Nash Ranch

I believe we've answered the age old question, "if a deer could cheat at a corn maze, would they?"

Turns out they totally would.

Oh ho ho, what have we here? I went on a walk to determine crop loss to deer this morning. It was downright awful but there are a few giants coming in strong. And I mean downright huge. I'll have to start cutting up old sheets to cover them, which I haven't had to do since 2023 and years before that.

In an unexpected bout of (generally unwarranted) optimism, I increased the size of our edible varieties patch about 50% and had some extra space. I threw some giants in and they went nuts in that old pasture soil. The downside is that now I'll have to pick them and haul them to the pumpkin patch with the little squash, just one at a time.

There's an overachiever in every group.

Seemingly overnight, all the flowers have started blooming. Stayers Quality Queens keep a gazillion bees (my estimate) on the property this time of year, so they'll all get thoroughly pollinated right away.

Early morning photos of the progress of the pumpkin patch. You can really see the various stages of growth across the fields. We finished planting all of the pumpkins and squash Saturday, which is always a huge milestone. Next, we'll plant the corn maze.

Now we're officially off to the races! This is about where we got last year before the squirrels and deer started their rampage, but so far they seem less insistent on terrorizing the sprouts.

Lots of work getting done this weekend, thanks to both sides of the family coming in and putting in the hours. We have hay going down, rows for pumpkins being put in, spreading lime to raise the soil pH, and the first irrigation for the long-season squash.

The pumpkin patch always feels so far away until there's water flowing (and you're also doing hay, there's 200 kids' birthday parties to attend, and all of your equipment breaks).

We're a little late due to the rain and incessant mechanical breakdowns, but we're finally breaking ground on Pumpkin Patch 2026, our 36th edition. The silver lining is that the soil is absolutely perfect and the cover crop had some extra time to go nuts.

After the cover crop is mowed and plowed in, we'll plane it all smooth and put in the rows for irrigation. Hopefully, we'll have it all ready by the beginning of June to start planting. I did make a few minor modifications to the varieties this year to incorporate some newer, more awesome genetics. We'll see how they do but the samples were really cool.

It feels like a bigger task than normal this year, but I swear I'll beat these old tractors into shape in time. They may be a little worn, but they are fuel efficient by modern standards, and that's kind of a big deal right now.