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.

Our 25th Anniversary celebration is coming up fast, on Aug. 17-18, 2019.  Hard to believe we have been running paintball games here for far longer than that. 
Registration for the 25th Anniversary is found at http://pppa.classquest.com/pppa.classquest.com/
The reunion weekend is Sat. Aug. 17, with old time semi (less than 7 b.p.s.) in the afternoon, and a BBQ supper in the evening.  Lots of stories to be shared around the firepit. Sunday Aug. 18 will be old time pump, pistol or magfed.  Everyone is welcome, but you need to register.
When we started paintball was the only thing we were trying to do.  We started PPPA with Paintball (1994), Laser Tag (2012), Photovoltaic "Solar" Array (2012), Corn Maze (2013), Pumpkin Patch (2013), Haunted House (2016), Fairy Tale Trail "Jack and the Cornstalk" (2017) and Pumpkin Music Festival (2018).  You kind of never know which way things will go.  Now our October's are are busiest time, and nothing to do with paintball, it's Haunt time.

Before we plant our pumpkins, we lay down black poly mulch, with drip line.  The black poly  warms up the soil enough to speed up harvest by 2-3 weeks, and it also improves weed control dramatically (reduces labour by over 90%), and the drip line improves water use efficiency by more than 75% reduction in irrigation water.
Seeding our pumpkins is next, with over 17 varieties, which are large to very small, orange, white, yellow, combos, bumpy or warted, and gourds too.  We love our Darlings, a small upright pumpkin, great for small jacko lanterns or in pies.
It takes lots of help and co-ordination to plant nearly 3,000 pumpkin seeds on 1/2 acre of land.
This years corn maze will surround the pumpkin patch.  Very cool.

We have some very exciting news, on Saturday May 25, 2019 between 9:00pm-11:45 pm, we will be hosting a Paintball Zombie Shoot Ride.  Tickets are $30 each, but if you buy them in advance they are $20 each.  The ticket will get you a ride on our Zombie Hunting Trailers Ride and 100 paintballs to shoot at our horde of Zombies that are infesting our Paintball field.  An extra 100 paintballs can be purchased during the ride for only $10.
We are limited to 120 spots only.  10 shooters per ride, and there are 4 rides per hour (so every 15 minutes).  It's extremely addicting to shoot Zombies, and the flash of the glow paintballs under our black lights is intense.

Pick May 25, 2019 on our Vantora Reservation system, and available times will pop up for your group size.  We do expect to sell out quickly.
If you can't get in for a time slot, we will have walk-ons after Midnight for a hour, but that will be $30 each.
We will have our usual firepit, canteen with popcorn, hot chocolate, cold drinks and snacks, and our hot kitchen with burgers, hot dogs, fries, poutine and such.

We have been working hard to improve our parking in a very limited space.  We have found 4-5 additional spots in the yard (we have around 10-12 spots if everyone parks straight and behind each other, but it's not easy), by clearing back some small brush, and moving a few things around.  It's nose in parking along the driveway.

April 18, 2019 - We had a wonderful time at the Prince Albert and District Chamber of Commerce 29th Annual Samuel McLeod Business Award banquet. 

• "The Samuel McLeod Business Awards are named after Samuel McLeod, one of Prince Albert's early settlers and entrepreneurs. Following the collapse of the La Colle Falls project in 1918, Samuel McLeod pledged his personal credit to prevent Prince Albert schools from closing.
• It is the legacy of Samuel McLeod’s pioneering spirit, entrepreneurship, civic leadership and unfailing faith in Prince Albert that we recognize in our business award recipients." Take from the Prince Albert and District Chamber of Commerce Website

Of course, it's easy to have a good time, when you win the 2019 Marketing Award.  We had submitted a lengthy application that focused on partnerships, networking, innovative (or guerilla)  advertising and a fair bit of low cost, high results marketing.
There is a good article on the P.A. Herald website called "Northern Lights Casino takes top honours at Samuel McLeod Business Awards" .  It gives a great summary of the evening, with a quote from just about all the award winners.  Great job Prince Albert Daily Herald!
The Prince Albert and District Chamber of Commerce is all about promoting local businesses, partnerships and great networking, if you are local and not a member, join up!

There was a recent article in www.panow.com by Nigel Maxwell, "P.A. businessman remembers close encounter with combine".  This article is about my accident Sept. 30, 1997, which ultimately left me with no fingers on my right hand, only the thumb came through.

