Pumpkin Planting Day

We planted the pumpkins on June 11th. It was a busy day, and we started at about 8:00 am. We had a group of 12 people and it took us 7 hours total. We figured that we planted about 12,000-15,000 seeds! We doubled the size of the field we had last year, and we have 8 varieties growing instead of just 2 we had last year. The varieties are: Sugar, Connecticut Field, Howden, Big Max, Lumina, Cinderella, Jack be little, and Atlantic Giant. So far they are coming up great!

Just one of many holes dug that day!

2 seeds per hole

A cute little "helper"

Don't worry, these won't grow blue pumpkins! These are treated Lumina seeds. They are treated to help prevent disease, and so the squirrels won't want to eat them. This was the only variety we planted with treated seeds, so we'll see if it makes a difference.

More seeds!

Getting later in the afternoon

My friend Kelli on the left, me on right. We worked in teams. Our legs were sore the next day!

Turning on the drip line to water the newly planted seeds.

Look at those handsome boys! Friends on left and middle, our oldest son on the right.

Our twin boys were quite the team!

I am smiling because we are ALL DONE!

 Of course, we have the usual obstacles of rabbits and squirrels and there are a lot of weeds coming up this year! Way more than last year at this time. It is overwhelming! The kids and I have been out weeding almost every morning this week, we weeded as a family a few evenings. We had a few friends helping, yet we still weren't making the progress we needed to. So we gathered a crew of our friends teenage kids to make some money and help us get more done. In 3 hours we got just as much done as it took our whole family all week! Many hands make light work, right?

The weeding crew - hard working and awesome!

Pretty Little Horses

After boarding horses for a while now, but not having any of our own, we finally were able to get two horses!

                                                                     Meet Phillip-

and Tinkerbell

Phillip is a 10 year old male miniature horse. He is a little shy, but sweet.

Tinkerbell is a 3 year old female Shetland. She is curious and friendly, but can be picky about who can handle her and how. She is still a little skittish too.

We have had them for about a month, and they are doing well and getting used to it here. They did really well during a few field trips we recently had and were letting kids pet and feed them. We don't ride them yet, but hope to be able to in the future.  

Best buddies

Although Phillip is older than Tinkerbell, as you will notice in the picture above, he is quite a bit smaller than her!

Pretty Ponies!

Little Luke

We got a male jersey calf from a dairy in Fallon! His name is Luke, and he is so stinkin' cute! We actually got two calves at the dairy. They sell them really cheap because they aren't wanted like the females. The only thing is that they take them right off their moms, so they are weak and sometimes sick. It is a total chance whether they will live or not. So we do the best we can and give them a comfortable home in the barn and bottle feed them, hoping they will make it.
 One of the calves named Rex made it almost 2 weeks. Unfortunately, he took a turn for the worse and died. We were so sad, but we realize that sometimes death is part of what we have to deal with living on a farm. We are so thankful to still  have Luke, and hope he continues to thrive. Here is our oldest son feeding Luke.

When we first got him, we had to help him a lot with the bottle. We would put him in a "head lock" until he would latch on, then he would get the hang of it and suck on it. Now he guzzles a whole bottle really fast!

Spring Chicks!

We got 40 new chicks! They are now about 1 month old, and are growing fast! One of our sons was already running an egg business, and he got 10 new chicks. Then our twins decided they wanted to join his business, so they each bought 10 (with their birthday money). I got 10 to add to the family flock. Here are some pictures of them when some were only 3 days old, some were 1 1/2 weeks old.

These are the 3 day old ones. There are Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rocks, and White Leghorns.

So tiny.....

so fluffy....

and so cute! 

Look at those feet

These are the ones that were 1 1/2 weeks old, so only a week older than the others. Look how much bigger they are! They really grow fast, and a week makes a huge difference.

The boys are excited about raising these chicks, and about selling eggs. The chicks will start laying at the end of summer, so if you are interested in buying fresh eggs in the future leave a comment and we will contact you when they are available!

Expansion

This winter Cameron is adding a water line into the pumpkin patch field! We are going to expand the size of our pumpkin patch so we can grow more. Plus we will be planting more varieties of pumpkins, including luminas, cinderellas and some BIG ones.

New Additions to the Farm

We recently added 2 unique animals to our farm.  Please welcome Gandalf and Aragorn  - our Emus! (pronounced ee-moo or ee-mew)
Emus are very interesting birds.  They will eat just about anything, are very curious and like to play in water.  See the pictures below. 
Emus are from Austrailia and are the 2nd largest flightless bird, (the largest are Ostriches).  Emus are very friendly but their curious nature causes them to peck at most things (which is anoying if you happen to be in their pen fixing something).  They can run very long distances at a time and can sprint up to 31 mph. Emus have a nail on their toes, like a knife, which is used in kicking away predators.  They can go a long time without food, which is good because the boy emus will sit on the emu eggs until they hatch.

That is one big bird bath!

 

Sold out and closed for the season...

We had a tremendous turnout during October, and are so amazed by the support of our community! Thank you to all who came and enjoyed. We will definitely do this again next year, and yes, we will plant more pumpkins! We weren't sure what to expect, but we sold out of good pumpkins a week before we closed! So thanks to the Lattin Farm in Fallon, we were able to order some pumpkins from them to have enough for our last week. We again sold out of those by the end of Nevada Day, one of our busiest days! Here is the field pretty picked over.

And a special thanks to friends who helped work many hours to make it GREAT!

Jacob

Kalynn and Janelle

Connie

...and a few not pictured, Kelli and Summer - you guys are awesome! Of course my husband who did a ton of work behind the scenes, and our kids who were very hard working, helpful, and patient with our busy schedule!

So see you next year, and stay tuned for occasional farm updates!