Due to the cold weather likely for the last 2 weekends for the Haunt season, we are making some changes to dates and times.
Social Distancing and Covid-19 Restrictions
Our new line ups seem to be working well for processing customers through quickly and safely.  Please remember to dress warmly, as we have very limited area around the firepits to warm up.  We are enforcing fairly aggressively social distancing of groups.  If you are with a group, please identify and stay with them.  So far, masks are not mandatory, but are encouraged.  We will need to sanitizer your hands before entry.  Please follow all staff instructions for your, our safety and the general public.
New hours
(if you come 20 minutes before the start of the next Haunt phase, you will be automatically bumped to the next phase)
Fridays
7-8 pm - Scary Haunt.
8-11 pm - Very Scary Haunt and Boneyard.
Saturdays
2-7 pm - Family Corn Maze.
7-8 pm - Scary Haunt.
8-11 pm - Very Scary Haunt and Boneyard.

 Covid-19 restrictions are still in place for all events. 

• Stay home if you are sick.  (forehead temperature checks will be in place)
• Continue to practise everyday preventive actions in the new normal, including:
  • Practising proper cough and sneezing etiquette (into a tissue or the bend of your elbow);
  • Washing your hands often with soap and water; if soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer;
• Maintain a two metre distance with people who are not in your extended household group.

• Paintball is open but has limits of only 1 group per day, and maximum 20 players, and no spectators (so please do not bring guests that are not playing).
• Laser Tag is closed for the remainder of the year.
• Pumpkin Patch will be open shortly and we hopefully will have 20 different varieties (large, small, tiny, orange, yellow, white, pink, blue, black warted, sugar and such).  Lots of small gourds too.
• Corn Maze (non-scary) is family oriented, we can accept reservations, and will be open after the long weekend in Sept.  Perfect for Pre-school and School groups.
• Haunted Corn Maze, Haunted House, and new this year is the Boneyard.  On the last 3 weekends of Oct. on Fridays and Saturdays.  Oct. 16,17,23,24,30,31
• Fridays 5-7 pm - Regular Corn Maze (non-scary)
• Saturdays 2-7 pm - Regular Corn Maze (non-scary)
• Friday and Saturday - 7 -9 pm Scary Maze (prices do go up), 9-11 pm Adults only - extra scary
• All Evening pass available from 7-11 pm

Looks like we are part of Phase 4.1 for Paintball, but Laser Tag is part of Phase 4.2.  4.1 could be end of June, but 4.2 will be later.  Hopefully, the Haunted Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch will be open in the fall.
We will have a number of restrictions in place.

• If you feel unwell, have a cough or a fever, please do not participate today. For the health and safety of our staff and customers, we ask that you leave our facility, self-isolate, and seek medical attention.
• Use online waivers when possible.
• Use hand sanitizer as soon as you enter staging area.  Hand sanitizer if provided for your use. We encourage you to wash your hands often, as per Health Canada guidelines.
• Please maintain 2m or 6.5 feet physical distancing at all times, both on and off the field.
• If you have to sneeze or cough, make sure it's into your elbow.
• Your equipment has been cleaned and disinfected prior to your arrival at our park.
• Your mask is your safety device. It has been cleaned and disinfected, and has sat unused for 72 hours to ensure your safety. Please keep your mask on at all times when on the playing field.
• Please do not share your equipment with others. Your equipment is for your use only for the duration of your visit to our park.
• Please do not pick up or handle anyone else’s equipment. If you are concerned that someone else has touched your equipment, please inform our staff and they will re-sanitize your equipment, or replace it for you.
• We will have barriers between picnic tables.
• Disposable cleaning products will be used, like paper towels or delicate task wipers.
• Extra cleaning and sanitation will be maintained.
• The HQ building will be off limits, but we can get you whatever you need, like paintballs, and canteen items for you.
• Violation of the rules will get you removed.

STAY SAFE. STAY HEALTHY. STAY #PAINTBALL STRONG.

Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) has us shutdown until Phase 4, which they estimate if all things go right the end of June 2020 is the estimated re-opening with restrictions.
Likely restrictions will be a limited number of groups and people at the field at once and social distancing too.  New improved cleaning protocols too.
More details to follow.

If you don't know who Jim Browning is, he is awesome and hacks scammers.  They are called "scam baiters", I love these guys and what they do to help with the scamming problem.  He just helped bring down one scam ring in Delhi India, and he documented in 4 YouTube videos.  Less than 1 hour to watch all parts, and it's awesome.
When a scammer tried to hack his computer, he reversed the hack and found their location, their cctv camera, and identified the employees and bosses, basically everything.  It's a fascinating how much work he did, and connections and how he got them.
Link to Part 1: https://youtu.be/le71yVPh4uk
Link to Part 2: https://youtu.be/uV-qa9M-o4E
Link to Part 3: https://youtu.be/jTXN9iTKHc8
Link to Part 4: https://youtu.be/G15xjQM-rGc [Released 23/03/2020 @ 20:30 GMT]
Eventually a BBC news crew does a story on this scam, and actually travel to Dehli, and when their news story broke, the local police saw it, and made a raid and arrests.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ9LU.... Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rmvh...
Way to go Jim!

Many people ask me, "Is it hard to learn to shoot left handed after my accident?".  My accident happened Sept. 30, 1997, were I lost my 4 fingers on my right hand.  I've been playing paintball since 1987.
Simple answer is, I always shot with both hands, and you should too.  When you come around a bunker on the right side, your marker should be in your right hand, also if you come around a bunker or building on your left side, switch your marker to the left hand.  You produce a much smaller target.  Also learn to tuck your elbow in too.
I shoulder my marker left or right depending on the situation, which does reduce my profile, best that I can now.  The more you practice with both hand, the better you are going to be.
Simple advise, but it will improve your game.  You should target shoot on the range with your off hand too.