I've never had an issue telling anyone about my accident. Some folks tell their children not to ask, but it's been a long time since the accident, and I'm fine helping anyone understand the dangers of farming and farm safety. Maybe it will help save some one in the future.
One day I'll write the entire story out of my accident, well I already did years ago, but I'm not quite ready to share that yet.  Likely it will include growing up in and around Prince Albert and my life story so far.  Dad dying young at 55 years old (when I was 15 years old). Tough farm women that carry on.  Story of the farm and agriculture, which shaped so much of my life.  The College of Agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan, were I met so many of my colleagues and friends.  Becoming a Professional Agrologist and eventually becoming a Forensic Agrologist (an scientist that documents spray drift and unusual damage to crops and other Ag related crops) . 
We did all the normal crazy kid stuff, except if we broke it, we had to fix it.  We never had money to buy new items, so have fun, but don't break it.  Might have to change the names to protect the guilty parties, but everyone has those stories, like bumper dragging off the old pickup, throwing water balloons on those warm June days after school, tubing at the "Red" (Little Red River Park), having a few tasty beverages around the firepit.  Those standard things we all did, but to people from around the world, and maybe not too far from our backyard, these things are almost exotic, and quite fascinating.  So I've been collect stories of youth, fun, ag, paintball, travel and high adventure.  The story of my love, my wife and why I love Kathie.  I think it will be therapeutic and maybe of interest to others so long as my story telling keeps the audience enthralled.

Exciting times, with our 25th Anniversary on Aug. 17-18, 2019.  Register at http://pppa.classquest.com  Lots of fun to be had.  $15 for the weekend before Mar. 31, otherwise it's $20 for the weekend or $10 per event (Sat. Open, Sat. Supper, Sun Pump Pistol, Magfed).
We are looking for a few past members and such, please check out the Missing page.

Sat. Aug. 17, 2019
1-5 pm
-Old Time Semi (maximum rate of fire is 7 b.p.s.)
6-10 pm
-BBQ Supper and stories around the firepit, maybe a target shoot Championship.
Sun. Aug. 18, 2019
1-5 pm
-Pump, Pistol or Magfed games.

Feb. 19, 2019 - First day of the Paintball Extravaganza (PBX) in Washington Dc started with a Field Owners Forum, before anything else.  They started these forums last year, and they are fantastic.  The topics for discussion were Drinking & Drugs (cannabis and good signage), Airsoft is still growing (lots of buyers never play), Employee Compensation and Training (S.O.P. Manual and dealing with tips), Paintball quality (better paintballs are more fragile and hurt less, cheap paintballs hurt more, most field switch years ago to better paintballs).
While to number of vendors and attendees were down at the PBX, there was a very optimistic vibe from those here.  Maybe all the whiners didn't show up.  Most field and store owners were here to make paintball better.
Next up was SEO Optimization with Harry Brooks, which mostly helped with what potential customers were looking for on your website, because if they don't find it, google ranks that too and knocks you down in SEO.
A very good class was "Turning website visitors into paying customers from Rusty Glaze.  Rusty has a bunch of tips to keep visitors longer on your page, by making a better website, and his company can help constantpursuit.com
Next up was our old friend Greg Hastings and marketing.  Greg is an excitable guy and gets everyone around him up too.  Greg loves critical partners and Social Media Influencers.  If you don't know who Greg is, he used to own Redz and runs Greg Hastings Paintball video games.  Of course, Greg is leading the charge of the Paintball Time Trials across the globe too.
There was a Paintball Field Owners group meeting and there seems to be a good start for a Industry Group, but it will take time.
Of course, it wouldn't be the PBX without a few drinks afterwards with fields, stores, friends and manufactures afterwards.

Feb. 18, 2019 - No sleep before the flights to Washington DC, as I usually come down the night before our 6 am flights to Saskatoon.  I arrived in Saskatoon, sat for an hour and realized I forgot my passport back in Prince Albert.  So late night drive back home, get passport and drive back just in time to get up and go to the airport 2 hours early, like they ask.  I'll sleep on the plane, for a few hours on the way to Toronto.  Clear customs in Toronto, and grab the flight to Washington DC Dulles International.  I get a "good" picture of Washington DC (usually we arrive at night, so day time is cool), easy to see the Washington Monument.  Get to the hotel, lots of friends around the lounge so I drop of the bags and return for some networking.  Run into the usual organizers Rick Chard and Thomas Ghee, and met in person Bea Paxson.  Bea has been a huge influence in paintball for years, playing on the all girl team, and having many magazine cover shots.  She is getting back in a huge way into paintball, with Team FB Destiny Paintball. and Instragram.  Cool video on Youtube about 2018 and Destiny.  Back helping with the Paintball Extravaganza too.  Plus she lives in Montana.  Hopefully, she will come for a visit and we can stop by her place sometime too.  Awesome ambassador of Paintball, Bea is!
  To be continued...