Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Young's Farm

So Lorraine, my friend Sandi and I went to Young's Farm in Dewey on Sunday. We had a great time. We "laid in" as Lorraine calls it (which really means sleeping in) until around 8 then we left the house by 9 to stop and pick up Sandi to head up the mountain to the Farm.

When I first offered the experience to them I am not sure what they thought because when we got there both of them exclaimed as the the number of people there and we were kind of early because the parking lot wasn't that full. But we parked and headed to the tractor and trailer that took us to the front gate were we paid our $4.00 admittance fee. Then we stepped through the tented area and walked on to the various booths and trailers of the people selling food and crafts. We milled around them and surveyed the food options. We all agreed that the turkey brawts were probably the best and so we headed back to the gate and bought our lunch. So after we all had a dog we headed back towards the other part of the farm (where I knew we would have more interesting things to see).

Along the way, Sandi stopped to use the bathroom and Lorraine and I waited next to a cheesecake dipping cart. When the man mentioned the cheesecake was from the Cheesecake Factory- Lorraine was sold and she promtly purchased a chocolate covered cheesecake. I stopped and bought some homemade pumkin ice cream that was hand cranked by a John Deere engine. Quite fun!!!

We passed by the rip lines and bouncy things kids like to play in and walked back by the haunted house and corn maze to cross the creek to actually get to the original and permanent part of the farm. We noticed the wine tasting tent out in front of the store so we all tasted some wine and then promptly went inside to see what goodies they had. I purchased my yearly jar of Apple Butter and a bottle of wine. Sandi bought some spices for cider and I'm not sure if Lorraine purchased anything. We then milled around outside and walked through the gift store which was sparse this year. It was mostly towels and potholders and crafty things rather than the usual Christmas ornaments and knick-knacks that I like to peruse. So we headed out to the tent right out the door to sit among the pumkins.

Lorraine wanted her picture taken so I assumed that she would sit on a bale and place a pemmican in her lap and have the rest of the pumkins in the background (like everyone else does their picture). But I was mistaken... She proceeded to crawl to the middle of the pile and lay across them and have her picture taken and then instructed both Sandi and I to follow suit and have our pictures taken that way individually and then as a group. Let me tell you... It was a lot of fun crawling across them and having my picture taken. The people around us were just watching and laughing.

Before we headed out to pick our pumkin (although Lorraine decided picking a real pumpkin and carving it would be a lot of work so she bought a ceramic pemmican to take back to England with her) Lorraine decided to go through the petting zoo area and saw some pigs, chickens and sheep. They also had a long-haired mountain goat with big horns and some deer and elk. So she paid the 75 cents to have us each feed the animals and I tried with the deer and even helped a little girl (probably 2 or 3) feed and pet the deer... Or Bambi as I referred to them. She was so excited to touch them and feed them that I think it made her parents day. Don't let it get out but I do have a soft place for little kids... I think it was spending all that time with Cari's kids over the years.

Lorraine happened to have a little of the feed left so she headed over to the goat's pen to feed him and he was so excited that he jumped up on the top of the pen with his two front legs and really ate out of her hand. They were a hit with the rest of the crowd and Lorraine loved it until the goat sneezed all over her! Then feeding the animals was over.

We headed out to the pumkin area to find some pumkins- mainly for a photo shoot and even if we staged it. We also used the corn stalks for pictures. It was a lot of fun. We headed back to the gate entrance and I grabbed a pumkin to bring back for Tracy since she couldn't join us. We checked out just as it started to rain and then we headed back to the tractor and wagon which took our tired souls to the car... Kind of. We hoped off where we climbed aboard and headed to the car only to realize we couldn't find it... We were off by about five rows of cars and my arms were starting to ache because I was carrying the pumkin. But we found it and loaded our goodies and headed out and back down the hill. When we were leaving there was still a steady stream of people coming into the farm.

We had so much fun just chatting away and catching up on our lives.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Project CENTRL

So today I'm starting Project CENTRL. It is a two year leadership program that I refer to as being similar to the national guard because it's one weekend a month... Although we don't get to drive around in humvees and shoot guns. Project CENTRL goes from October to May each year and we travel around the state to learn about rural Arizona issues and learn new leadership skills (or at least fine tune the ones we have). I'm looking forward to it but I'm a little nervous because of the other 29 people in the class... They are so smart and really know their stuff. It intimidates me a little!! So today at four I am heading to the hotel to start the program. I'm curious about all the stuff I will be learning over the next two years and all the people I will meet. I'm not sure where this will lead for me but I know that is will be really good for me in the long run.

So I'll keep you posted on the program. I am looking forward to the two trips the group takes. They take one each year during the May month (the last month) and it's for a week. Normally they visit another state for a week the first year and then DC for the second year. This year, however, they are going to Ciudad Obregon, Mexico for the first year and then to DC the second. It will be great fun!