Frogtown Blogger

We are back on track planning for the Pumpkin Patch now that the Clarion County Fair is over.  We received our new brochures in time to pass them out at the fair.  They should be appearing in tourist info racks in the region soon.
Our biggest hurdle now is finding new employees for this fall.  We [...]

We open in less than 2 months and my head is whirling with details, details ,details.   Jon and I flew over the farm on June 29 and we could see the pumpkin fields from the air really well.

New Crop for Fall 2010

With all the rain and hot, muggy weather, the pumpkins are growing by [...]

Wow, It’s hard to believe that it’s been over a month since I wrote in this blog.  What a month it’s been!  Our son, Ryan, got married in Reno, NV, on August 1.  That was a fun trip.  Besides the beautiful wedding, we visited old Virginia City and gorgeous Lake Tahoe.  Also, I finished up my chemo [...]

Things are hopping at the Stahlman Farm these days.  Paul had a week of good hay weather so the pumpkins took the back seat.  That’s not to say, we’ve totally forgotten about them though.  Last week, our 30′ x 30′ tent was delivered.  We’ll get to set it up at the Clarion County Fair, July [...]

I guess its time to start the blog saga of the 2009 Pumpkin Patch. The pumpkins are planted and our recent rains have them popping up like crazy. Paul has planted 45
varieties of pumpkins, gourds and squash. He took suggestions from our customers and poured over the seed catalogs this winter to find unique plants to grow. We also have a large quantitiy of birdhouse and snake gourds that dried out nicely this winter. We want to clean them up and have them for sale for folks who like to do crafts with them.
We’ve been throwing around a lot of new ideas for the Patch this fall. One thing would be a hay mountain for the little kids to climb on and to hold some family-oriented pumpkin
carving and painting contests. Our dulcimer players and storyteller are willing to come back. We’re looking for food vendors for both Saturdays and Sundays. Hopefully, we’ll have a 30′ x 40′ tent to protect folks from the weather.
The trebuchet pumpkin thrower was a huge hit last year and Paul is working on holding a local pumkin chunkin contest. That could be interesting!
We got exciting news last week. Farm and Ranch Magazine called us and want us to do a diary article for them centered on October 15 to November 15 this fall. paul sent an email several months back and figured that they weren’t interested when we didn’t hear anything back quickly. But they do want us! They will send in a professional photographer to do the pictures for the article. I’ve kept a diary since I was twelve so this will be easy for me. They’ll probably have to edit a bunch out. Our son Matt, of Apache Junction, AZ, will be in helping up during that time, so he’ll get to be part of the action as well. Paul is tickled to death with this development.

This evening, despite a cold rain shower and chilly breezes, the Redbank Valley High School FFA came out for a hayride and a weiner roast. The hayride was questionable for awhile while a rain shower moved through, but the sky cleared off and the hayride was on. The big attraction was the stop at the [...]