Archive for the ‘More Fun’ Category

A quick recap of the 2013 “Growing Season”

Tuesday, November 12th, 2013

“Fall 2013” is just about done for us! It has been a long time since I sat down behind the keyboard to make a blog post. I left you back on March 8th 2012, a lot happened since then. That year we had a bumper grape crop and bust of a corn maze. In 2013 we had just the opposite. If you watch the video I posted from the last post those grape buds made it just fine, then the fears I had in 2012 hit us in 2013 and we lost over 95% of our grape crop. The good news is the corn maze had the best crop ever which made for an awesome maze and a overall great “Fall”!

I took this picture of a full moon rising over they vineyard Friday May 28th as I left the corn maze field after working ground to get ready to plant it the next day.

Bad Moon Rising

Bad Moon Rising

That was not a welcome sight to me knowing what a sky can do like that when High pressure weather patterns arrive in late May. I figured we’d have a bad frost but no idea HOW bad. When my wife left the winery at 11:30pm that night there was already a light frost on the window of her vehicle.

Grape vines morning after a freeze

Grape vines morning after a freeze

The feeling a farmer gets when they look at a crop like in the one in the picture above is hard to describe. There are a lot easier ways to “make a living” but I wouldn’t trade what I do for anything. You just sorta learn things like this happen and you try and maintain a “long view” and find the positive. My father in law also lost 17 acres of sweet corn that night, but he took a gamble on trying to put some corn out in “low ground” that grows awesome crops and got burned.

Close up of "fried" grape vines

Close up of "fried" grape vines

The “Big Picture” you just keep telling yourself and keep on swimming as Dory would say (aka Finding Nemo). That same day I took the pictures of the fried grapes I loaded the corn planter and got busy planting the 2013 corn maze. We had already started getting fall campfire/corn maze reservations back in April and I needed to start getting ready.

Loading the Corn Planter

Loading the Corn Planter

I like to plant the corn a bit later than you normally would so that it stays green as long as possible into the fall season for purposes of the maze. This worked well this year and I will get back to that with future blog posts just on how we do the corn maze.

Looking over the hood while planting corn

Looking over the hood while planting corn

The corn maze growing season really had its ups and downs. I have done a lot of work to the corn maze field and it paid off this year. We fixed some drainage problems and have been on a steady annual program of applying cow manure to help with both fertility and organic matter.

But the sun came up each and every morning!

But the sun came up each and every morning!

But the sun came up each and every morning! One of the reasons I do what I do is this is my view from my “office”. People work all year to get to a “place like this”, I live it everyday. Besides all the “normal” stuff we do we also embarked on a other special projects designed to make our fall destination a one of kind place and over this winter I’ll try and review the year both in projects and all the special events we do.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you enjoy your trip to our farm as I cover some of the things we do.

Time as a family!!

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

Post by Cara Bakan (Daughter #1!)

Disney Cruise Ship

At the Bahahamas!!

Although my mom and dad work a lot, and we somthimes don’t get to spend as much time as a family that we’d like. We took a really big vacation this spring, and we got to go on the brand new disney dream! As a kid I have been to disney 4 times, many of which when I was little.

Top deck at night

Top deck at night

I wasn’t sure how the cruise ship was going to be, or if I was going to like the vacation. But I did discover, that the magic of Disney is still there for me! It really made our vacation truly, magical. And yes, even at almost 18 years old, I STILL have fun with my mom and dad. I know that everything that they do is for us!

A "Angle" 4 Brett!

A "Angle" 4 Brett!

#tweetup,#agritourism,#farm,#cornmaze,#wine,#winery

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Hashtag this and hashtag that, I don’t even like hash you say?? That is what you call the “pound sign” we used to call it when you use it in front of a word in a “tweet”.

Isn’t that something that Elmer Fudd used to eat? Or was that Bug Bunny? Or could it even be used in say Green Eggs and Hash? Just say “Hash” and if you get “that far away look in your eye” as Jim Staford sang back in the day about the “Wildwood flower” and there is a whole other meaning.

