An Afternoon at the Farm

10/17/2015

Yesterday, Benjamin, Stacey and I went to Butler's Orchard for Pumpkin Festival Day.  We were joined by a few of our closest 200 "friends".  I think every school was there yesterday, which meant long lines for some of the things that Benjamin wanted to do.

There was a $7.00 fee for each person, which entitled you to a pumpkin the size of your head and 2 apples.  I joked with Benjamin that my ego was so big, that we'd need a really big pumpkin!

There was no shortage of hay.  It was everywhere.  There was a barn that had large stacks of hay for children as well as adults (but not me) to climb on, roll in and throw.  Some children were just grabbing big handfuls of hay, coming out of the barn and throwing the hay around.  I was the recipient of several of those handfuls.

Benjamin and Stacey went down the tube slides and went inside the hay maze.  I went into the maze at the opening where you could stand up and hay was everywhere.  Benjamin loved the maze and didn't want to leave.  But, he also wanted to take a hayride out to get his pumpkin and it was close to closing time, so we waited in line for one of the last rides.

There were no bales of hay in the trailer, just hay and more hay.  I, with help from Stacey, managed to wade through the hay to get to the back of the trailer.  I managed to sit down but when it was time to get out for pumpkin picking, Stacey had to help me stand up.  There was nothing that I particularly enjoyed about the hayride, if I could have sat on a hay bale, I think I would have liked it more.

Once in the pumpkin field, where only the small pumpkins were, I noticed how trashy people have become.  There were trash cans for you guessed it - trash.  But as we wandered around looking for the perfect pumpkins, according to Benjamin, we walked over water bottles and food wrappers.  Seriously?  There was also a lot of smashed pumpkins and I don't know if perhaps some children smashed them because it was fun, or the smashing was done at night by teenagers.

The farmer's market closed sharply at 5:30, so the three of us just got inside the store in the nick of time.  I bought seven grain bread (that's healthy right?), two apple cider doughnuts (not healthy I know, but with coffee tastes really good).  I treated myself to a carmel apple and bought chocolate covered pretzel rods for the three of us to nosh on as we drove home.

We stopped at Party City, where it was a zoo filled with people - lots of people!  Benjamin wavered a bit about what he wanted to be, but in the end decided on becoming a cowboy.  Stacey bought him the bandanna, vest, cowboy hat and spurs.  Boots will come later.

One final stop before our day was complete.  Cold Stone Creamery where I had only one scoop of birthday cake.  We took the ice cream home and put it in the freezer, while Jeff fixed all of us scrambled eggs, which he does better than anyone I know.

I had bought Benjamin the movie "102 Dalmatians", starring Glenn Close.  The movie came out in 2001 and I had never heard of it, but saw somewhere that this movie existed.  Amazon to the rescue.  The movie I'm sure would not have earned any Oscar nods, but the three of us laughed out loud at all the antics that befell Glenn Close as Cruella!

After the movie was over, Stacey left to go home and Jeff, Benjamin and I headed for bed.  I was well and truly exhausted after being on my feet and walking around for so many hours.

This morning, I woke up with my "other" voice - the deep, slightly hoarse voice.  Some might call it sexy, I just find it annoying.

We have Benjamin with us today and tomorrow.  Today will likely be clean up the leaves in the front yard - again!  I still wish the oak tree could/would dump all of it's leaves at one time, it would make things much easier in the long run.  

Have a wonderful Saturday.

P