Pumpkining

Last weekend we took advantage of the nice weather as well as the promise of a couple of free pumpkins and went down to our Community Sponsored Agriculture farm for an hour or two. Gathering Together Farm is just south of Philomath, which is just southwest of where we live. It's super close to downtown Philomath but still feels like you're out in the country somewhere. GTF has a very nice little stand and restaurant area which is out underneath a covered porch. We have yet to eat there and I believe their offered meals are winding down for the season, so maybe next year.



We had the option to take the hayride out to the patch, but we opted to walk down the dirt path instead. We met goats and chickens on our way, and peeked into greenhouses and saw tomatoes and peppers growing. The trees hadn't quite gotten to their peak in terms of color, but they were awfully pretty anyway, especially the large stand of birches at the alpaca farm across the street.



We left the stand for the patch at the same time that the hayride did, so by the time we got to the pumpkins the hayriders were in the midst of choosing their gourds. I loved the look of this little patch - it was like a tiny clearing in the trees, and looked almost wild. In some patches the farmhands clear away most of the vines and cut the pumpkins off so that all you have to do is pick it up and tote it home, but here they provided clippers to us and we walked on the huge leaves to keep from getting our shoes too muddy. We ended up using our keys to saw through the vines of our pumpkins.



We walked back again, and said hello to the pigs in the pigpen by the stand. (In their newsletter two days later they said they slaughtered one of them a few hours after we were there - poor piggy!) Back up on the porch, we each had a glass of apple cider and a cinnamon-sugar potato doughnut, and then headed for home.

Tuesdays with Brokaw

The only thing I like more than presidential debates on Tuesday evenings is FactCheck.org on Wednesday mornings.

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You know, now that I've had some time to think about it, I really like quite a few things more than either of those. I like rivers and I like a full moon. I like chocolate syrup on a spoon. I like a fairly funny cartoon. Speaking of cartoons, my new favorite is Order of the Stick. I'm no DnD (that's nerdspeak for Dungeons and Dragons, a game nerds play) nerd, but I get most of the jokes in this simple comic about a guild making its way through a dungeon. It's pretty good storytelling, with a touch of self-reference which I almost always enjoy.

But that's neither here nor there when the economy is in the toilet and we're electing the next guy to wave a lit match and say "I didn't do it." Ok, that's a cynical point of view. Thankfully, we have the presidential debates to let us forget about this country's problems and focus on petty differences between candidates who espouse mistruths in order to make the other guy look bad in order to make the accuser look good in order to prop him up as an example of American integrity. Bah. More cynicism.

I really enjoyed the VP debates last week. I was partly waiting for an infamous gaffe by either of the number twos. It was going to be my "Where were you when...?" moment of 2008. Now I guess I'll wait for something else. Snow on Mars? Meh. How about GnR releasing Chinese Democracy? Heh. Anyhow, I thought Biden was bland and Palin was a bit too winky. Seriously, if she winks at the camera one more time I'm going to vote for Obama. Really, I'm voting for Obama no matter what she does, but don't tell her that. Just, no more winking, kay?

So tonight I'm going to watch the next debate and have a good time. Oh yeah, when I was waiting for the veep debate to begin, and CNN told me that there was 15 minutes until they showed up on stage, I got a little flutter in my stomach. That's sick.