Pumpkin Patching circa Halloween 2010

It's that time of year again.... Fall. It's my favorite season ... the trees changing colors, the crispness in the air.. and of course pumpkin carving and costume making. My friend KG and I went pumpkin patching out in Malta, IL. For those of you as unfamiliar with anything outside of the Chicago metropolitan area as I am.... take the tollway... and drive, and then drive some more, and then drive even farther. You'll pass an outlet mall, you'll pass about a million farms... and then you're almost there. We found out where Northern Illinois University is (DeKalb). Then we entered the town of Malta, population 1000. It is home to the pumpkin and apple farm that we went to though. I was disappointed as the apple launcher seemed to have not been part of the activities for the day we were there. Although, it was a great place to pick up apple butter (my grandpa's favorite), apple pie, and go pick your own pumpkin from the pumpkin field.

It was a bit of a gloomy day, but the rain had stopped and it was unseasonably warm. It was made all the warmer by the fact that we were pulling the pumpkin cart in deep/slippery/stick to your shoes and wheels of the cart mud. KG made it look easy, when I took over I realized that was a ruse and it was NOT easy. Ha. But I took my turn and pulled it once we loaded apparently 500 pounds (equal to 6 pumpkins) of pumpkin onto the cart.

I have documented my first pumpkin patching experience in a long time for as long as I can remember below...

The apple orchard (that a few weeks earlier could have allowed us to pick our own apples). Next year.

The vast expanse of pumpkin patch. Had we been earlier (read post above about apples) we probably would not have had to walk up to the top of the ridge to find attractive pumpkins while pulling a cart... due to our late arrival, we had to do just that.

KG dutifully pulling the pumpkin cart out to the pumpkin patch. I promised to pull it back once we had pumpkins on it. I didn't realize that was a bad idea.

Our first pumpkin!!!! It was 3 for $10, so we clearly had to buy 6....

1 pumpkin for each of us!!!

This was a weird pear pumpkin... okay, it was probably a gourd but it kind of creeped me out...

That's our cart with our pumpkins in the middle of the field with the windmills in the background. We were searching for our last one. :)

All of our pumpkins on the cart. That was a TOUGH pull back to the end of the patch. Lucky for us, we were the most eligible (read "of age ladies without children") so the driver of the tractor waited for us and assured us that the walk back to the front was going to be made worse by the gravel getting stuck in our mud caked tires... We took him up on his offer and probably got back to our car about 30 minutes earlier than it would have been if we had walked it. It was a really good idea to take the tractor...

A giant rocking chair.. KG is displaying all of our delicious farm goodness that we bought. Apple raspberry pie (oh my goodness was that delicious), apple cider, and the fresh baked bread. We also snagged some apple butter.

I am drinking a thing of milk in the giant chair... It makes me feel like a kid, so I'm going to act like it. (Confession: I drink milk all the time, so this isn't that peculiar.... I'm really just acting like me... so I must just be a kid)

We went to a bar in "downtown" DeKalb .. We went to O'Leary's Bar and Grill and there was a cow (not a real cow I assure you - although I wouldn't mind a cow at the hostess station, I feel that could add some serious interest to a bar in DeKalb) at the front door dressed in fireman's boots and a ghost costume. I thought it was pretty awesome. (Disclaimer: Mrs. O'Leary's cow is rumored to have started the Great Chicago Fire in 1871.)

Then we finally made it back to the big city.. to go to such wondrous places as Target, the Halloween Store, and Sports Authority to finish off our costumes... Which are previewed below (I have included my costume things as well as our friend Dani's shirt - Mann Slaughter)... I will award extra points to the person that figures out the "theme/idea" of our costumes for this Halloween.... :) I am very excited by them.. Good luck!!

Happy Halloweening to all! I hope you get adorable trick-or-treaters at your houses... (or have adorable trick-or-treaters that you take out to other people's houses)...