Pumpkin Patch

Show us your pumpkin patch.

Dave got his degree in agriculture so when it comes to growing a garden, he's a pro! I have missed our gardens the last few years. He's been gone... to Afghanistan, and recently to Germany. I'm counting the days for his return in November. He retires after 30 years of military service. Yay!

I'm already scheming and planning for next year's garden, complete with tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, potatoes, corn, zucchini, crookneck, and pumpkins. 

My pumpkin patch won't be any old ordinary pumpkin patch! We will grow moon-size pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns, sugar pie's for eating, jack-be-little's for decorating, turbins and gourds for entertaining. Oh... I can't wait!

This year we had to settle for a pumpkin patch experience at Black Island Farms. A large pumpkin farm devoted to kids age 0 to 99! For F.H.E. (family home evening), my youngest daughter's family and I spent an evening playing in the court yard equipped with slides shooting off haystacks, a shooting corn cannon, a haystack fort with tunnels, and a bouncy house. There were farm animals, a pig chase, face painting, magic show, and kettle corn for eating. Pint-size barrels, connected together to form a train and pulled by a tractor through the corn fields, was a big hit in the court yard. 

Black Island Farms is host to the largest corn maze in the state of Utah. There were three entrances. We chose path 1, hoping that mean't the easiest. Not! But we clever adults paid close attention to the twists and turns we took as we let the little ones lead the way by the light of the moon. The kiddos had their fill in about 20 minutes and we were able to find the entrance in no time. Fun, fun, fun!

The wagon ride to the pumpkin patch was the most anticipated event of the entire evening. We sat at the front of the wagon, just behind the tractor pulling the wagon. We bounced through furrows and drove down garden dirt roads lit by only the light of the moon. We passed large open fields of pumpkins... and finally came to a stop. The tractor driver directed us to a particular patch and asked us to raise our hands when we found our perfect pumpkin and he would come and cut it off the vine, thus preserving the stem. 

It didn't take long for the little munchkins to find their perfect pumpkin. All hands went up simultaneously! My joy was in watching the little ones in the pumpkin patch. We had so much fun, we'll do it again next year! And they'll get to come to grandma's pumpkin patch, too!

The Hole

Write about something that creeped you out.

On the Tonight Show last night, Jimmy Fallon did a clip on "The Walking Dead", a show coming back to primetime televison, to the tune of "Welcome back Kotter". I have a difficult time with zombies, vampires, horror, and grossed out monsters and creatures. It totally creeped me out! I will not be watching "The Walking Dead" show ever! period.

I had a total "creep out" this weekend at a daughter's house. I made a trip to my hometown to visit my daughter's, Shaniel, and parents graves and have a sleepover with the grandchildren. We wanted to watch a Halloween show and so we scanned movies on Netflix. We came across the title "The Hole", and a grandson pipped up... that's a good movie. A thriller kind of movie. And, it was rated PG13. So, it was decided we would watch it.

After the popcorn was made, we were all in our pj's, snuggled up on the couch with blankets, and turned on the show... ready for a thrill! Well, the thrill turned into "I don't want to see what's in the hole!" shortly after the movie began. A clown-like, child size jester had been locked in the hole for I don't know how long. And, when the boys (characters in the move) discovered the hole in a recently moved in house, they unleashed the jester. We didn't give it anytime at all to see what this jester was capable of doing! Only that he could wink his eyes and appear anywhere at anytime. It was so creepy. The twins, age 9, were all "creeped out" as much as I was. I have never been a fan of clowns. In fact, I have always disliked them. I'm not sure why. But they have always been very creepy to me... alive or dead! We turned off the show and found another one.

On top of all that, one of the twins and I were sleeping in the boys room that night. My daughter came in and said "I have a hole!". She went to the bedroom closet and pulled the carpet away from the wall and opened up the trap door to the crawl space under the house. Then she descended into the hole. Talk about "creeping" us out again! So, guess who had to sleep with Tera that night? Aunt Amie.