Fall, Outdoorsy Stuff

Sunday, 30 October 2011

In our quest to find an autumnal activity to do, we first ventured to Bittersweet Farm in Lake Elmo today. Turns out, the info we had regarding this fall-time attraction (which we obtained from THIS SITE) must’ve been outdated. There was just a private residence, with no one home, and a dilapidated barn with “Bittersweet” emblazoned on the front. Jennifer pulled out her iPhone and quickly found another option for us.

Minutes later, we pulled up to Ziertman’s Pumpkin Farm. Before we even got out of the car, Owen was disappointed. It was, again, just a private residence. They had a few wagons set up with pumpkins, gourds, corn, and honey for sale, and a few goats (or “puppies,” as Isla calls them) running around, but not much else. We convinced him to get out of the car anyway, with the promise that we’d look for yet another place.

As it turns out, I’m glad we visited Ziertman’s, and I plan to stop there every fall. As their website indicates, they do have excellent prices for fall produce. We bought more than we anticipated as the prices were so low: two large pumpkins, one medium-sized pumpkin, three small pumpkins, three gourds, two ears of corn, and two pounds of honey all for twenty bucks.

Trying to find something fun for Owen, we drove from Ziertman’s to the Country Sun Farm. This is one of those places that sort of nickel-and-dimes you, but we managed to find a few fun activities. Owen and I went through the corn maze, and both Owen and Isla had fun feeding the sheep and goats. We picked food up off the ground instead of spending money in the vending machines to buy food for their animals. (Incidentally, I would like to install vending machines in my home and have people come over and buy food out of the machines and then feed that food to me; I think it’s a great idea.) We had pop-corn and mini donuts, sat on tractors, and took lots of pictures. I think this finally gave Owen the taste of fall he was hoping for.

This evening, Owen and Jennifer carved out pumpkins for Halloween. I cleaned up around the yard, and was again greeted by our friend the snake—

Monday, 31 October 2011

For our first Halloween in our new home, Owen dressed as a Jedi and Isla dressed as a duck.

All four of us left the house together, but after realizing we were too neurotic to go around to the houses together, Jennifer went back home to pass out candy and I followed a bunch of other people around the block. I basically waited for them to blaze the trail for us; after they knocked on a door, Owen and Isla and I ran up to the door next. After a few houses, we found our stride and started to have a good time. We even went up to the local Catholic Church where a bunch of men, dressed as priests, helped celebrate this day devoted to Satan by passing out M&M’s. One priest held out a bowl and told Owen to take what he would like to take. Owen promptly grabbed about seven bags, and I then jumped in and told him to just take one. The priests laughed and said he could have as many as he wanted, so he ended up taking three bags.

Another home was all decked out with scary skeletons that popped up out of the lawn, chattering skulls, and dry ice. To my surprise, Owen wasn’t the least bit scared and the very friendly home owner dispensed liberal amounts of candy into Owen and Isla’s bags.

When we circled back around the block, we stopped back at home. Jennifer then went out with Owen and walked down the street. I stayed home with Isla and gave out candy to the many trick-or-treaters who came by. Within minutes, I easily surpassed the total number of trick-or-treaters I had ever passed out candy to. We even started running short of candy, so I ‘stole’ some candy from Isla (she had some lollipops and suckers that her mom and I wouldn’t let her eat anyway) to give to the kids.

All in all, a great evening. Now that we know the places and times to go, I am already looking forward to next year.