So what is a Tweet Up you ask, well I asked the same thing and the folks at The Karcher Group (TKG) had the answers. In fact is was they who suggested the whole thing I think.

Since we do use Social Media a fare bit as a business tool and we have developed a great working relationship together the gang at TKG thought we were a good location to host such an event. If you follow us at Maize Valley you know we are sort of a winery with ADHD and are always out there testing the boundries and trying new stuff. This is an example of that.

As an agricultural based business we are also in the forfront of many new marketing techniques and blending of customer demographics. Farmers have always been great innovators of technology. That is why you don’t pay much for your food. I know most people think of us as simple bib overall wearing hayseed chewing worker types which is true. But did you know we had satelite guideance systems in our combines 12 years ago?

We use Face book and Twitter to reach new guests and keep our many friends, customers, and collegues informed as to “What’s coming up, Down on the Farm”. Come check us out!

http://www.tkg.com/maize-valley-tweetup-oct09

Tweetup Thursday with @FunTsar & @KarcherGroup at Maize Valley! http://bit.ly/mvtweetup #MVtweetup

Corn Maze/Agri-Tourism & Ohio Civil War History Come together @ Maize Valley

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
Kay making first grid pass for 2009 Corn Maze

Kay making first grid pass for 2009 Corn Maze

Our 2009 Corn Maze Adventure is off and running!! This year’s theme is the Civil War. We are hosting a re-enactment here at Maize Valley on August 15th and 16th. We are even bringing out a limited edition wine for that weekend with a special lable recognizing the two battles that were fought in Ohio and the respective commanders. We plan on having the maze open by that weekend providing the weather cooperates.

I have placed a few videos at the bottom of this post to quickly walk you through how we have gotten started to date. I hope to put together a more edited version for teachers if I can find the time. We get so many questions as to how do you create those corn mazes? I hope this helps answer a few questions our guests might have. We use a GPS guided cutting system as well, more on that later.

We have partnered with Maze Quest this year for a new interactive game inside the maze as well. More details will be coming soon keep an eye on the website or suscribe to our e-mail list for more info.

Wagon rides, pumpkins and so much more make Maize Valley THE Place to Be!! And just one more way we Make Great Wine…FUN!!

Last Sunday’s Fun

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

One Awesome Bike!!

One Awesome Bike!!

Bikes always gather here

Bikes always gather here

Just had to give a shout out about the way cool, good time I had on the bike last weekend. Only put on about 300 miles but still hit some real nice twisty turns down around Leesville and the Atwood lake region too.

Animal Rescue of sorts

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Pork Chop enjoying breakfast

Pork Chop enjoying breakfast

Chip Chop and Pork Chop getting Breakfast

Chip Chop and Pork Chop getting Breakfast

You may have seen our lovely pigs on the website, There names are Chip Chop and Pork Chop. They came to us as sort of a “rescue of sorts”. Last summer a gentleman over the hill had a bit of trouble with the law. As a result he got to spend some time away from home. When he left on his “unscheduled vacation” the group of animals he had at home got left behind. Some of the people who came to help involved in “animal wellfare” found value in the chickens and other marketable and useful animals but these two pigs did not get any love and were just let go.

Well they lived right next to the vegtable fields of the “Hartville Swamps” and being summer they had quite the selection to chose from but the local produers did not like it so much, so they got ran off. I got a phone call late one Sunday night wanting to know if I wanted A pig. After twisting my arm I agreed and loe and behold one turned into two upon arrival and the rest is history.

These guys are so ugly they are cute and have found a home at Maize Valley’s Petting Pasture. The pics here show my wife Michelle giving them breakfast. They prefere white bread over wheat, and saved the Blue berry pie for desert.

Todd and Jessie were out in the vineyards yesterday tieing and pruning hope to have more about that later.

I gotta go get something done today! Awesome weather and I hope to get enough done so I can go out and ride the VStrom some this weekend.