The Pumpkin Patch

Last year I grew right around 18 beautiful pumpkins in my garden. They were nice shaped, of various sizes. Perfect for jack-o-lanterns and for decoration. I gave a few away to our nephews, carved a few and put the rest on a retaining wall next to our house as decoration.

This year I planned a similar garden. I even planted a few "giant" pumpkin seeds for fun. Hoping for a whopper or two. Unfortunately my whole garden season was a bust this year. I got off to a late start. I didn't really plant anything until June. I still had hope that I could salvage some of the season, maybe a late fall harvest. The wildlife had a different idea, between the raccoons, rabbits and deer. My lovely garden was desecrated! Who knew that deer liked to eat pumpkin leaves! Not to mention tomato's, carrots, zucchini and peppers. I was left with pumpkin vines... with no leaves or pumpkins. It was a pitiful site. Even though I am an animal lover, I did have a few evil thoughts that whatever animal ate the poisonous rhubarb leaves became violently ill because of it. So despite my high hopes in June, I was left with nothing to show for it in October. The only thing left to do was visit a pumpkin patch. We choose one an hour away that boasted hay rides and cow trains. What, you don't know what a cow train is? Oh here, I'll show you...

An antique tractor pulling a train of barrels, laid on their sides, riding on wheels and painted like a cow. Bug LOVED it, had so much fun going along their little route. He would waive his hands in the air over each bump.

He chose to sit in the first car, right behind the tractor. Too bad it was so foggy.

After the cow train, we stood in line for the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch. We opted to spend the extra three dollars for the horse drawn waggon versus the wagon pulled by a tractor, in order to get the full effect.

Horses are slower than tractors... so we waited... and waited.. and waited some more. For about a half an hour. Right along side other families with small whiny children. Luckily there were goats to look at and keep us occupied.






Finally the horses arrived and we loaded into the wagon. The horses were worth the wait.



It was a peaceful slow ride out to the pumpkin patch. We passed llamas, cows, ponies and donkeys along the way.





Everyone piled off the wagon in search of the perfect pumpkin. I choose a tiny little one. Hubby and Bug had other ideas. "Oh no momma that one is too small"



Hubby decided we needed BIG ones. I warned him, he didn't really want to spend through the nose for pumpkins. He wouldn't listen, he scoped out the biggest one he could find and safely carry back to the wagon. Here is Bug sitting on it.


We talked to the horses, apologized for the extra weight and piled back into the wagon for the trip back to the weigh station. Here we are with one of the three prized pumpkins.

We heaved our picks onto the scale. The grand total weight of our three jack-o-lanterns to be... 94 pounds!!! Hubby choked a little.. then asked.. how much a pound? Oh only .25 cents. But the experience was well worth it. We will carve them up this weekend while Grandma is here visiting.