Hayride

There is nothing more delightful than taking an almost four-year-old grandchild on his first hayride, especially when it has a slightly scary stop in the cemetary just after twilight, and lots of kids from 4 to 18 riding along, singing songs, and tossing straw off the side of the wagon. After the first 10 minutes he leaned back, looked at the sky, and said, "This is way fun!"

My thoughts exactly.

Barns falling down

I drove to Columbus today for a dental appointment with a specialist. I went the back roads for about half the trip, and for some reason today I noticed so many of the barns that are falling down along the roadside. Roofs are caved in, rusty, or blown off, paint faded or entirely gone, siding is missing, walls leaning crazily. Some appeared to be empty but others had "stuff" in them.

By comparison I noticed a number of the Amish barns, which were either new contstruction, or well-maintained and painted white with green roofs. You can tell the Amish farms a few different ways - by the buggies parked in front; by the lack of TV antennas or satellite dishes or electrical lines running to the house, or by the typical clothing hung on the wash line.

I also noticed there aren't many new "bank" style barns, many of the newer barns were metal with peaked roof construction, not the old-fashioned gambrel style roof.

It would be an interesting project to photograph the old barns and find out some of their history, if the owners were willing.

While in Columbus I stopped an visited a bit with my sister. Always love to see her and my brother-in-law, and their two beautiful bouncing baby boys!

Farmer's Market

I stopped at the post office in Bellville this morning to send a package, and noticed the farmer's market was still going! There were only about 6 vendors today, but I managed to buy something from everyone except the coffee roasters (I have so much coffee on hand already, or I probably would have.) I got homemade organic whole wheat bread, Amish-made doughnuts, green beans, red and green peppers, sweet corn, and a pumpkin.

The red peppers were quite a bargain - they were 10 for a dollar! They add so much to a meal to just slice even half a pepper into the vegetable, or to use it for seasoning, or even just for color.

The bread lady told me they are planning to be open for two more weeks as long as the weather holds. I am so excited!

Apples

We finally made it to the farm this weekend. 20 acres of apple trees and we harvested less than a bushel.

Most of the Golden Delicious had already dropped off the trees. There were a few Jonathons but they were so small and wormy they weren't worth picking. We totally missed the pears. Most of the ones we did pick were Northern Spies, and they were a little past their prime.

Oh well the deer will eat well this winter.

And a cold rain's gonna fall

It's raining, cold, and the weather matches my mood. I've had an ear infection for several days now and it is quite painful. I went to the doctor today and got some antibiotic drops. I feel like huddling under the covers - "make the world go away". Definitely not a day for going out and planting tulip bulbs, which needs to be done, along with cleaning up the final debris in the garden and pulling up the trellis, stakes and mulch.

On the bright side, the rain should help my fall lettuce crop along. I'm still getting the occasional zucchini and a few lingering tomatoes out of the garden. The deer have been invading and have munched the tops of the asparagus plants. I picked some rhubarb yesterday, and was chastised by DH, who said you can't pick rhubarb after July. Who says? I can if I want to!