Saturday, October 10, 2009

Autumn in the East

A visit to a farm in the Fall is quickly becoming our family tradition. This year we ventured out about two and half hours away to Market Miller Orchards and Hill High Farm up in the Appalachian mountains. This farm has been in one family since 1811. The farm house was built around that time and looks way cool. It is close to the border with West Virginia. People around us spoke with all sorts of accents and we have seen licence plates from New York to California but nothing was as fascinating as listening and watching local "mountain" people.
We picked Granny Smith, Ida Red, Red Stayman and Nittany fresh right off the apple tree to Sonia's delight. She wanted to find little apples, not big ones. I had to try every sort to determine if we liked them and so did Sonia: crisp and juicy... so good ;-)
Then we explored the playground with Noah's ark. I couldn't fit through all the ladders and crawling spaces; papa took over. The biggest attraction of the day was a cow train made of big water buckets and a lawn mower for an engine... first time Sonia wanted to go with papa. They both successfully fit into Bertha, the biggest cow.But soon Sonia rode Bella all on her own.Sonia managed to get on the train more than a dozen times and ride every cow. Thankfully it was a free day! At the end of the day I didn't want the baby to feel left out. So we joined the cow ride and surprised Jeremy when he turned around and everyone was gone ;-)
The biggest pumpkin I have ever seen!Two cute pumpkins and one huge one ;-)Just this picture made it worth the drive at 39 weeks ;-)We picked three gourds and plan to make funny geese out of them next week.
We had some hot and delicious pumpkin and apple cider donuts early in the day. Good thing because by 4 pm there was a donut line and people were waiting for about an hour to get some fresh donuts!
Then we piled up in the car and drove to a Hill High farm down the road; it was just a mile away and it was worth the hassle of getting into and out of the car!
Little calf came out of his house as Jeremy called for him.He licked Sonia's and Jeremy's hands. His tong was slimy and rough! His newborn coat was soft to touch.
Sonia ran after two chickens then watched huge turkeys in the pen. We pet bunnies all colors and sizes. One of the bunnies was really big.
Milking goats.
One of goats had very small ears and was very friendly.The blue grass Double Deuce Outlaws band played well and sounded not too loud. Even I stopped to listen for a bit ;-) We played on the old rusty tractor.Jeremy's could have made a good farmer ;-) Maybe this should be our next adventure?
Sonia discovered a new food group... french fries. I felt like a great mother... pretty good for making it without fries for two and half years ;-) She calls her play food fries "corn." I took more pumpkin pictures. It is such a classic ;-) We got our family shot of the day!!! Mischa was sitting in the car; he was not allowed on this farm. I would have used this picture for Christmas but the baby would be way too offended.
Happy harvest time and thanks for stopping by!

1 comment:

Natalie R. said...

Wow, that's a huge farm!!! Where we went was a ton smaller than that, you guys really got the royal treatment! I love the cow ride, that looks like a real blast. I'm impressed you got in, too!