Fall Fun at the Farm: Part 1

Is there a better way to kick off the month of November than visiting a farm with animals and a corn maze?

My wife and I took our traditional trip to the corn maze this past weekend for some autumnal enjoyment. It was a mild and sunny day and we got our fix of the fantastic fall atmosphere.

Here are some of the scenes from Saturday, with a bit of educational information.

A nice "Howdy!" is always a fun greeting while at the farm. This greeting was invented by farmers who wanted to turn the more formal "How do you do?" into something more vocally enjoyable.

As we walked though the main structure, we encountered a mini scarecrow.

Fun Fact: These small scarecrows are meant to scare away small birds, like finches, sparrows, and hummingbirds. These are traditionally some of the most unwelcome creatures in all of the animal kingdom.

These are pumpkins. They're grown mostly for their seeds.

As we walked over to wait for the tractor to take us to the corn maze, I saw flowers. So, naturally, I took a picture. People like looking at flowers.

We eventually made it onto the tractor ride and the first stop on our journey - about 50 feet into the ride - was to feed the cows. I have a short video of the cow feeding, but sharing it would involve posting it on YouTube or Dtube, then sharing it again here. Just imagine what it would be like to hand feed a couple of two-inch food pellets to a not-really-that-hungry-but-it's-food-so-I'll-eat-it cow.

After a fairly short trip, we arrived at the corn maze. And wouldn't you know it...we saw corn!

Well, we saw the corn stalks. It was a start, at least.

Wow! How majestic these stalks are! This is probably why natives used corn as money and also turned it into a popular alcoholic beverage at the first Thanksgiving. History is fun!

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We found the number 2! How exciting!

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More majesty. It's awe-inspiring. In fact, it inspires me...because I inspired it first. And I just love everything related to corn!

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What is this thing? I saw it on the ground and it seemed to be very out of place. Maybe a child dropped it while wandering through the maze.

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I saw this evil little locust snacking on a corn stalk. These guys are responsible for some of the wort famines in world history.

Look at that evil face! He doesn't even care if you starve. He just wants to stuff his greedy locust face with one of the world's greatest foods. What a terrible insect he is!

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This scarecrow obviously isn't doing it's job of keeping unwanted critters out. Maybe it was too big? Perhaps they should make a smaller scarecrow, like the one they made for the hummingbirds.

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After our fun in the maize (DYSWIDT?), we moseyed over to the pick-up area to wait for the tractor to return and fetch us.

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My wife and I waited under a tree where the cool afternoon breeze in the shade was a nice contrast to the warmth of the blazing autumn sun.

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I saw a barbed-wire fence and decided to take a picture of it.

Fun Fact: The barbed-wire fence was installed at this farm in order to keep the corn stalks in the field.

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Little did the farmers know that nature was already providing its own barbed-wiring. Did you know that thorns on plants are a defense mechanism? Plants decided to grow thorns so that humans wouldn't pick their flowers and place them in fancy vases on their dining room tables. In the plant world, that's the ultimate embarrassment.

"Hey, guys! Did you hear about Lily? She got picked last Monday and is now withering away on Mrs. Wellington's table. What a loser!"

"OMG, Rose! If that ever happened to me, I would die! I just can't even! How embarrassing!"

"Tell me about it, Bristol. She probably shouldn't have made herself so enticing, especially without any means to defend herself. It's really her own fault that she was plucked."

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Along the fence line in the grass were a bunch of tiny little blue flowers all scattered about. I had to get really close to the ground to take this photo.

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The tractor finally arrived and dumped a load of people off at the entrance to the corn maze.

Fun Fact: Tractors are able to pull 32,000-times their own weight in gold. Amazing!

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With our ride creeping closer to us, we were about to head back to the main farm area for further fall festivities! What's in store for us after this ride? You'll have to come back next time to find out!

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What do you think we'll see in Fall Fun at the Farm: Part 2?

I'll send 1 SBD to the first three people who correctly guess any object that the next set of pictures will contain! Only one original guess per person - duplicate guesses will not be eligible. And be specific!

Good luck and thanks for sharing part of my autumn day with me!

All photos taken with my iPhone 8.