I did a little scanning of some old aerial photographs of the farm / Paintball Paradise.  I few things stand out, like the house, big barn, granaries or bins, and how lush the bush is.  The first year of the corn maze was 2013, and we wrote "Paintball Paradise" in the maze as the path.  I had a helicopter over fly the farm with me taking pictures, (very cool), but the windows are bubbles, and not flat, so you get some the the reflection and curves in the 2013 pictures.  You can see in the background how much water is surrounding the Big Barn on 2 sides, and maybe a bit of the 3rd.  The fall was really dry in the corn, and there is still that much water by the Barn.  The corn maze was only 2 acres, now it's 4 acres.

2013 looks very wet, and the water was right up to the edge of the Speedball Field, and had flooded over it a bit, so a sandbag and earth blocks were started to be put into place.  No 3 steel bins on the bin field, so there were moved at this point.  Yellow house is easy to spot, and the Big Barn is getting surrounded by water.  the Big Field was no able to be used by the Big Barn at this point anymore.  You can see the small bunkers in the on the Small Field, and no roof on the cattle shed.  And not much for trees north of the Bin Field.  The Spruce trees there are now 10' tall, maybe 3' tall.  Solar panels now show up on the right.
From 2008 below.

2008 has an awesome shot from the east, looking west.  It highlights the old castle walled Speedball (enhanced with some inflatable bunkers), cool looking Bin Field (pre-Castle), and a nice shot of the Small Field (roof still on cattle shed), that has since been over grown with more and larger trees.  The Big Barn has a green tin roof, and easy to spot the yellow house.  Three steel bins too, and the wooden bins are looking more grey with the millions of paintballs shot.  I really like this picture in the fall, with some nice fall colours of yellow, and beautiful swath patterns in the field of canola, and the water is receding alot.  In 2014, the water expands so much that if we didn't build a dike along the speedball fields edge, 1/2 the Bin field would be under water, and the Speedball field was completely flooded for 4 years.  We just replanted the grass on the old Speedball field in 2019, with the water down about 3 feet in depth.  The water rose 4 feet in 2014.  That';s a lot of water. Next up is a cool winter shot in 2002.

2002 has no green tin roof on the Big Barn.  Yellow house is easy to see.  This shot is looking north from the south.  The Speedball field was made of round bales on the right, which I think make the best bunkers, no mess, no cleaning, and no rub of the bunkers.  Plus it was always fun to watch players chasing each other around the bales.  You can see small wooded bunkers on the Small Field on the bottom right, and small wooden bunkers in the Big Field behind the house, and the stack of tires along the north ridge of the Big Field.  The wooden Bins look red still, they slowly fade to grey with the paintball shots over the years.  Next up is 1997.

1997, this shot in the fall was the last year that I ran a combine of the fields, it was the fall that I lost my fingers on my right hand in a combine accident.  I suspect this picture was take just days before my accident.  Yellow house is easy to see.  Only 1 steel bin.  The front extra parking area is full of equipment for the farm.  Looks like most of the garden has been harvested.  The willows planted just 3 years before, around the water field look to be 10 feet tall already.  Most of the sloughs look fairly dry.  Next up is 1980.

1980, so this is a black and white photo (there are some white scratches on the left side), that has been hand painted for colour.  the color photos of the 1970's would fade really badly, so in some cases the old buildings are just left nature black and white.  The grain bins were painted red later, but never with one trim.  Mom always liked to have sunflowers at the end of the garden, and show up nicely in this picture.  Dad was still alive and ran the farm with Mom.  Dad passed away in 1982 (aged 55), so we brothers all became farmers after that.  There was much more bush then, as Dad knocked down a lot of trees (10 acres) in 1981, west side of the Big Field and east side of the Small Field.  This is from before we even knew about paintball.  Yellow house, Big Barn (no water anywhere near it), No Hut Bin, and the Round wooden bins are both still standing.  Likley the HQ was full of chickens, as it was a Chicken Coupe then.  The HQ was the original Lewko Homestead cabin (2 adults and 4 children) when they first arrived in 1939.  Uncle Bob was born in the barn in 1941.

We are getting ready for a wonderful 2nd Annual Pumpkin Music Festival. Includes with admission all of the below:

• The local entertainment is going to be awesome.  Bands: Friends, Little Pistolas, LJ Tyson Band and hopefully Between Brides. 
  
• The Corn Maze and tractor rides to it, and a mini bale maze too.  "Off the Cuff Improv" will be acting out Jack and the Cornstalk at 2,3,4 and 5 pm in the Corn Maze too.
• Come an meet Ashlyn George of The Lost Girl's Guide to Finding the World Ashlyn is a former Saskatchewanderer, Canadian world wanderer and adventure traveler to all 7 continents. Inspiring and teaching YOU how to travel the world on a realistic budget! @thelostgirlsguide. 
• Play a game of "Giant Checkers" with pumpkins on or 4'x4' Checker Board.  Play "Tic Tac Toe" with pumpkins too. 
• Take your picture with our pumpkins and 1937 McCormick-Deering WK-40 steel wheeled Tractor or our John Deere Model 352 Plow.  Lots of pumpkins, bales and cornstalks.

Thanks to Ruby Busse for these excellent pictures from the 2018 Pumpkin Music Festival.