Fun on Saturday
On Saturday, I think the Halloween season officially started, even though it was still September. A local pumpkin patch had its opening day, and mom and Amanda and I went.
This was one of those pumpkin patches where you go out to the actual field and pick your own pumpkin off the vine. I had actually never done that before. Nowdays, kids take field trips to those patches all the time, but they didn't do that when I was a little kid.
I got myself a green pumpkin, because they had some, and it's been a long time since I tried my recipe for green pumpkin pie. I was really suprised by the reaction of the people working there when I said that's what I would do. It's mentioned in the Little House books, after all. But I didn't let on. I did say that supposedly it tastes like apple pie, and that you slice the pumpkin instead of stewing it. I know I did it once a long time ago...but I don't remember very well.
Also, I got to pick up baby chicks for the first time. I had only ever seen them hatch out from behind glass. I'd never picked one up before. It was an amazing experience. They are so light! A chick seems to weigh about as much as a cotton puff about the size of its body would weigh. There were all colors of chicks, out in a plastic kiddie pool under a lamp in a little shed, and I wonder what they will all look like as grown chickens.
The best part was when one of the people working there showed us that if you flip a chick onto its back and hold it gently that way, it will go to sleep. It's amazing, but it's absolutly true. We told dad about that when we got home, and he said that if you take a grown chicken and put its head under its wing, it will also go to sleep. And if you draw a line on the ground and put a chicken's beak against the line, it will just be still and look at the line. This, we did not test, obviously, but he probably knows what he's talking about.
There were other animals to pet, too, including a three-day-old cow and a whole bunch of goats. One was a pygmy goat that was born in August, but it already had two cute little horns. It was smaller than a Boston Terrier, and its name was "Googly-Bear". Apparently this is a "Monsters Inc" reference, because the lady telling us about him said that her husband was obsessed with that movie when the goat was born.
They also had two huge slides set up made out of big dirt piles and some kind of piping. One of them must have been literally 15 feet high. Amanda loved it and went down it about a dozen times. She has so much energy! She got me to go down it once with her. I landed in the pile of dirt and scraped my elbow, but that was okay. If anybody saw me, they just thought I was her mom, I'm sure, so it was okay to look goofy.
There was also a corn maze. I had never been in a corn maze before, either. It was funny that at the entrance, there were two options. The worker asked us if we wanted the easy one or the hard one. Amanda immidiatly piped up "hard!". Mom and I looked at each other and asked her if she was sure. Needless to say, she was. We wandered and wandered around in this maze, looking for landmarks (such as they were) and finally found our way out...via the entrance. But, oh well.
When it got dark, there was a fireworks show that we watched from the car. We all agreed, it was the best one we'd ever seen. Which makes sense, because earlier in the day, they had told us that this fireworks show was always a test for the next year's fireworks, so it was always a preview of what would be happening at July 4. So, I feel kind of privileged.
Of course, Amanda fell asleep in the car on the way home. I think I did too. I was dirty, and kind of sore from the slide, but it was a very good day.
This was one of those pumpkin patches where you go out to the actual field and pick your own pumpkin off the vine. I had actually never done that before. Nowdays, kids take field trips to those patches all the time, but they didn't do that when I was a little kid.
I got myself a green pumpkin, because they had some, and it's been a long time since I tried my recipe for green pumpkin pie. I was really suprised by the reaction of the people working there when I said that's what I would do. It's mentioned in the Little House books, after all. But I didn't let on. I did say that supposedly it tastes like apple pie, and that you slice the pumpkin instead of stewing it. I know I did it once a long time ago...but I don't remember very well.
Also, I got to pick up baby chicks for the first time. I had only ever seen them hatch out from behind glass. I'd never picked one up before. It was an amazing experience. They are so light! A chick seems to weigh about as much as a cotton puff about the size of its body would weigh. There were all colors of chicks, out in a plastic kiddie pool under a lamp in a little shed, and I wonder what they will all look like as grown chickens.
The best part was when one of the people working there showed us that if you flip a chick onto its back and hold it gently that way, it will go to sleep. It's amazing, but it's absolutly true. We told dad about that when we got home, and he said that if you take a grown chicken and put its head under its wing, it will also go to sleep. And if you draw a line on the ground and put a chicken's beak against the line, it will just be still and look at the line. This, we did not test, obviously, but he probably knows what he's talking about.
There were other animals to pet, too, including a three-day-old cow and a whole bunch of goats. One was a pygmy goat that was born in August, but it already had two cute little horns. It was smaller than a Boston Terrier, and its name was "Googly-Bear". Apparently this is a "Monsters Inc" reference, because the lady telling us about him said that her husband was obsessed with that movie when the goat was born.
They also had two huge slides set up made out of big dirt piles and some kind of piping. One of them must have been literally 15 feet high. Amanda loved it and went down it about a dozen times. She has so much energy! She got me to go down it once with her. I landed in the pile of dirt and scraped my elbow, but that was okay. If anybody saw me, they just thought I was her mom, I'm sure, so it was okay to look goofy.
There was also a corn maze. I had never been in a corn maze before, either. It was funny that at the entrance, there were two options. The worker asked us if we wanted the easy one or the hard one. Amanda immidiatly piped up "hard!". Mom and I looked at each other and asked her if she was sure. Needless to say, she was. We wandered and wandered around in this maze, looking for landmarks (such as they were) and finally found our way out...via the entrance. But, oh well.
When it got dark, there was a fireworks show that we watched from the car. We all agreed, it was the best one we'd ever seen. Which makes sense, because earlier in the day, they had told us that this fireworks show was always a test for the next year's fireworks, so it was always a preview of what would be happening at July 4. So, I feel kind of privileged.
Of course, Amanda fell asleep in the car on the way home. I think I did too. I was dirty, and kind of sore from the slide, but it was a very good day.