Growing and Mowing!!!

Well the corn maze is up a little over six inches so Mom will be cutting it with the lawn mower sometime this week.  As soon as we know the definite shape of it, I'll post a picture!!!  Pumpkin plants are up and looking great!!!  On our schedule this week we're weeding the pumpkin field, cutting the corn maze and monitoring the mums.  So far the mums are doing awesome as well.  Let's just hope we keep getting enough rain and the bugs don't start destroying everything.

Dirt, Babies, and Frying Pans

It has been one jam packed week here on the farm.  We actually got 5250 dirt pots filled between last Friday and Wednesday!  We had to check our four mum fields for water leaks and fix the problems we found, and then all the little "babies" arrived in 11 boxes on Wednesday.  We hired two of my friends from school to come out Thursday and Friday to help us plant all 5250 cuttings.  I'm in the process of developing a video that shows the entire process and will post it as soon as it is ready!  Oh frying pans, so our mum field is made up of this black groundcover to prevent weeds from growing up around the mums and so we don't have to mow around them.  Contrary to popular belief, it does not create a glare when the sun shines on it.  However, it reflect heat off of it.  So if you are standing on it during the heat of the day it's like a frying pan.  Hence how we all learned you can get sunburn on the back of your knees while standing lol  More funny stories and pictures to follow, I'm off to make strawberry jam! 

Dirt pots, Strawberries, and Pumpkins

Hello Everyone!  Well we've been extremely busy with planting pumpkins Friday, filling almost 3500 mum pots with dirt, I've begun making strawberry jam, little Anthony turned 1 month old late last week and celebrating Father's Day with Dad.  Life is at its best when you live it to the fullest!  We've also been very blessed with rain to water the newly planted 2 acres of pumpkin and it has watered down our dirt pots to where we don't have to worry about them blowing over when we put them in the field.  Our mum cuttings arrive Wednesday so we will be hitting it hard this week and hopefully as of Saturday everything will be out and planted in the field!  Pictures and more to follow!

Patch Update!

It has been a jam packed full week!  Started off with Sarah and I off to State FFA convention Tuesday morning for three days.  I got to have my mum project featured on stage for winning a State Proficiency! It was really exciting and Mom and Dad got to come up to go across stage with me!

Then Mom was down in Elkton, KY Wednesday with Grandpa picking up all of the dirt and pots.  She left at 5:00 and got back at 5:00.  And then this morning we busily started fill pots.  We got 1350 filled today!!!!  Everyone helped from the oldest (me) to the youngest (Peak Boo).  For security reasons, Mom will not let me use the little kids' names on here but I'll use their nick names. 

 

Peak Boo watched us for a little while and then jumped right in by picking up a pot and putting it in line with the rest!  She'll be 3 in September.

 

Buddy is so hard working, he'll skip playtime to help us with work on the farm.  We learn something every year and this year we got smart and gave every kid a pair of sunglasses so they wouldn't complain about dirt blowing in their eyes.

 

 

Jammin out to 94.1!  We decided the neighbors might enjoy hearing the radio instead of us trying to sing our own songs.

 

We usually have one or two kids filling pots, one kid setting out new pots and the little kids carry them away.

 

 

The bales of dirt come in stacks on pallets that we always have to get down and break open.  It's lots of fun climbing on the piles!

 

We take our work veeeerrryyy seriously lol

 

Got to love Missy and Buddy!

 

Mom and Uncle Brian are planting pumpkins right now so I'll tell you all about that tomorrow!  TTFN!!!!!

What Have We Been Up To????

 

Everything was pretty slow around the patch till about the end of May. Then we got to start planting our corn maze, the pumpkins, and getting ready to plant the mums. We have ordered our mum supplies, like potting mix, pots and fertilizer, from Deerfield's Supply in Elkton, KY. Grandpa and Mom will be driving down there next Wednesday to pick it all up. We planted our Corn Maze about a week ago and yesterday Mom sprayed the corn field with a herbicide to prevent weeds. Also Uncle Brian is coming up on the fourteenth to assist us in planting our 2 acre pumpkin field.

Along with all of these business things to keep us on our toes, we also have had an addition to our family. There are now 10 of us Country Kids! We were blessed with Baby Anthony back in the second week of May. Mom and him are doing wonderful and Mom is already back in the action helping with everything she can. The mum cuttings are arriving the nineteenth so we will be pretty busy the next two weeks with filling dirt pots and getting the mum field ready to go.

 Event though it is hard work it brings our family closer together and is teaching us the real meaning of hard work. And I have learned how much hard work can pay off! Back in April I had the opportunity to compete at the Illinois FFA State Proficiency competition and I placed first in the Specialty Crop award area with my mums! My project will be featured on stage at the Illinois State FFA Convention this next Tuesday.

More to come, I plan to post at-least once a week!