Pumpkin patch owner back home after accident

As the wife of a farmer and co-owner of a pumpkin patch, Janet Schaake made a prediction Saturday afternoon.

“There will be pumpkins this fall,” she said.

Larry Schaake concurred from the bed a few feet away, on his back wearing a neck brace and with bandages covering third-degree burns from the knee down on his left leg and foot. Fewer bandages were on his right leg, where skin was used for grafting.

“Even though our main person is down and out, the kids have kept it going,” Janet said.

With an immediate response, Larry added his views on the family’s Schaake Pumpkin Patch, now in its 30th year, and the whirlwind that entered their lives July 13.

“It’s a family deal. It’s not just one person,” Larry said of the farm about two miles east of Lawrence with property along the Kansas River.

Schaake injured himself in an accident while spraying pesticides about 11 a.m. July 13. He returned home Thursday after more than two weeks in the University of Kansas Hospital burn unit in Kansas City, Kan.

Larry Schaake, shown on his tractor in fall 2004, was injured July 13 when his ATV fell on him on his farm near the Kansas River, about two miles east of Lawrence. He returned home Thursday after more than two weeks in the hospital.

Schaake explained that his all-terrain vehicle encountered washed-out ground near the river bank that morning. As he jumped off the vehicle, the ATV landed on top of his left leg, and he was stuck in a hole about 5 to 6 feet deep.

“It was just a farming accident,” Schaake said matter-of-factly.

His daughter, Shari Schaake, who found him about three hours later, said her dad thought ahead as he sat trapped in the heat that day. He tinkered with electric units on the ATV’s motor to keep a spark from igniting. As he drained nearly half of the vehicle’s fuel, some contacted his skin, causing second- and third-degree petroleum burns on about 15 percent of his body. Hours later, he finally heard another ATV motor.

“I was glad to hear them,” he said of his daughter’s rescue.

After a preliminary examination at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Schaake spent the next two weeks in Kansas City receiving treatment for his burns. He also cracked two vertebrae in his neck, and doctors amputated three outside toes on his left foot and removed one foot bone. No other bones broke.

“He’s got tough bones I guess,” Shari said.

As the healing process begins, Schaake doesn’t dwell on the incident.

“I don’t look back on things very much. I just look ahead, to tell you the truth,” he said.

But since July 13, Schaake said he was grateful for the help he received from the medical community and friends and neighbors. His daughter is certain he will still play a role in the family’s pumpkin crop from the “supervisor’s chair.”

Two friends also have offered to help with trucking for the fall harvest, Janet said.

“That’s one good thing about a rural community: sticking together. You’ll catch them helping each other out a little bit more so than in regular business,” Larry said.

And as the couple’s four grown children begin to bring home the family’s fall pumpkin harvest, Janet predicted a good crop in time for Halloween. While Larry will probably miss being active in the fall, he wants to focus on his recovery and walking again.

“The whole thing was kind of overwhelming. You realize how insignificant you are, and it is just mind-boggling how lucky we are, especially in this country, to have people who help us,” he said.