everyday is halloween

800 lbs pumpkin

we made our annual autumn pilgrimage to apple hill, a confederation of apple growers nestled in the foothills of the sierra nevada mountains that open their farms to tourists every fall.  the first stop is the immensely popular high hill ranch, with dozens of arts&crafts booths, food stalls, fish stocked pond, and a view of the hills to die for.  the place was crowded but soon to be unbearably packed.  we had our annual slices of dutch apple pie.  nick had to climb a tree, because it was there, and we did the rounds of one of the shops that sells apples [natch] and all sorts of foodstuffs.

then it was time to stop at boa vista farms, another popular destination.  if you want to buy apples, pies of all kinds, and various crafty nick knacks this is your place.  there is an old man who sells all kinds of stones and fossils.  he's been there for as long as i can remember.  he is a kind man and his love of fossils is evident in his speech.  to nick the display of stones and fossils is akin to being in a toy store.  nick fell in love with a piece of copper from a michigan dig.  nick is no stranger to this stall and was looking forward to visiting it.  last year he got a trilobite and a few other items from this vendor.  this year, let's just say when anna took nick to another group of stalls i bought the copper as a birthday present. 

boa vista farms also has a small pumpkin patch.  we wanted a couple of pumpkins to place on our porch.  next week we go to a pumpkin patch proper but today was a nice taste of the scary season.  i love pumpkins.  i love a good pumpkin patch.  i really love very large pumpkins.  there was a huge pumpkin, i mean a giant squash, in front of the payment booth.  it had a bit of writing on it, guess my weight.  i asked nick how much he thinks it weighs.  in reply, he asked me what i thought, and i said, i think it weighs about 800 lbs.  beneath the writing on the pumpkin was an arrow pointing the answer.  800 lbs!  not that nick was impressed by his father's acumen for large orange squash.  naw, he did what every eight-year-old boy would do in his situation, he tried to see if he could lift the gourd off the ground.

boo