The Chunkin for the Cure Cannon

I even snuck a quick ride in over the the Atlantic Shore

I even snuck a quick ride in over the the Atlantic Shore

Cammo coat and a wedding dress!

Check out the Porta-Jon in the back of the pickup truck!

When you run out of Horse shoes

I just have a “wanna beee” beard! I’m the one on the right!

Move over “Corn Hole”, when in Rome…

Awesome

Improvised field games

Take corn cobs, black electricians tape, beer bottles, add corn field and friends!

Finally a good use for a Harley!

I had a Daiquiri for Breakfast and $$’s went to St. Judes!!

Above are just a few of the shots that made people watching at this event as much fun as watching the pumpkins fly!

The following video is way too long, sorry. Just drag and drop to the last 30 seconds or so to see the shot.

Really BIG Iron!

Yea

Multi tank and stage cannons

What else can you say?

Big Air Cannons

You can visit their link I have with the pics above to get the history to how all this got started but as you can see it has just gotten way out of control. Just as it should, I hear there are some machines here that have around $400,000.00 invested in them. That was just the word on the street, uh er chunkin line, I can’t say for sure.

My little air cannon (pictured below) has about a 20 foot 8 inch diameter barrel. It was a grain leg drop tube used for filling bins back in the day when we were a grain storage facility. The tank I found at a propane supplier that was surplus material, and so goes much of the rest of the parts. I have a range of about 2500 feet, these big guys much more with a bigger pumpkin too!

Marlboro Madness Maize Valley Pumpkin Cannon

Low buck, safe, make a profit was my motivation these guys take it too a whole other level. I think Tim Allen would be proud! Again you can go to the Science Channels website or You Tube to see more but I will put a video clip here that I took at the event. It is sort of long and the shot takes place towards the end (1:45) as when you are filming them you never quite know when it is going to go off.

Next post, “The People” at the Chunk!

Hanging out by their sound stage

Well this is post #2 of my journey to the Pumpkin Chunkin World Championships near Bridgeville DE. I am making several posts to show a spectators view of the chunk. I went as both a spectator and someone who built and owns a air cannon.

We have had ours for 5 seasons now and I am looking at expanding our fall events. One possible option is to create a chunk of our own on a smaller scale.

One thing about this event that struck me immediately is the sheer scale. It is just plain HUGE! From the Highway dept. signs you see coming in from miles away, the huge parking area and number of people working it, the walk to the grounds, big, just way big.

My first impression was that this event has a feel to me of a combination of events I am familiar with. If you are a Buckeye like me consider this. Combine the Farm Science Review, Hinneygate/Tailgate party, with a trip to the pumpkin patch and you begin to understand what I was walking into.

The Big Guns on the firing line

I have sooooo much to tell about this event I rode out to see that I can’t squeeze it into just one blog entry! I would try, but my man Corey over at The Karcher Group (TKG) who helps with all my web stuff says “take it easy, post less content per entry but do it more often if you have a lot to say”.

That being said I am going to roll this story out in stages. Here is the approach and long view of the grounds, (over 200 acres plus parking) then we will get to more details later. You can also go to the Science Channel Web site to learn more too.

As many of you know we have been throwin pumpkins at our place for a number of years now. The main reason I went to the “Mother of all Chunks” is to see how a event like this works, feels, and rolls.

My wife Chelle and I are going through a battle with breast cancer and I thought to start a similar event at Maize Valley on a smaller scale just might be a great way to raise funds, awareness and have fun doing so.

A special thanks goes out to John Huber president of the Pumpkin Chunkin association for helping me learn more about this great event.

Stairway to Corn Maze Heaven

Fresh Paint makes everything look good!

At Maize Valley We Make Great Wine…FUN!!! At least we try! We are a muscular destination for food, fun and friends. Part of that involves our harvest season activities. This year we celebrate our 10th annual corn maze adventure. The preparation for that starts now.

This year we have moved our stair steps back into the maze itself and gave them a fresh coat of paint too. Another new addition this year is we have hired the folks over at Maze Quest to help us upgrade our corn maze experience with new games, activities and a whole new interactive text message game too! Stay tuned for more updates. Here are a few videos below for you to see how to “Go Green”

Wagon Rides, Pumpkins and so much more Make Maize Valley THE Place To BE!!! Where else can you sip a class of award winning wine, watch a pig race, see a pumpkin fly and who knows what else??!!

Come on out a build some memories to last a lifetime and see how at Maize Valley, We Make Great Wine…FUN!!!

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Pork Chop enjoying breakfast

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.

2007 Suzuki DL 1000 VStrom

Years before I sold my motorcycles when we had kids. But with Mary Ellen leaving our lives so early I decided I did not know what was around the next corner. So in 2007 I bought a brand spankin new Suzuki DL 1000 VStrom!

Yea we work a lot here on our farm, market and winery but I try and always remember to have some fun two. The reason I say “two” the VStrom is one of the baddest, most kick but TWO cylinder bikes on the road. Or in this bike case off road too as it can carve the “twisties”, climb the gravel roads, then hit the pavement and run up towards 140mph!

I feel the Need, the Need for speed.

My 1952 Ford F5 work truck

The chiller is used in the wine making process to “freeze” the wine or at least hold it at a low enough temperature for a period of time to get the solids that are in the wine to precipitate or “fall out” of the suspension. Mostly we are trying to get the tartaric crystals to fall out in our bulk tanks so they don’t end up in the bottom of the bottle. Native American grapes (Niagara, Concord, Catawba) tend to create a great deal of these crystals and are very prone to ending up with them in the bottom of the bottle especially if the wine goes through a number of cooling and warming cycles before it is enjoyed.

It depends upon the type of wine you are drinking as to the benifits or perceived problems these crystals in the wine create. Follow the link above to learn more.

Saturday I was happy to get out and finish up spraying the grapes that were ready for this summers weed crop. Weeds like death and taxes are sure to come. We still have some more grafted grapes to uncover yet to spray later. We try and not use any more crop protection products than we have to, but after I had to weed eat 7 acres of grapes for 3 days in the 90 degree heat of August last year I am NOT going to let our lovely little vines get choked by some nasty ole’ weeds!! I also cared for the Raspberries and Apple trees too.

That is all the wine news today, the more probably deals with Galen chasing a would be thief from our old dairy farm as he was trying to make off with some our our bakery racks we had in storage. Probably after the aluminum, as some copper pipe was also gathered near the door.

Also working on the trucks for our upcoming “Farmers’ Market” season too. Putting a new canopy system on my 52′ Ford F5 I think it is going to be way cool.

For me the FunTSAR Monday like many of you involves getting after new marketing ideas, ad approval and all that paper work stuff. My wife and I woke at 2:30am to hear our son Brett playing “Monster Jam” on the Wii! He is autistic but does very well, however he can’t tell between 2:30 & 6:30 he just thought it was time to get up and thought he would get a game in or two before school. Needless to say nobody got back to sleep very well after that for some reason, and he is home with a cold today from school.

Well gotta go and stop by grandma’s and pick up Brett and take him home so he can catch some ZZZZZZ’s, maybe I can too!

Hakuna Matata