats, including 4 kids (babies) to live in the Barnyard Buddies Petting Zoo. The visitors always like the goats and we are excited to see how these new ones will fit in.

School tours have already started and that means we had to clean the barns. No one LIKES doing this chore, but it was easier to stay focused knowing we are introducing many of them to some of the aspects of farm life.

Well, better get back to work before the crew notices I’ve slipped away.

Later, Dave

 Dave 

Our most exciting news this year is that we are planning to add an apple orchard to our farm sometime next spring. In preparation of that goal, we are planning a trip to Indiana to tour some orchards. Right now it seems like a long time away, but we believe planning at the front end is vital to success in the long run. We are looking forward to adding apples to our harvest items. Add that to pumpkins and the other treats in the Sugar Shack and you can get all your harvest shopping done in one trip!

Other events this March for us will be heading to the maze convention in Branson, Missouri. This is always a great convention because it keeps us up to date on the wonderful world of corn mazes. This year’s maze is a MYSTERY. I don’t mean that it’s a mystery to us–of course we know what it will be. The mystery is to the visitors. While we usually post the decision in the spring, this year we are required to keep it a secret. We’ll have an official “unveiling” later in the season. We’ll keep you posted about all the hype as the time draws near.

Of course, we will be headed to the haunt convention at the end of March to pick up some new tricks for Scream Acres. We always want to keep new scares up our sleeve. Don’t want the visitors to get bored!

Later, Dave and Karen

Even though Bloomsbury Farm closed for the season at the end of October, we remained busy making fudge for holiday gifting. Our most popular flavors this year were Maple Walnut, Chocolate Peanut Butter and (no surprise here) Pumpkin. We take the orders, make the fudge, and then ship it out for the customers. We even had an order sent to Hawaii. At first we were concerned that it wouldn’t hold up to the warm weather. But remember how cold it was here? It was even cold in Hawaii, so the fudge made it there without a problem.

If you aren’t familiar with farming, winter may seem like a slow time of year since we aren’t planting or harvesting. But now is the time of year we move the grain we harvested from the bins and haul it down to Cargill, Penford, ADM and Quaker. Our days start at about 5:30 am when we load the semi with grain from the bin, head over to the appropriate location, wait in line to unload, return home, and do it again. Actually we make about three trips a day before 5:30 pm rolls around and we call it a day. Let’s see, two semis, each holding about 900 bushels of grain, each making three trips a day—we’ll be repeating this most days until March when the planting activities start the whole process again!

Next month we start checking over the equipment to prepare for planting and the opening of Bloomsbury Farm for 2010. I’ll keep you posted on how things are going. –Dave

Just because the entertainment piece of our family business is winding down doesn’t mean my work is done. Now it’s time to focus on farming–the soybeans are done but we have quite a bit of corn yet to be harvested. After that rainy October, the warmer weather we had this November helped bring corn moisture down so it won’t have to do so much drying in our bins. We’ve begun chisel-plowing the fields to prepare them for next year (this involves using a piece of equipment, pulled behind the tractor, that digs up the soil and mixes the cornstalks in with the topsoil so they can decompose). We only chisel-plow fields that have been planted with corn that year, and we rotate the crops in our fields from year to year. If corn is planted in a field this year, then soybeans will be planted in that field next year, and vice versa.

Once harvest is over, I will spend the winter catching up on bookwork and planning for next year’s crop. This will include researching, choosing, and purchasing the different seed varieties I will plant, the various fertilizers I will use, and the herbicides I will need. I will also be busy entering into, and fulfilling contracts for corn and soybeans that I have already harvested, and even those that I have yet to plant in the upcoming year! Isn’t it amazing how times have changed and farmers can now sell their crop before they’ve even planted it? Well I sure think so, and that is actually how I sell more than half of my crops–by forward contracts.

Looking forward to 2010 . . .

From my family to yours, Happy Holidays.

Here are some of the activities I’ve been focused on:

*Making fresh fudge each week (many, many flavors including Chocolate, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie, Vanilla, Skeleton Scare, Donkey Droppings, Goat Droppings, Pralines & Crème, Rainbow Sherbet, and many more!),

*Making fresh, hand-dipped caramel apples, caramel apples with nuts and caramel apples dipped in chocolate.

*Picking large pumpkins, small pumpkins, mini pumpkins, and gourds.

*Entertaining field trips that visit the farm during the week, and public and corporate outings that visit on the weekends.

*Organizing the “haunters” that come out for Scream Acres.

*Keeping the Sugar Shack & Gift Shop organized and well-stocked with sweets and treats.

*Taking care of the animals – our Holstein calf, Oreo, and Petunia the pig…she’s a big ham!

Later,

Karen, The Farmer’s Wife

• Scream Acres: We are putting the finishing touches on everything, getting ready for opening night on October 3, 2009. I’m pretty excited about this year’s attraction–or should I say attractions. That’s right, we are doing a triple-haunt attraction this year. The Curtain Chaos (you saw pictures of the red and white stripes last month), the Dread Shed and the Haunted Cornfield. I’ve been putting up the props, laying electrical cords, air hoses and mowing the trails. Every year I feel challenged to help make these haunts better than the previous year. This is one type of event that you can’t just “set and forget.” Kids love to be scared and they can’t be scared if they know what’s coming. I’m up for the challenge this year. Bring ‘em on!
• Chevy Flatbed: I’ve been working on this since last January! Each part has been sandblasted and painted. The pumpkin cannon is about ready to be sandblasted, painted and mounted on the flatbed. Those pumpkins are growing, turning from green to orange and just waiting for that cannon. (Don’t tell the wife, but I can’t wait either!)
• The Corn Maze and corn texting are already in use. Of course, there were a few glitches here and there, but we’ve figured them out. Most important is that people are having a good time.

That’s about it, unless you consider setting up fall artwork, mowing the waterways, making fudge to sell in the Sugar Shack & Gift Shop, and preparing the corn cannon for the kids to use to be more work. Don’t worry, my time is coming. Harvest is coming and I upgraded my John Deere combine. This one has so many new features I had to attend a one-day class to learn them all. Oh, the boring life (ha!) of a farmer.

Later, Dave

1. That’s us in the wooden structure, working hard on renovating the Haunted Barn in preparation of the October opening of Scream Acres. I’m also building the props for the fall haunt.
2. The old-fashioned looking water tower is part of Gemstone Mining that we had to build as part of our newest attraction. Visitors purchase a bag of mining rough from the gift shop and bring it down to the site. Water runs down a long wooden ramp and you get to mine for fossils or gemstones out of the sand. It’s pretty exciting to see what you can uncover in the water.
3. That’s blocks of hay beign pulled onto the flat-bed of the truck. We bale hay to put on top of the learning barn to feed the animals.
4. Those red and white stipes are the start of the Curtain Chaos. It’s a maze of red and white striped panels. It may not seem like much now, but most things don’t when you’re putting them together. I’ll let you be the judge of whether it is scary come October. Other things I’m working on for Scream Acres:
   • Maggot Room
   • Tool Room
   • Whiskey Still
   • Spinning Vortex

Of course, there is more going on to get ready for the pumpkin season and Scream Acres, but I’ll save that for another day. Check out the corn mazes we laid out earlier this year. This year you can bring your cell phones and receive clues through your phone on how to make it through the maze. Pretty a-mazing!!

Later, Dave