A Good Fall Day....at The Farm

I finally got a chance to get to a local farmstand last week to pick up some produce before the Winter sets in here.
It was a nice sunny, albeit chilly, day.
I hit a roadblock, literally, before I got there.  Seems PENNDOT also thought it was a nice day and chose the intersection of the road the farm is located on, where I needed to turn onto it as a great place to repair and replace the asphalt road...ugh!
So I had to find a new, scenic route to get to the farm.

But with only a short detour I did hook up with the road I needed to be on.
Usually by the end of October our trees are well past the fall peak color time and naked due to the winds.  But there have been little wind or rain this Fall, so there was some pretty foliage, like this tree I saw on the way....

It was much more striking in person I think.

Our destination is up ahead....

They have a big enclosed Pumpkin Pen here in back of the farmstand, where you can choose your squash.  That part is geared toward the little kids and it's decorated and there are things for the wee ones to do.  In order to draw the customers in, you have to cater to the kiddies....

Oh look!  One of those rare "squash-epillars"!

I hear they are hard to find in captivity....

Here's a "Self-Service" Pumpkin grader.  Find the hole your gourd fits through and pay that price.
I was in search of pumpkins for pie making so I got a wagon and help picking out my selections in a different section of the pen.  Can't you just imagine me pulling a red wagon loaded up with orange gourds?lol  I needed a nap when I got home...ugh

Instead of guessing the weight on this bad boy, they should have had a "Guess How Many Pies He Will Make?" contest. lol

After procuring my batch of pumpkins, a bushel of onions, a big batch of apples and red peppers, it was time to go pet the baby animals....

This guy let me snap his photo but wasn't interested once he found out I didn't have a snack for him.

Another standoffish customer.....what's this world coming to when the petting zoo animals are worldly and jaded?

This calf was very friendly though....and so soft since his long shaggy winter coat was coming in.
His horns were sprouting too so I don't think he'll be in the petting zoo again next year.lol
They also had a brooder of baby chicks.  Oh, to be able to bring a few of those home to raise my own eggs.  Someday......

And here's the brains of the operation....the one who keeps everyone in line and keeps things running smoothly--the farm dog.
This old boy followed me everywhere and then sat keeping guard on my car until I was ready to leave.

Business started to pick up for the afternoon as I left.  I was glad to see more support for this local farm!
I opted to take an alternate route home since the PENNDOT guys would still be stretching out the 2 hour asphalt job for the rest of the day.

Just some scenery I passed along the way home.

Not much color now but it sure beats staring at the 4 walls in the house, right?

There's nothing like a leisurely drive down a country road on a sunny day to clear your head.  Especially when you know by next month, the weather will be keeping you homebound for the forseeable future.
And the bonus is that you can bring home a bunch of fresh local produce that's a more frugal deal than buying the stuff the grocery stores truck in from much further away!

Now who's coming here to help me make pumpkin puree?

Sluggy

Happy Halloween....Are You Ready?

Except for the string of pumpkin shaped lights framing the front porch, this is all we could muster up to greet the Trick-or-Treaters this evening.
My dying potted mums(gee, the purpled ones never even bloomed fully before the cold got them)and 2 'fake' light-up jack o'lanterns.

We are pathetic....

No one got the 'umph' this year to get a real live pumpkin and carve it.  The teens are at the age where they hardly care about this kind of thing anymore....the Daughter has to work and the #2 son just wants the "Halloween Loot"....perferably Twix bars.

But our lack of Halloweenie spirit won't deter all the little and not-so little hobgoblins in our neighborhood from darkening our door as soon as the sun dips below the horizon this year. 
You see, we have a "rep"....as in reputation around here.  We are on the list of "best houses to hit" for Trick-or-Treating.
That's because we give out BIG CANDY!
No little bite-sized pieces of candy or even worse, that generic stuff in the plain wrappers.
We give out full sized candy bars and full packs of gum.  And this year, we also have, for the lucky few, KING SIZED candy bars, thanks to Rite-Aid's candy deals.
We get hit early and hit up often for "loot" and often have to turn out the light because we run out before the parade of kids is done for the night.
I would go broke if I had to pay full retail price for all that candy!
Sigh....What I do to be popular for one night a year....lol

And when I got home from my trip to the farm on Thursday with eight pie pumpkins Hubs started stroking his chin and sizing them up as carving material.  I looked him in his beady eyes and told him these are not decorating gourds, so no one lays a piece of cutlery on these babies unless the end result is to make pie, so back off Michelangelo! 


Here's hoping that only the nice ghouls and goblins surround you this year.
Happy Halloween!

Sluggy