Frogtown Blogger

It’s 2 days before Opening Day and things are hopping at the Stahlman Farm.  Paul hired help this week and last week to pull things into shape and the farm is being transformed.  It’s amazing what some mowing and trimming can do for the looks of the place.  The pumpkins are pretty much ready.  We’re not going to have huge quantities like last year, but we’ll have enough to sell.    All sizes, shapes and colors are being picked this week and they are just beautiful.

On Saturday, we had a crew of helpers in to raise our new 30′ x 30′ tent.  Well, its new to us.  The tent is a used one that we were able to get for  a reasonable sum.  Since Paul allowed the Clarion County Fair to use it in July, it needed to be scrubbed. Using a mixture of Murphy’s Oil Soap and 100% Mineral Spirits, they went all over it and got it looking pretty good.  Raising it was quite the cooperative effort.  I could see why Paul was wanting a bunch of strong guys around.  They  did a lot of tugging and pulling to get it taunt enough to withstand the wind.  It was an exciting moment when the center pole went up  and the whole thing took shape.  We’ll be able to put all our picnic tables , the corn box and our entertainers under it.

We got two piglets yesterday for our barnyard zoo and I named them Homer and Jethro.  Nice farm names.  We’ll be getting a very young Holstein bull calf today.  Paul will be bottle feeding it for awhile.  Since we had around 20 lambs born this summer, Paul has lots of cuties to choose from.  Penny, the nanny goat, and her two babies, Pumpkin and Petunia, will also be included in the zoo.  Unfortunately, we found Pete, the billy goat, drowned in the pond on Saturday.  What a mystery!  We’ve never ever heard of animals drowning, at least on this farm.  Paul had him running with the sheep this summer to curb his fathering instincts.  We all decided that the sheep hated him so much that they pushed him in.  Who knows?  It might be true.

Got to get back to work.

Linda